Powerful

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Charles Boyer is deliciously creepy and evil in this psychological thriller from 1944, and Ingrid Bergman plays the part of his young wife well, slowly tricked into believing she's losing her mind. Joseph Cotten is her knight in shining armor, and Angela Lansbury makes the most of a small part in her very first film role at the age of 18, as the somewhat flirtatious young maid in the house, and we wonder if she has a role in the scheming that's going on. I loved how Director George Cukor made the film as claustrophobic as Bergman feels herself, by keeping most of the scenes indoor amidst dark lighting and shadows, and outdoor scenes enveloped in London fog. It's quite atmospheric. The movie seems to lack tension towards the middle, when everyone knows what's going on - what Boyer is doing and how he is doing it (which is a bit of a weakness) – but it ends very well, with some scenes that may have you on the edge of your seat.

As a fan of classic film 'Gaslight' is not quite one of my favourites, but it has a great cast who give almost uniformly fine performances and although the story has been done to death and is somewhat "dated" (a criticism this reviewer dislikes on the most part) much is done to make it gripping (especially the atmosphere) and the film has much to offer.The only real issue this reviewer found with 'Gaslight' was Joseph Cotten. It is not an awful performance, he is often sympathetic and charismatic and not as wooden as he sometimes could be. But he is very unconvincing as a Scotland Yard police officer, too young, too American and sometimes stiff, so he does seem out of place sometimes as a character that should have been introduced earlier and perhaps been in the film more.However, 'Gaslight' is a beautifully made film, the lighting just adds so much to the atmosphere and the tone of the film, the cinematography is haunting and luminous and the Victorian setting is so striking in its elegance and evocative atmosphere. Other excellent assets are George Cukor's intelligent direction, Bonislau Kaper's nail-biting, orchestrally lush and melodically rich music score (great use of classical music too) and a cracking script, which sizzles with subtle tension with the odd spot of wry humour that is surprisingly well balanced with everything else. Despite being a melodrama, 'Gaslight's' script avoids being too hammy or over-dramatic.'Gaslight's' story is not going to work for all tastes now and one can see the reservations. The criticisms that it is contrived, "dated" and that it has been done to death are valid and understandable. This said, this reviewer found herself absolutely riveted throughout the whole duration of 'Gaslight', even if the earlier film version is tighter structurally and a little less obvious (which were not problems at all to me, because the story on the whole is really well executed). The slow-folding tension and suspense was very effective, making the overwhelming intensity of the ending as this tension and suspense crescendos all the more powerful. Equally powerful was the whole dynamic between Bergman and Boyer, the intensity in the last half of the film genuinely frightening.Cotten aside, the acting is uniformly great. While Barbara Stanwyk in 'Double Idemnity' was my Best Actress pick for that year, Ingrid Bergman was still a more than worthy win in one of her best performances, she radiates on screen and performs her character's vulnerability with raw edge and poignancy. Have yet to see a better performance from Charles Boyer than the one he gives here in 'Gaslight', he is handsome and suave to begin with and then later on the more sadistic edge he brings is absolutely chilling. Dame May Witty brings a delightful dottiness and wryness, and Angela Lansbury is deliciously auspicious in a very early role.Overall, superbly menacing and very highly recommended. 9/10 Bethany Cox

George Cukor's "Gaslight" (1944), based on a play by Patrick Hamilton, was the MGM studio's attempt to overwrite history and replace the British film adaption of the same name made four years earlier. They succeeded. Few have seen Dickinson's "Gaslight" (1940), and most remember Cukor's. And it is indeed quite a treat. It's simply a well- made piece of cinema. British suspense has often been well translated into Hollywood and Alfred Hitchcock is probably the best example of this popular phenomenon. Cukor's film's British nature is veritably strong since it takes place in Victorian England, it has British humor and its share of Hitchcockian elements. The basic set-up of the story is that a woman, Paula Alquist (Ingrid Bergman) has lost her closest and dearest relative, a famous opera singer, at a very young age and now, as an adult, returns to the very place of crime with her husband, Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer). The familiar environment brings back memories and mysteries involved with the death of Paula's aunt. The strangely secretive marriage of Paula and Gregory as well as their few public appearances draw the interest of Brian Cameron (Joseph Cotten), a former fan of Paula's aunt, who thinks that Paula might be in danger. Overall, the story is very simple. The classical narrative works extremely well with a tight structure supported by a conventional style. To some, the film might seem utterly predictable, but in a way that's the whole point, and this is yet another parallel to Hitchcock. For the essence of Hitchcockian suspense lies in build-up rather than surprise. The viewer knows the mystery of "Gaslight" but is nonetheless excited to see the development of its revelation to the characters. As many know, the English expression "gas-lighting" refers to mental abuse where information is distorted in such a way that the person who receives it is made to think that she has lost her mind. This supplies the story with its basic motif, the gaslight, which strongly belongs to its historical milieu and is, despite its seeming narrative significance, left ambiguous in deeper meaning. Given this set-up, it is easy to see how "Gaslight" is really a film about power and imprisonment. On a historical-social level, it can be seen as an ironic comment on marriage as a prison for women who have been sentenced to a lower social status in comparison to their husbands. (Interestingly, Robert Siodmak's "The Suspense" (1944) reveals a situation where murder is the only escape for the husband from his Victorian-age marriage). On a general level of psychology, the film might also be seen as a story about being imprisoned by one's past, whereas, on a more private level, it can be seen as a story about the tormenting experience of manipulation. There is one scene in particular that deserves attention. Gregory has reluctantly taken Paula to a social get-together where he is able to make Paula believe in her kleptomania as well as in the urgent need of keeping her locked up, away from the eyes of the public. The private anxiety of Paula as she is surrounded by a large number of people is pure Hitchcock, whose films often feature brilliant sequences where characters feel most alert in crowded spaces.Although the film is hardly an imitation, its subtle sense of film-noir, the powerful presence of Ingrid Bergman, and its story about a frail woman being terrorized by a deranged man draw immediate associations with Hitchcock. For one, Hitchcock made his share of such stories in the 1940's, most notably "Rebecca" (1940), "Suspicion" (1941), and "Shadow of a Doubt" (1943). The films also bear a similar "predictability". If Stanley Donen's "Charade" (1963) is the best pastiche of the later Hitchcock style, "Gaslight" is a wonderful reflection of Hitchcock's style in the 1940's. Overall, and despite these parallels, Cukor's narrative in its classical nature is quite different from Hitchcock's perpetual desire to regenerate cinematic narrative and stands strongly on its own. The film is very worth seeing simply for the divine pleasure of watching the story unfold in a tight, precisely considered structure, making one yearn for Hollywood in the 1940's.

An often fog-bound mansion in Victorian London is the setting for this tense psychological thriller which begins during the aftermath of a murder and develops into a husband's sustained plot to convince his wife (and everyone else) that she's insane. The villain's diabolical scheme is cruel, manipulative and interesting to watch as it shows how the victim's confidence is gradually undermined by a series of deceptions and the type of controlling behaviour that leaves her isolated, confused and genuinely doubting her own sanity.The action takes place in an increasingly sinister atmosphere and the mansion provides a wonderfully claustrophobic location for most of what transpires. The property's cluttered walls and over-furnished rooms make the victim's surroundings seem cramped and camera angles that bring the ceiling into view re-emphasise this impression. Furthermore, the streets around the mansion are mostly seen at night when the darkness and the fog considerably reduce what can be seen. These visual features contribute strongly to the mood of the piece and also emphasise the victim's strong feelings of being trapped.Paula Alquist (Ingrid Bergman) is a girl who'd been brought up by her aunt (who was a famous opera singer) since her mother's death. After a break-in at her home during which her aunt is strangled to death, the killer escapes and the traumatised Paula is sent to Italy to recover and study to also become an opera singer. Many years later, she falls in love with her piano accompanist and after a very short courtship and a honeymoon at Lake Como, her new husband, Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer) persuades her to move back to her previous home that she'd inherited from her aunt and which had remained unoccupied since the time she'd left London.Back at her childhood home, Gregory decides to move all her aunt's possessions up into the attic so that Paula won't be upset by their presence and then boards up the attic door. From this point onwards, he starts to make remarks about Paula's apparent forgetfulness and inclination to lose things. Her fragile confidence is then undermined further as he belittles her in front of the servants, openly flirts with the housemaid and forbids her to leave the house or receive any guests. Things then get even more troubling when she starts to hear sounds from the attic that no-one else hears and becomes alarmed by the gaslights which dim periodically for no apparent reason.Brian Cameron (Joseph Cotten) is a Scotland Yard detective who'd been a great admirer of Paula's aunt. After seeing the opera singer's home occupied again, he takes a growing interest in what's happening there and reviews the police records relating to the unsolved murder. Eventually, after some difficulties, he manages to meet Paula and win her confidence and this proves to be a turning point in her struggle to rationalise what had been happening to her since her return to No 9 Thornton Square."Gaslight" is well directed and features some top class performances. Angela Lansbury (in her first movie role) is terrific as the bad mannered and disrespectful maid and Charles Boyer is equally convincing, initially as the debonair and very attentive lover and later as the domineering sadist who tries to get his wife committed to an insane asylum. Ingrid Bergman really stands out in her Oscar-winning role as a woman who'd experienced the childhood traumas of being orphaned at a young age and later having to cope with the shock of her guardian's very sudden and violent death. Her sensitive interpretation of her character's ordeal is magnificent as she conveys her vulnerability so effectively without resorting to the exaggerated histrionics that many lesser actresses may well have employed.