(He lost to Bing Crosby in Going My Way, which also took home the Best Picture prize.) The legendary romantic lead uses his French accent and sophisticated charm to seduce both Bergman and the audience, but once he brandishes his villainous side, there’s no ambiguity in his portrayal. In addition to receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, Gaslight racked up six other nods, including one for Boyer as Best Actor. The result is a slow-burn, character-driven yarn with an understated style that builds into a highly effective piece of entertainment. While it would be easy to get wrapped up in the story’s atmospherics and construct a tale built solely around genre conventions, Cukor takes the road less traveled, emphasizing the subtleties of personal relationships, the power of emotional attachments, and significance of seemingly minor acts to ramp up suspense. Gaslight is the only thriller Cukor ever directed, and he approaches the material from a psychological angle. Because we know Gregory is her tormentor and the film’s focus is so intimate and claustrophobic, at times we feel like victims too, which makes us crave Gregory’s comeuppance all the more. Balderston (who wrote the screenplays for the original Dracula and Frankenstein films) slowly builds tension as it depicts with delicious delicacy the deft sleights of hand that cause Paula so much internal strife.
The Oscar-nominated screenplay by John Van Druten (who also wrote the thriller Night Must Fall, as well as the original play upon which the musical Cabaret is based), Walter Reisch, and John L. Almost from the get-go, Gregory shows his true stripes, but it takes a while to discover the motivations behind his despicable, ruthless, and sadistic behavior. Just like repression defined Victorian society, restraint defines Bergman’s stellar work, and her ability to play Paula consistently on the edge of a massive breakdown is impressive indeed.īased on a very successful play called Angel Street by Patrick Hamilton (the Broadway production ran for more than 1,200 performances and gave Vincent Price the opportunity to play his first villain), Gaslight isn’t a whodunit, but rather a why-dunit. Bergman reportedly spent time observing mentally disturbed women to prepare for her role, and projects a tremulous vulnerability laced with fear and bewilderment as Paula’s tenuous grasp on her sanity begins to slip. Bergman won her first Best Actress Oscar, besting Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity, for her agonizingly emotional portrayal.
The mid-1940s spawned several high-quality Victorian thrillers, including The Lodger and Hangover Square, but Gaslight stands apart due to its impeccable production values, classy presentation, literate script, assured direction, and top-flight performances.
Is Paula strong enough to fight back and can Scotland Yard detective Brian Cameron (Joseph Cotten) – who’s been investigating the years-old unsolved murder of Paula’s rich aunt – unravel Gregory’s deceitful web before it’s too late? As Paula crumbles, the devious motives behind her spouse’s cruel and unusual treatment of her become clearer.
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Paula’s seemingly sympathetic husband Gregory (Charles Boyer) keeps his ailing wife a virtual prisoner in their swanky London townhouse while playing a series of mental tricks on her designed to undermine her confidence, sap her energy, and cause severe emotional distress. To “gaslight” someone is to psychologically manipulate a person for nefarious reasons, and in Cukor’s movie, the purposeful dimming of the gas-powered lights in the bedroom of Paula Anton (Ingrid Bergman) both mirrors and fuels her declining mental capacity and grip on reality. Gaslight slickly chronicles one man’s systematic and insidious plot to drive his fragile wife insane, and the film so captivated the imaginations of a fascinated public, it coined its very own verb. Though the gas-powered lamps that illuminated society during the Victorian era served a practical purpose, the figurative definition of the word remains relevant today… and for that we have director George Cukor’s 1944 thriller to thank. The term “gaslighting” has become part of our vernacular, but not in its literal sense. Starring: Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, Angela Lansburyīlu-ray Special Features: Original 1940 British film, featurette, vintage newsreel clip, trailer Seventy-five years after its premiere, Gaslight remains a finely crafted, riveting exercise in psychological suspense, and Warner Archive’s top-notch Blu-ray stylishly salutes it. Gaslights may be obsolete, but the verb inspired by those flickering flames – and George Cukor’s classic 1944 thriller – is still very much in vogue today.
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