Simply Perfect

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Absolutely brilliant

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

They say a film is as good as the villain, but sometimes, the villain might be too good for the film's own good. I don't think I've been as distraught and upset by a villain as I was by the manipulative expert Gregory Anton in George Cukor's "Gaslight", the most famous and best adaptation of Patrick Hamilton's play. Indeed, enduring the psychological torture he applied to his love-seeking wife Paula, played by an emotionally versatile Ingrid Bergman, was such an infuriating experience that I left almost one decade between the first and the second viewing, and I literally tiptoed to the DVD to force myself to refresh my memory. After the first fifteen minutes, just when I thought I could stand it, I realized that any horror movie would have been more supportable... or am I overreacting?I think there must have been some strong reaction toward that novelty of a plot where a person drove another one insane through mental manipulation to the point that "gas light" became part of common language... that's how impactful it was. Not many movies deal with that particular device, but this is how "Gaslight" was revolutionary and sophisticated in a twisted way, suiting the emerging noir genre. The "gas light" effect referring to the dimming of the light that made Paula believe she was going crazy isn't effective on a narrative level because it's driven by a fact but rather by the seeds of doubt it sows on her mind. We know for a fact that a woman is being manipulated but only suspicion can heal her from her husband's cruel dominance.But she can't suspect him because she loves him in a way that echoes Stockholm Syndrome and he's a Machiavellian gourmet who knows exactly the amount of cruelty and suavity to apply.Charles Boyer's with all these cunning eyes, that mouth always wary about not letting a word slip, and his faux-affable "French lover" manners, elevate his characters to summits of vileness and gaining extra altitude by a symmetric effect with Ingrid Bergman who brings an extraordinary level of pathos while maintaining a strange aura of dignity. This is a woman whose heart and mind are slowly shred to pieces but she's resigned to believe any word of her beloved husband because she can envision anything except such capability of vileness. Why would the gaslight dim every night? Why would she hear noises the servant doesn't notice and why would Gregory be wrong if the second maid wasn't so arrogant and defiant? Even Angela Lansbury in her screen debut is perfect in the role of Nancy, the street smart and slightly slutty maid whose deadpan and snarky attitude is more affecting than any hint of false empathy or true detachment. This is a free-spirited woman yet manipulated by the way Gregory exploits every element of the environment and every possible situation. So what we have is a conspiracy perfectly oiled where Cukor makes us witness the action while making us as powerless as Paula. We're like passive observers bound and gagged and undergoing the villain's sadism. In a way, if we consider anger as a brief madness, we're also being "gaslighted" by Cukor.The mark of great films is to elicit strong responses; and watching "Gaslight" a second time reminded me of something I meant as a compliment after my initial viewing, I thought it was the most Hitchcockian non-Hitchcock film... and the presence of Dame May Whitty or Joseph Cotten play like interesting nods to "The Lady Vanishes" and "Shadow of a Doubt". In"Vanishes", the main protagonist was toyed with her own certitudes and lured into doubting her own sanity and "Shadow" is about a villain who's a close parent. "Gaslight" makes these two plot points converge beautifully but there is another Hitchcock classic it bears a kinship with: "Suspicion". And I think I can now be more explicit about what bothered me with "Suspicion" and that makes "Gaslight" a superior movie. In "Suspicion", the husband's guilt was the central theme but worked as a double edged word, if he was guilty, then he left too many hints to be a believable villain, if he wasn't, it was anticlimactic. In "Gaslight", we know the villain from the start and we know he's good at hiding his vileness (the essence of 'gaslighting') and the frustration doesn't come from the act but the lack of suspicion, the point is the psychological struggle within a woman whose passion blinds her mind and endangers it, a woman who trades her self-esteem for the sake of the most harmful person she could ever meet. "Gaslight" foreshadowed, no pun intended, the way film noir would dominate post-war cinema, at a time where many people were blinded by patriotism and driven to real madness by leaders who had contempt for them. "Gaslight" is also a marvel of film noir in its use of the nightmarish fog of London Victorian streets used as the perfect camouflage for a Jekyll/Hyde villain, and where d the walls of respectability of an ordinary house, hid the claustrophobic nightmare of a woman lost among so many useless items and trophies, being the most precious one of all... or the most disposable.Boyer, Lansbury were all Oscar-nominated, but it was Bergman who won thee first of the three Oscars and deservedly so. In what could have been a one-note performance she explores every possible shade of fragility, doubt and panic, disbelief and resignation, whiplash moods orchestrated by her evil husband until her shining moment at the end, perhaps one of the most satisfying rants, where the whole scheme of Gregory backfires in the most delightful way.But I still wonder why he wasn't listed in AFI's Top 50 villains, the film made the "thrills" list but who made the thrills?

SYNOPSIS: A ruthless murderer marries his victim's niece and endeavors to gain control of her fortune by driving her slowly mad.NOTES: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Award, Best Actress, Ingrid Bergman (defeating Claudette Colbert in Since You Went Away, Bette Davis in Mr Skeffington, Greer Garson in Mrs Parkington, and Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity).Also won the award for black-and- white Art Direction (defeating Address Unknown, The Adventures of Mark Twain, Casanova Brown, Laura, No Time For Love, Since You Went Away, and Step Lively).Also nominated for Best Picture (Going My Way), Best Actor, Charles Boyer (Bing Crosby in Going My Way), Supporting Actress, Angela Lansbury, (Ethel Barrymore in None But the Lonely Heart), Screenplay (Going My Way), black-and-white Cinematography (Laura).Number 7 in The Film Daily annual poll of U.S. film critics. This film was a re-make of a 1940 British National picture directed by Thorold Dickinson, starring Anton Walbrook and Diana Wynyard.COMMENT: Three ace screenwriters have managed the almost impossible task of turning Patrick Hamilton's superbly suspenseful stage play (called "Angel Street" in its 1941 Broadway season) into a somewhat less exciting motion picture. Director Cukor and his players put up a magnificent battle, but at crucial moments the screenplay lets them down. Nonetheless, Bergman makes a captivating victim, and Boyer, cast against type, is chillingly effective as her tormentor.The marvelously Victorian sets are atmospherically lit by the brilliantly skillful Joseph Ruttenberg.OTHER VIEWS: "Much of the fearful immediacy of the play is sadly lost in the film." - Bosley Crowther in The New York Times.

George Cuckor became famous for his portrays of female characters and 'Gaslight' is no exception. Paola starts by being a shadow of her aunt mysteriously killed at her house in London. She seems destined to follow on her steps, even accepting to move back to the place where the murder happened. She then convinces herself she has lost her mind and finally turns around to find herself and see reality as it is. This process is brilliantly and subtly conducted by Cuckor, making the best use of Ingrid Bergman's talent, who gives the performance of a lifetime. 'Gaslight' is in many ways a display of Hollywood golden age, with a good script being served by a solid director and an all-star cast.

I wasn't expecting much of this movie, because i'm not a Ingrid Bergman fan, i always think she over acted in the dramatic scenes. But i think she's perfect in this movie, she is believable every single time, you inevitably go with her downwards that spiral of depression and despair for believing she's losing her mind. Charles Boyer was flawless as the sociopath that ruins ones live to serve his interests solely. I loved some of his facial expressions, and particularly that close up on his face when he asked Bergman about the picture.The movie is brilliant! I do love a good psychological thriller, being one of my favorite genres. The story is incredibly good, the pace is right, the dialogs weren't very clever, they didn't have much depth as you would expect of this genre. What i mean is, Bergman believed to easily she was losing her mind without questioning herself and the times she did it was as if it was a rhetorical question. But given the year it was filmed it's excusable since men didn't expect women to think too much.Overall putting the film in the year he was filmed, it's pretty good, and very enjoyable even for todays audiences. I rate it as a "must see".