A FILM TO REMEMBER: “GASLIGHT” (1944)

Photograph of film poster with a display of scene images from “Gaslight”.

Before I get into this, I want to make mention “A FILM TO REMEMBER” will be a series about films that have reached a milestone anniversary since their origin in being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. The articles will contain the film’s plot outline, director, cast, a compilation of trivialities, various photos, movie trailer, critical reception and more. So, let’s start:

We are here to mark the celebration of the 75th Anniversary of George Cukor’s “Gaslight”. Let’s take an inside look at the film:

PLOT OUTLINE:

Years after her aunt was murdered in her home, a young woman moves back into the house with her new husband. However, he has a secret that he will do anything to protect, even if it means driving his wife insane.

Still image of filmmaker George Cukor.

STUDIO:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

DIRECTOR:

George Cukor

CAST:

• Charles Boyer … Gregory Anton / Sergius Bauer
• Ingrid Bergman … Paula Alquist Anton
• Joseph Cotten … Brian Cameron
• Dame May Whitty … Miss Bessie Thwaites
• Angela Lansbury … Nancy Oliver
• Barbara Everest … Elizabeth Tompkins
• Emil Rameau … Maestro Guardi
• Edmund Breon … General Huddleston
• Halliwell Hobbes … Mr. Mufflin
• Tom Stevenson … PC Williams
• Heather Thatcher … Lady Mildred Dalroy
• Lawrence Grossmith … Lord Freddie Dalroy
• Jakob Gimpel … Pianist
• Leonard Carey … Tour Guide in Tower of London (uncredited)
• Alec Craig .. Turnkey (uncredited)
• Gibson Gowland … Servant (uncredited)
• Jack Kirk … Cab Driver (uncredited)
• Terry Moore … Paula Alquist — Age 14 (uncredited)
• Syd Saylor … Baggage Clerk (uncredited)
• Morgan Wallace … Fred Garrett (uncredited)

GENRE(S):

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

TAGLINE:

Strange drama of a captive sweetheart!

Still image of Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer in “Gaslight”.

The film is known for being the first pictorial portrayal of the psychological term of gaslighting which makes this an intriguing depiction of the psychological and manipulating form of abuse, in a mind-game suspense thriller that is a period film noir of sorts, soaked in paranoia that’s set in the Edwardian age. Director George Cukor provides a display of fine craftsmanship utilizing small mosaics of sharp characterization in building to the climax and works in each facet aptly. There is a properly oppressive atmosphere of the Drury Lane era in this piece, the emotional content of which relentlessly grips and holds absorbed interest that’s driven by a top-rate cast and superb performances from Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, Angela Lansbury and Dame May Whitty in this psychologically melodramatic horror of a chiller chef d’oeuvre. The film is based from Patrick Hamilton’s play of the same name or also known as “Angel Street,” it was critically praised for the most part as it has since become a definitive psychological suspense thriller exemplar.

Here’s what some of the critical receptions have been for the film over the years:

James Berardinelli from ReelViews says: “Beautifully filmed in a gloomy, atmospheric black-and-white, ‘Gaslight’ exhibits all the classic visual elements of ‘40s film noir.”

Hollywood Reporter Staff from Hollywood Reporter says: “When top-flight stars of the caliber of Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer and Joseph Cotten join forces in performing a psychological thriller, assuring an extraordinary attraction.”

Eric Henderson from Slant Magazine says: “Mind you, ‘Gaslight’ is an expertly directed and evenly paced slow burn, but its lack of a sound moral and psychological center renders it totally transitory and forgettable.”

Variety Staff from Variety says: “Patrick Hamilton’s London stage melodrama, is given an exciting screen treatment by Arthur Hornblow Jr’s excellent production starring Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman and Joseph Cotten.”

Dave Kehr from Chicago Reader says: “This 1944 film is one of the few psychological thrillers that is genuinely psychological, depending on subtle clues — a gesture, an intonation — to thought and character.”

Still image of Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman in “Gaslight”.

As you can tell by the critical reactions, the film received praiseworthy adoration consensually though some critics felt it wasn’t better than its original predecessors but despite the contrary, this old Victorian melodrama builds suspense through manifesting the power of its distinguished characterizations and the psychologically cunning perplexities thats handled through Cukor’s skillful guidance. While illustrating a grim atmospheric film noir tonality as the rise and build of psychological terror creates a restless stretch on tenterhooks with an uppermost cast of performances by Boyer, Bergman, Cotten, Lansbury and Whitty in this cerebral manipulating head game of a thrillingly taut and dramatically enthralling period piece jewel. But I’ll let you decide…

So, to get a better look at the film, here’s a link to the movie trailer of George Cukor’s “Gaslight”:

Here I have provided 12 interesting and intriguing trivia facts (I wanted to keep it limited) about “Gaslight”:

• Columbia Pictures initially bought the property as a vehicle for its contract player Irene Dunne, as the prospect of re-teaming her with Charles Boyer was tempting. However, the studio sold the rights to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayor, which they wanted character of Paula Alquist Anton to played by Hedy Lamarr but she turned it down. Eventually, Ingrid Bergman was cast in the role.
• Although she eventually became very attached to the part and insisted on acting in this film, Ingrid Bergman was initially reluctant to take on the lead role. Bergman considered herself to be a very strong and independent woman, and worried that she would be unable to convincingly play the timid and fragile character. Bergman took great pride in her portrayal of a weak character and considered it one of her greatest challenges as an actress.
• The struggle between Charles Boyer, who wanted top billing for this film, and David O. Selznick, who strongly pushed for Ingrid Bergman to receive top billing, has been well-documented. Boyer’s contract stipulated top billing and when Selznick heard this (Bergman was under contract to him at the time), he refused to loan MGM Bergman’s services. In addition to Bergman’s own ambivalence to the issue, Bergman pleaded with Selznick to let her do the film, she was very keen in wanting to work with Boyer. George Cukor suggested to Selznick a “sandwich billing” which would help solve the problem. The “sandwich billing” practice of listing a well-known female star in between 2 popular male stars was a popular promotional technique for studios in the 1940s. Cukor explained to Selznick that he had used the “sandwich billing” method for Katharine Hepburn in “The Philadelphia Story” (1940) to great success that sandwiched Hepburn between Cary Grant and James Stewart. This argument eased Selznick’s concerns and finally relented of loaning Bergman to MGM and still allowed Boyer to receive top billing.
• The film’s screenwriter, John Van Druten, suggested that director George Cukor should offer screen-tests to some of Moyna MacGill’s daughters for a role in the film. MacGill was a well-known English actress who had become a refugee during WWII. Angela Lansbury, who was only 17 years of age was the first of MacGill’s daughters that Cukor auditioned. Lansbury had never acted in any capacity before her screen-test, but she wowed Cukor with her natural talent and professionalism. Cukor recalled that from the very first day on set, Lansbury was perfectly at ease and at home, even though she had no experience acting. Cukor called her a natural-born actress. Lansbury had been working at Bullocks Department Store in Los Angeles and when she told her boss that she was leaving, he offered to match the pay at her new job. Expecting it to be in the region of her Bullocks salary of the equivalent of $27 a week, he was somewhat taken aback when she told him she would be earning $500 a week.
• George Cukor suggested that Ingrid Bergman study the patients at a mental hospital to learn about nervous breakdowns. Bergman took the advice and did, focusing on one woman in particular, whose habits and physical quirks became part of the character.
• The first time Ingrid Bergman met Charles Boyer was the day they shot the scene where they meet at a train station and kiss passionately. Boyer was the same height as Bergman, and in order for him to seem taller, he had to stand on a box, which she kept inadvertently kicking as she ran into the scene. Boyer also wore shoes and boots with 2-inch heels throughout the film. Bergman doing the beginning love scene first with Boyer made her very uncomfortable, because they had just met prior to filming the scene, after this she refused to do any other such love scenes with someone she had just met for the rest of her career. Interestingly enough, even though despite the uncomfortable awkwardness of the situation, in her autobiography, Bergman would go on to call Boyer the most intelligent actor she ever worked with and one of the nicest. “He was widely read and well educated, and so different,” she wrote. Bergman got in a similar situation that arose with Anthony Perkins while she was filming “Goodbye Again” (1961), Bergman asked Perkins to kiss her privately in her dressing room to prepare for the scene, so she would not be embarrassed and flustered while kissing him on screen.

Still image of Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer and Joseph Cotten (right) in “Gaslight”.

• George Cukor employed a story-telling method in order to get Ingrid Bergman in the right mindset as filming progressed. Each day, Cukor would recount the entire plot of the film to Bergman up to the point of the scenes they were set to film that day. Cukor felt the method was necessary, because the film was not shot sequentially and Bergman’s character was supposed to change over time. Bergman quickly grew frustrated with the technique, and told Cukor “I’m not a dumb Swede, you’ve told me that before.” The director ceased the story-telling for a few days until a producer notified Cukor of a sharp decline in acting quality in the daily rushes. The producer told Cukor that the actors appeared to be “acting as though they’re under water.” So, Cukor resumed his storytelling method, a practice Bergman soon grew to appreciate.
• Angela Lansbury was required to wear platform shoes in order to appear taller, more domineering, and more sinister in comparison to Ingrid Bergman. Lansbury’s added height drew even greater attention to Charles Boyer’s diminutive stature, and added to the number of scenes in which Boyer was forced to stand on a box to increase his relative height.
• New scenes not in the original play were added to this version and the names of most of the characters were changed as well. The character of Brian Cameron that Joseph Cotten plays in this version was changed from a stout, humorously sardonic elderly man to a young, handsome one in order to serve as a potential love interest for Ingrid Bergman in the film, and in order to appeal more to the audience.
• George Cukor asked producers to hire Paul Huldschinsky to help design the film’s intricate Victorian sets. Huldschinsky was a German refugee who had fled his native country because of the war. He had been well-acquainted with upper-class European decor, because his family had accumulated wealth through their newspaper business and his wife was the heiress of a German railroad fortune. Huldschinsky had lost much of his material wealth when he fled to the United States, however, he retained his eye for period decoration. He was working on rather routine, uncredited set dressings when Cukor tagged him for work on this film. The film’s producers pushed for a more well-known and established set designer, but Cukor stuck with Huldschinsky. The gamble paid off as Huldschinsky would garner critical acclaim for his work on the film.
• Most of the prints of the prior “Gaslight” (1940) which survived MGM’s attempted eradication did so because they had been mistakenly labeled “Angel’s Street,” the title of the film’s 1938 stage production.
• The psychological term “gaslighting,” which describes the form of psychological abuse in which the victim is gradually manipulated into doubting his or her own sanity, originated from the play and its two film adaptations. The fictional work is also considered the first artistic portrayal of this type of psychological abuse.

Still image of Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman in “Gaslight”.

To conclude, George Cukor’s “Gaslight” is immortalized after inspiring the term gaslighting as a form of psychological and manipulative abuse through this stylishly gleaming atmospheric paranoia drama that’s propelled by the sleekest possible direction and storytelling method from George Cukor that is as much a character study with its intricate psychology as it is a crime mystery thriller. This polished and swank 1944 remake of the 1940 version in some respects is only equally admirable, but it greatly benefits from a much better, much costlier production value that’s all the more lifted by the imposing cast and performances of Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, Angela Lansbury and Dame May Whitty in this Victorian age melodramatic mystery of a stylish, gripping and tense psychologically thrillingly chilling classic.

NOTE: The article contains sources from IMDb and Wikipedia.

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