I came into "Gaslight" cold, not knowing it's history or the fact it was remade a few years later with a bigger name cast. No matter, the original British National Film is a suspenseful story, and is one of the better films I've seen using the husband driving his wife crazy plot. Particularly vile is Paul Mallen (Anton Walbrook), the husband in question, whose performance is the convincing kind that makes you want to reach right into the screen and choke him yourself. The put upon wife is Bella (Diana Wynyard), someone you can sympathize with, though you wish she would have a little more backbone to stand up to the scoundrel Paul.
Former police investigator B.G. Rough (Frank Pettingell) has his suspicions about Mallen, sharing them with his assistant Cobb (Jimmy Hanley). Early in the film they share a spirited conversation in which they use the word "queer" at least a half dozen times, which becomes amusing, especially since it's used in it's original sense before it had been convoluted to describe a sexual orientation. However it's hard to prevent that meaning from intruding and thus makes the scene much more comical.
Mallen's accomplice, though perhaps unwitting, is parlor maid Nancy (Cathleen Cordell), who seems to be playing Mallen as much as he's using her. That devilish gleam in her eye seems to be telling Mallen he's a creep, it's just that he doesn't know it yet.
Eventually, Bella turns the tables on Paul with the help of Rough. It was poetic justice to see and hear the lovely victim question her own sanity while wielding the knife that Mallen tempts her to free him with. Equally so was the fact that the Barlow rubies he'd been searching for were right under his nose, compliments of Bella who had the sense to hide them in a safe place after accidentally discovering them in a brooch Paul had taunted her with throughout the film.
With a virtually no name cast, the original "Gaslight" is a satisfying psychological melodrama and deserves a wider audience. Based on reviews of other posters to this site, I'm inclined to search out the 1944 remake with Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman. For those of a mind to explore the husband drives wife crazy theme, two rather over the top titles from 1958 come to mind - "My World Dies Screaming" and "The Screaming Skull". Both are a 'scream', can't you tell?
Former police investigator B.G. Rough (Frank Pettingell) has his suspicions about Mallen, sharing them with his assistant Cobb (Jimmy Hanley). Early in the film they share a spirited conversation in which they use the word "queer" at least a half dozen times, which becomes amusing, especially since it's used in it's original sense before it had been convoluted to describe a sexual orientation. However it's hard to prevent that meaning from intruding and thus makes the scene much more comical.
Mallen's accomplice, though perhaps unwitting, is parlor maid Nancy (Cathleen Cordell), who seems to be playing Mallen as much as he's using her. That devilish gleam in her eye seems to be telling Mallen he's a creep, it's just that he doesn't know it yet.
Eventually, Bella turns the tables on Paul with the help of Rough. It was poetic justice to see and hear the lovely victim question her own sanity while wielding the knife that Mallen tempts her to free him with. Equally so was the fact that the Barlow rubies he'd been searching for were right under his nose, compliments of Bella who had the sense to hide them in a safe place after accidentally discovering them in a brooch Paul had taunted her with throughout the film.
With a virtually no name cast, the original "Gaslight" is a satisfying psychological melodrama and deserves a wider audience. Based on reviews of other posters to this site, I'm inclined to search out the 1944 remake with Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman. For those of a mind to explore the husband drives wife crazy theme, two rather over the top titles from 1958 come to mind - "My World Dies Screaming" and "The Screaming Skull". Both are a 'scream', can't you tell?