Gaslight (1944)
Director:
George Cukor
Tagline:
« THIS IS LOVE…clouded by evil…darkened by a secret no one dared to tell!(print ad – Lubbock Avalanche Journal – Lindsey Theatre – Lubbock,Texas – July 2, 1944) »
Actors:
Gregory Anton
Paula Alquist
Brian Cameron
Miss Thwaites
Nancy
Rating:
(38’121 votes)
(38’121 votes)
Quotes:
« Paula Alquist Anton: If I were not mad, I could have helped you. Whatever you had done, I could have pitied and protected you. But because I am mad, I hate you. Because I am mad, I have betrayed you. And because I'm mad, I'm rejoicing in my heart, without a shred of pity, without a shred of regret, watching you go with glory in my heart!
»
« Paula Alquist Anton: It isn't here, you must have dreamed you put it there. Are you suggesting that this is a knife I hold in my hand? Have you gone mad, my husband? Or is it I who am mad?
»
« Gregory Anton: I knew from the first moment I saw you that you were dangerous to me.
»
« Brian Cameron: I knew from the first moment I saw you that you were dangerous to her.
»
Trailer:
Gaslight
Runtime:114 minutes
Plots:
Ten years after her aunt was murdered in their London home, a woman returns from Italy in the 1880s to resume residence with her new husband. His obsessive interest in the house rises from a secret that may require driving his wife insane.
After the death of her famous opera-singing aunt, Paula Alquist (Ingrid Bergman) is sent to study in Italy to become a great opera singer as well. While there, she falls in love with charming Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer). After the two return to London, Paula begins to notice strange goings-on: missing pictures, strange footsteps in the night, and gaslights that dim without being touched. As she fights to retain her sanity, her new husband’s intentions come into question.
In the late 19th century, aspiring opera singer Paula Alquist (Ingrid Bergman) and Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer), the accompanist at her singing lessons under the tutelage of Maestro Guardi (Emil Rameau) in Italy, fall in love and marry. Before learning of her background, Gregory is able to convince her to live in London, then when she divulges to him that she owns a house there at 9 Thornton Square, it bequeathed to her by her famous maternal aunt, opera singer Alice Alquist, who raised Paula and whom Paula found murdered in the house; the murder was never solved. Paula hadn’t thought about the house in a long time, and believes that Anton’s love can help her through the anguish of her aunt’s murder enough that she can live there with him. Over time, Paula begins to forget things, lose things, and imagine things–such as an animosity with the new Cockney housekeeper Nancy (Angela Lansbury), who has a penchant for making “friends” with whatever Police Constable is patrolling the neighborhood–and Gregory quietly convinced her, without using the exact words, that she is ill. As such, she becomes isolated in the house, which only exacerbates her feeling that she indeed is going mad. However, two people on the outside believe that funny things are happening behind the closed doors of 9 Thornton Square, where only the domestics, Nancy and Elizabeth (Barbara Everest), are allowed in, and only Gregory, who ever leaves by himself to take a walk every night. Those two are: Miss Thwaites (May Whitty), an elderly busybody neighbor who loves a good mystery; and Brian Cameron (Joseph Cotten), a fan of Alice Alquist, and who, in his professional life, arguably knows the most about her murder besides the actual murderer.
