MovieChat Forums > Gaslight (1944) Discussion > 'My watch is gone' - so?

'My watch is gone' - so?

posted 11 years ago by eebyo
8 replies | jump to latest

I'm watching for the umpteenth time, but this is the first time I noticed that Gregory's "missing" watch at the music recital is a poor ploy, because he got dressed for this event at the last minute, including a change of vest (& watch chain). Unless Paula was a very skilled pickpocket, she couldn't have lifted his watch. By this point she's already half-convinced of her own badness, but still, this shouldn't have tricked her. But if it got past me the first dozen times, guess it's no harm no foul on the plot front.

[–] kerrykop 11 years ago

He was not really missing the watch. He only wants to make it seem he was missing the watch. Remember that he is trying to drive his wife insane. He wants her to think that the missing watch is her fault...like the missing picture and the missing broach.

Also remember he told Angela Lansbury's character that his wife seems highly strung so she is treated highly strung. And then there is the maid who is deaf....he has planned this whole thing to drive her mad.

[–] eebyo 11 years ago

Umm, I got all that. The gist of my earlier note was that with a mind unclouded by fear, Paula would have realized at once that she could not be blamed for Gregory's watch "going missing" because he didn't notice it missing when he dressed to go out. There was almost no time or opportunity for her to have taken it.

[–] MsELLERYqueen2 10 years ago

By this time, her nerves were so shattered because of the way he's been treating her that she wasn't thinking rationally.

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JimHutton (1934-79) & ElleryQueen

[–] athomed 11 years ago

He had her world so turned upside down that her figuring out she didn't have the opportunity to swipe his watch wouldn't have mattered. Paula already didn't feel like she took it, but she knew he would and was blaming her.

___
This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.

[–] Amry0217 11 years ago

She was so overthrown by his attacks on her that she didn't realize that it was he who made the scene with the missing watch. If he was so concerned over her trying to keep her sanity, and to keep people from noticing anything he'd have kept the "missing watch" quiet until after the recital.

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He lifts me clear to the sky, you know he taught me to fly.

[–] thegr8defender 10 years ago

He already has her convinced that she's been doing other odd things, like hiding the painting, and she doesn't remember doing that either. So now, here he is, telling her his watch is missing and finding it in her purse. It doesn't matter that she doesn't remember taking it, only that he's already established that she's done such things in the past, and this looks like just another one of those incidents.

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] mcbare 8 years ago

I'm three years late to the party, but thought I'd respond to your actual observation. I just watched the movie, and had the same thought you did. While many of his little neurosis-inducing schemes seemed like they could really happen, this one was just absurd. While she was indeed doubting herself, it was the one instance that she should have picked up on because it was so implausible. I would have preferred the writers (or playwright?) come up with a more realistic ploy for Gregory to show her "decline" in a public setting.