Well Done, Atmospheric Drama

This is what Hollywood used to produce. Quality scripts with great acting and perfect direction. Gaslight is a terrific show of what it takes to make a great movie.

Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman play husband and wife, Gregory and Paula Anton. Paula is still recovering from the trauma of finding her aunt murdered in their London home years before. Over the course of time, she appears to be slowly going mad...or is her husband making her think that? Joseph Cotton is a Scotland Yard detective who has a connection to Paula. He decides to investigate the cold case once Paula and Gregory move back into the mansion where the aunt was murdered.

Bergman is superb as the wife slowing losing her mind. Her ticks and anxiety are well acted. She definitely deserved the Oscar. Boyer is a bit subdued for my tastes and comes off as really creepy, which was an odd choice if you want the plot to have some mystery to it. He seldom appears to be loving or caring towards Paula (once they are married), merely annoyed. I think the character should have been more loving in order to make the finale more of a twist. A very young Angela Lansbury (she was 17 at the time) has a hilarious cockneyed accent as a newly hired maid. I know the character called for it, but after years of seeing her on Murder, She Wrote, it was kind of funny. She plays the maid as a potential love interest for Gregory. Her role in everything is left rather vague. Was she an evil seductress who went along with the plan or is she an innocent young girl too stupid to realize she is being played.

Movies about mental illness were not exactly popular at the time. Starting with Psycho in 1960, that began to change. It was refreshing to see a film of this magnitude and quality take the condition seriously and use it to move the plot forward without just being gratuitous.

My memory foam pillow says it can't remember my face. I can tell its lying.