Ingrid Bergman was the Culprit the ENTIRE TIME!!!

What an eery, creepy little thriller this turned out to be. My elderly friend Helen and me watch old movies all the time, but we had never heard of this one until we watched an episode of The Lucy Show and Lucy told her neighbor Mary Jane that they should fool their boss the same way Charles Boyer fooled his wife into thinking she was going insane.

Gaslight (1944) won Ingrid Bergman her first of three (3) Oscars, and arguably her best- since Anastasia and especially Murder on the Orient Express were not deserved. Boyer and Angela Lansbury were nominated and while very good, their characters are so undeniably snide that we could see why they lost.

The 40s seemed to be obsessed with 1800s spinsters who were afraid of their own housekeepers and who were frail and brooding. This same performance had been done before with Joan Fontaine, in both Rebecca and Suspicion, and later by Olivia de Havilland in The Heiress. They also always seemed to be directed by William Wyler, Alfred Hitchcock- or in this case, the great George Cuckor.

The problem with Gaslight is that nothing seems to be happening except that Bergman has married a very rude man who seems to get a kick out of making her feel worthless. When they window shop in Italy, he seems smug about all the jewels he wants to own - and also that she keeps forgetting things from the house (palace). Does she have dementia? Is she being tricked like Lucy said? And why is Angela Lansbury so cruel to her? Like the film Rebecca, the housekeeper is up to no good- and yet we're never told why.

FINALLY Helen got what was going on! About 54 minutes into the film, Boyer has told Bergman he was just joking and they get to go out to the theater- then scolds her for not knowing where a missing framed picture went. Bergman acts confused, but Helen said "A good thief knows how to put on a front." Suddenly it dawned on us- BERGMAN WAS AN ART THIEF! The other maids also don't know where the picture is, but Boyer is upset that Ingrid is crying and pretends to play victim. Like many Karens of her day, it's clear she was stealing artwork and jewels from her husband and then acting like Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz and whining she had no idea what he was talking about. This whole time we had Boyer pegged as the culprit- but it was her all along. But again what is the motive here? She's already wealthy. Why would she steal from her own home? What a moron. We know her aunt was allegedly murdered in the same home. Perhaps she was channeling some inner grief. Winona Ryder did this too. She was wealthy, but decided to steal clothes from Calvin Klein anyways. Then Lansbury pops up AGAIN and acts like she has a broomstick up her ass.

Speaking of Angela Lansbury. She was supposedly only 19 when she did this film. She looks well into her 50s. I think she lied about her age and like many actors in Hollywood did (especially Joan Crawford), the old bag was probably hitting middle age. She is OK here, but she's much better in The Picture of Dorian Gray, which incidentally came out a year later- and she looked prettier (and younger) in it. Perhaps the magic of the painting shined off on her wardrobe there, because in Gaslight she seems to be hindering close to how Dorian looked at the end of the film.

Back to Ingrid Bergman. She's the best thing about the film. She certainly knows how to work her camera angles and like Greta Garbo (also a Virgo for you astrology geeks), she has a plain Jane look that works with the costumes and makeup tricks. But like Olivia and Joan Fontaine, its as if all three of these women could get together and play cards. All of them look like they're scared someone is going to pounce from behind, and certainly would jump if a mouse came in the room. They all act breathy and submissive. And its interesting that again- this was a recurring theme for many women in the 40s. Thank God for the likes of Bette Davis and Vivien Leigh.

If we just knew what the husband's problem was we would have finished the picture. He should have divorced her once he realized she was stealing right under his nose. But he was a jerk and seemed more interested in getting it on with the housekeeper- and that could be why he put up with the endless mind games Bergman did, which was mostly guilting him.

FINAL GRADE: C