Gaslight
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DVD details
Actor: Anton Walbrook, Diana WynyardDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 123 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-08-08
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Braun Media
DVD Reviews of Gaslight
DVD Review: The First Film Version of Gaslight
Summary: 4 Stars
Patrick Hamilton, British author of Hangover Square, wrote the play Gas Light in 1938. Produced on stage in the U.S. as Angel Street, the script has been adapted for the screen twice: by A.R. Rawlinson and later by John van Druten.* The first version is directed by Thorold Dickinson, the second by George Cukor.
The 1944 Gaslight starring Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman (who won her first Academy Award for her role) is the better known of the two films. But the 1940 British version is worth watching for nuanced and subtle performances, and for plot variations that arguably surpass the classic Hollywood adaptation.
If you're a fan of psychological suspense and intelligent acting, sans blood and physical torture, it doesn't get much better than this. For extra fun, check out both versions of Gaslight and screen a double feature.
Minor Spoilers Follow
Set in Victorian London, Gaslight opens with the murder of elderly Alice Barlow. The scene is brutal, although no blood is shown. At one point the killer, whose face we do not see, lifts the victim's body just enough to shove her aside during a frantic search for valuables. When the scene ends, the camera pulls back to show us every piece of furniture has been gutted or broken. The Barlow home lies in ruins, and a newspaper article informs us that the family's priceless collection of rubies is missing.
Years pass while the house remains unoccupied, presumably due to its violent and scandalous history. But eventually a couple takes over the property and begins renovations. These include blocking off the top floor and acquiring an adjacent house, which they refuse to rent or sell.
As soon as we meet this couple, Paul and Bella Mallen, we sense something is wrong. Paul (Anton Walbrook) is tense and terse, gentlemanly in appearance yet not refined in his manner. Bella (Diana Wynyard) appears to suffer from an undefined nervous disorder. Above all they seem unhappy and uneasy with one another.
We quickly move from unease to something much more sinister. We discover that Paul likes to play games with Bella. These include:
* Hiding precious objects and then pretending that she is the culprit.
* Making her break down in front of neighbors at social events.
* Turning household servants against her by insinuating that she suspects them of stealing.
* Keeping her from her family so that she has no outside reality check.
* Telling her that her lack of memory about stealing indicates that she is going mad.
The innocent are often at the mercy of those more cunning and selfish by nature. Gaslight perfectly captures how this grim reality plays out in an unhappy marriage, especially if one spouse is favored by the laws and customs of the time. Paul has practical reasons for driving his wife to the brink of insanity, but the creepiness of the drama lies in its continuous indication that he derives deep personal pleasure from his control and abuse of his loving wife.
If you're a fan of the 1944 Gaslight, you will notice significant differences early on. For example: In the scenes following the murder we travel to Europe for a romantic interlude. We see Ingrid Bergman, as the young niece of the murder victim, whisked away to Italy to follow in her aunt's footsteps by studying opera. In the 1940 version Barlow is not an opera singer.
Now that I've seen the earlier film, I realize that this European adventure--in which the niece falls madly in love with the man who accompanies her on piano at school--is pure Hollywood fluff. Cukor was all about fluff when it came to his leading ladies, and this completely unnecessary side trip gave Bergman a chance to show more emotional range than the original script allowed. We can see her as a girl--an overgrown girl, to say the least--swept off her feet by her accompanist (Charles Boyer) and giving up a bright future in opera to marry him. Once you examine it closely, the premise seems ludicrous.
The British Gaslight emphasizes plot, while the Hollywood Gaslight is a showcase for the luminous beauty and grace of Ingrid Bergman. This explains why her role has been expanded.
Previously, the elderly Barlow had only one living relative: a nephew, who disappeared after the murder. When this nephew is recognized years later by a former police officer who decides to find out why Louis Bauer has returned to his aunt's residence with a new name and a wife who is clearly a nervous wreck, we are drawn inexorably into the heart of the mystery.
Even the longest arm of coincidence can't make it plausible that a criminal would stalk young Bergman all the way to music school in another country, and then weasel his way into a job as a piano player so that he could seduce her. In other words, Charles Boyer's role has been both diminished and distorted to make more room for Bergman. Which brings me to another bit of implausibility.
At several points in the British Gaslight the husband seems physically menacing. It is obvious in this Victorian household that the man is capable of violence against his wife. She shrinks from him because he might actually harm her. The threat of assault is real, and it adds to the fragile wife's confusion and distress.
In the more famous incarnation, no matter how many times Bergman cowers and cringes from her cruel husband, we don't see a sense of real physical danger. This is about casting. In a knockdown, drag-out brawl the hearty Bergman could easily overtake the fastidious Boyer, and this makes the imbalance of their relationship seem odd rather than scary.
Further distortions include the characterization of the sleuth, who decides to solve the mystery. In the original film, this intrepid former policeman is called B.G. Rough and he's played by Frank Pettingell, an engaging fellow who is more Charles Laughton than Joseph Cotten.
Cukor's decision to cast Cotten opposite Bergman allowed her character the possibility of a romantic alternative to Boyer. Pettingell is terrific, but his interest in the manipulated young wife is more paternal than romantic. Again, the Hollywood alteration draws attention from the story and places the wife's emotional life center stage.
I won't reveal what has happened to the Barlow rubies, because this part of the plot is ingenious. The subsequent adaptation is clumsy by comparison.
As a fan of black and white Hollywood glamor I find the 1944 film irreplaceable. As a writer who has dabbled in the dramatic arts, I am appalled by the concessions made to vanity. But Cukor was a master at showcasing beautiful actresses, van Druten had a long and distinguished career (with credits ranging from Bell, Book and Candle to Cabaret) and Bergman won an Oscar. So what do I know?
*There are also two TV versions of the story and, of course, Gaslight has inspired countless other films and TV movies, and engendered a particular term for the kind of psychological abuse it portrays, known as "gaslighting."
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