Gaslight

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George Cukor helped transform a moody Victorian stage melodrama (previously filmed in Britain in 1939) into a gothic Hollywood romantic thriller. Ingrid Bergman stars as a meek, uncertain heiress courted and married in a whirlwind romance by the debonair Charles Boyer, but when they move back into her childhood home she begins losing her grip on reality and becomes convinced that her husband is trying to drive her insane. Joseph Cotten, rather stiff and colorless next to the anguished Bergman and charming and lively Boyer, is the heroic Scotland Yard detective who becomes enamored of the skittish woman who is slowly succumbing to madness. The grand, glorious sets and elegant photography recall Hitchcock's Rebecca, another lush Hollywood gothic melodrama of a retiring young wife overwhelmed by the history of her abode, and Gaslight is still assumed by some to be a Hitchcock film (the Bergman connection doesn't help the confusion). It's really a rather straightforward thriller with a forced plot device, but under Cukor's control the tightly constructed script is given the full MGM treatment, then reined in for intimate moments of harrowing suspense. Boyer brilliantly played off his continental lover reputation by adding an undercurrent of malevolence and Bergman won an Oscar for her haunted performance. It also marks the memorable debut of Angela Lansbury as a saucy maid unwittingly drawn into Boyer's master plan. --Sean Axmaker

Description

Beautiful and trusting, Paula Anton is slowly tormented by mysterious happenings in her luxurious Victorian home. The suspect is her devoted husband. But viewing the world through the dim glow of the gaslight, it is difficult to tell what is real and what is imagined.

Customer Reviews:

Mind Games.......2007-09-02

I don't often watch the oldies, but a while ago, I was intrigued with a term a group of women friends used - "gaslighting" - in reference to men who play mind games with women to cover their womanizing and their lies. When I asked for an explanation, I was directed to watch this movie for the origins of the term.

In this 1944 version of a British melodrama originating in 1939, directed by George Cukor, Ingrid Bergman stars as a young woman being slowly driven to madness by the mind games played upon her by her deceiving husband, played by Charles Boyer. The man she loves is not who he appears to be. To cover his deceptions, he slowly drives Bergman into psychological torment by first drawing her closer to him with loving behavior, then, just as she begins to feel some degree of happiness, suddenly and inexplicably pushing her away again, accusing her of lies or unsound judgment to cover his own dark nature. She loves him, and desperately tries to be ever more loving to him, but no matter how she tries to appease his moods, is never able to satisfy him. A once sane and strong person has gradually been reduced to an anxiety-ridden, trembling woman who no longer knows up from down. When he blatantly flirts with the housemaid (a shallow and silly female only too eager to see the better woman so humiliated but quickly falling under his mind control, too) in front of her, Bergman tearfully asks why he must so humiliate her, and he angrily accuses her of being too sensitive, of imagining things, even while demeaning her to his woman friends behind her back, strengthening the illusion that she is a lunatic whose judgment cannot be trusted. He is, in fact, married to another and having an affair with the housemaid, but Bergman cannot see his lies for the torment of her own confused mind. She begins to question her own judgment, her own senses, what should be obvious to her or anyone, but what he has convinced her is the deterioration of her sanity. She has already had one nervous breakdown and is fast heading for another. Even as she tries to please her husband, he spirals into anger should she ever question his behavior, throwing the blame back on her, stonewalling her as she begs for his "forgiveness" for questioning him.

One almost starts to feel a little nuts just watching this process. The suspense builds as at last an outsider to this psychological torment, a Scotland Yard detective played by Joseph Cotten, comes to Bergman's aid, finally convincing her that she's not mad, that the man she loves is not only a liar and a womanizer, but also a murderer and thief. She nearly succumbs to her husband's mind games yet again, fearing his anger, but a climactic scene brings sweet satisfaction along with psychological freedom at long last.

I may just change my mind about watching the occasional oldie but goodie. For all the melodrama and stiffness of acting in old movies, the stories of human nature can be just as real and relevant today. And it is always fascinating to trace back the route of a phrase still used today to describe questionable behavior in contemporary relationships.

One of the best old movies ever made.......2007-08-28

Ingrid Bergman is just an incredble actor, as is Charles Boyer. We thoroughly enjoyed the film, and even with the minimal special effects, the way in which the picture was shot, we were on the edge of our seat the whole time. Hollywood just doesn't make them like this anymore...an excellent thriller, and one we will enjoy watching again and again!

Gaslight.......2007-06-22

This lavish, eerie remake of the 1941 British psychological thriller is worthy of its predecessor thanks to the wily interventions of MGM head Louis B. Mayer, who oversaw the production. Bergman is a vision of luminous grace and beauty, but fragile, too, as a deeply troubled socialite who finally receives help from Joseph Cotten's detective. Anton, a schemer who's wed Paula for ulterior motives, is played with sinister aplomb by Boyer. Of course, one of the great pleasures of this Gothic melodrama is watching the tart-tongued debut of Angela Lansbury, playing Boyer's flinty, flirtatious young maid. "Gaslight" is a petulant puzzler with a chilling climax.

For the Movie Fanatic.......2007-01-16

Not as scary as I remembered it to be however good to have in a collection. Ingrid Bergman as always is wonderful.

Gaslight.......2006-08-06

I found this movie a classic without a doubt. The quality was excellent and the casing is in good conditions. The only objection was that it was not spanish spoken but the subtitles are. Since I prefer my movies spoken in spanish that would be a nice detail.

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Gaslight

Manufacturer: Braun Media
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000HEWEUS
Release Date: 2006-08-08

HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT with Charles Boyer (Ahistoria Comecou a Noite) (High Quality Import Edition-NTSC format-Region 1-Playable in North America)

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"I've never been happy before"

HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT with Charles Boyer (Ahistoria Comecou a Noite) (High Quality Import Edition-NTSC format-Region 1-Playable in North America)
Starring: Charles Boyer , Jean Arthur , and Colin Clive
Director: Frank Borzage
Manufacturer: Classicline
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000FMOCNE

Product Description

Brand new, factory sealed, fully licensed DVD manufactured in Brazil. NTSC format. Playable on any North American DVD player. High quality full screen black and white image. Original English dialog with optional subtitles in Portuguese. Portuguese subtitles can be easily turned off. The following review appears in the Internet Movie Database: "Luminous, 29 August 2005 Author: hildacrane from United States This mixture of suspense, comedy, and romance might seem unlikely to work, but it does, due to director Borzage's vision of a love that magically transcends even the most dire of obstacles. This movie is in love with love and the improbable, and in some ways is a Cinderella story almost in reverse (including the removal of a lady's slippers on two occasions). Arthur and Boyer are lovely together. Some of their scenes, luminously lit and heightened by Alfred Newman's lyrical score, are heartbreaking: their beautiful voices are almost like cellos. (Newman wrote a number of such tender and yearning scores in the thirties, including those for "Stella Dallas" and "These Three.") There's also an interesting paralleling of the love/passion that Arthur's husband has for her and that Boyer's friend has for him, although one is destructive and the other nurturing." Cast:Charles Boyer as Paul Dumond, Jean Arthur as Irene Vail, Leo Carrillo as Cesare, Colin Clive as Bruce Vail, Ivan Lebedeff as Michael Browsky, Vail's Chauffeur, George Meeker as Mr. Norton, Lucien Prival as Private Detective, George Davis as Maestro, Dora Clement, Bobby Barber as Paul, a Waiter at Victor's, Phyllis Barry as Bit Part, Joseph E. Bernard as Headwaiter at Victor's.

Customer Reviews:

"I've never been happy before".......2006-06-01

Though it is almost forgotten today, "History is Made at Night" is one of the most beautiful and romantic films ever to grace a movie screen. Not made by one of the major studios and released through Mary Pickford's United Artist in 1937, this film has a fine screenplay from Gene Towne and Graham Baker, and some lovely words of dialog from Vincent Lawrence and David Hertz. A young and luminous Jean Arthur and the continental Charles Boyer utter those words in charming, funny, and poignant fashion.

Like this film, director Frank Borzage is almost forgotten today, but through an impressive body of work that includes films such as "Street Angel" and "Three Comrades," lives on in the minds of true film buffs. "History is Made at Night" is a tender and romantic masterpiece. It easily makes my top ten list of the most romantic films of all time. It is a story of two people who try to cram a lifetime of memories into one night, and then one moment, when tragedy looms on the horizon in the form of an iceberg.

Jean Arthur is Irene Vail, the wife of a cold and unhappy shipping magnate who holds on to her too tight, his jealousy finally driving her to divorce. Colin Clive is her bitter and obsessed husband Bruce, who hatches a plan in Paris to catch her in a compromising position before the divorce decree can become final. But Bruce's plan goes awry and their history will never be the same.

Charles Boyer is Paul Dumond, headwaiter at Chateau Bleu, and Leo Carillo is his very funny chef pal Cesare. Paul is tucking in a drunk customer he has taken to the room next to Irene's in Paris, and overhears the commotion as Irene is set up for a scandal that will tie her to a loveless marriage forever. He steps in through the balcony and rescues her, charading as a jewel thief and wisking her away into the moonlight. It is one of the great scenes ever, in a film full of them.

They share a cab and drive around Paris, ending up at Chateau Bleu, Irene unaware Paul is the headwaiter there. Paul charms his pal Cesare into an after hours meal and he and Irene spend the night there falling in love. It is a long, extended scene full of charm and humor, with some sadness as well. Paul uses a hand puppet to get Irene to open up about her unhappiness and they dance the tango. Carillo is warm and funny as Paul's pal for life who watches and cooks while Paul and the silly American girl from Kansas who dances with naked feet find happiness. It is a happiness Irene has never known, and one she would give her soul for.

They agree to meet the next day when the happy Paul is planning on proposing. Irene doesn't show up, however, and Paul calls her, knowing if she is going back to a loveless marriage then something is wrong. Irene tells him she can never come back to him and he must never try to find her. What Paul does not know is her husband Bruce killed the man he hired to come into Irene's room, in an effort to frame him for murder.

The friendship of Paul and Cesare adds a charming humor to the story, and there is a running joke regarding salad dressing. Their repore is marvelous as they travel to the big apple in an effort to make Irene come to Paul rather than searching for her. The two come up with a scheme to make a place called Victor's in New York the "in" spot everyone comes. Holding a special table for her, Irene finally shows, but it is with the abusive husband she does not love.

Irene is joyous, but Paul thinks she is laughing at him due to his lowly position. Their deep love quickly overcomes this misunderstanding and Irene leaves Bruce once more, planning to run off to Tahiti so she and Paul can truly be happy. But a dark cloud hangs over their dream as an innocent man is set to go on trial back in Paris. Paul is not the kind of man who could let another take the blame or Irene would not love him so. They book passage back to France on Bruce's newest ocean liner, the S.S. Princess Irene.

As the two lovers head towards their destiny, her bitter husband Bruce fumes to discover the French papers are sympathetic to Irene's sacrifice and Paul's gallantry. When it becomes clear Paul will never be convicted for the crime, Bruce dangerously orders the captain to break the transatlantic record in a deep fog and cold water, bringing about a tragedy reminiscent of the Titanic's fate.

Many drown and all left aboard are presumed dead. There is a heartwrenching scene as Paul tries to get Irene onboard the last lifeboat and she clings to him for the love she knows she can not live without. Bruce writes a confession for his crime now that he has nothing to live for and makes one last, violent gesture. But Paul and Irene are not dead yet, clinging to a staircase on deck and desperately trying to know everything they can about each other while they await their fate. They and a handful of survivors hold their breaths to see if the last bulkhead will hold, and keep the S.S. Princess Irene afloat long enough for a rescue.

There are some beautiful and poignant exchanges between Boyer and Arthur in a film that is sweet, funny and tender all at the same time, sometimes in the same moment. Perhaps no other director of his time could have pulled all the elements of this story together so well. Borzage was always looked to by his peers as the go-to guy for any story which required a tender and romantic touch other directors could not pull off.

Jean Arthur is wonderful as the woman clinging to a happiness she has never known and Boyer had one of his finest moments in American film portraying the affable and charming Paul. Borzage sets a very special mood for this touching story of a love that sails with no wind and a full moon. Not just a great romantic film, but one of the great films period, "History is Made at Night" is a forgotten film from a forgotten director, and both deserve to be remembered. All those who love romance will certainly never forget either once they have seen this most beautiful of films for the first time.

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Anastasia

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Import from South Korea
Language: English (Dolby Digital 4.0)
Subtitle: English, Korean, Chinese
NTSC All Regions
2.35:1 Wide Screen

ASIN: B000V67RCM

Product Description

From the sensational Broadway stage success that had audiences crying its acclaim! An expatriate White Russian general sets in motion a grand hoax after he meets a destitute woman on the banks of the Seine River in Paris. He is amazed at her resemblance to Anastasia, the youngest daughter of Czar Nicholas of Russia, rumored to have somehow survived the Bolsheviks' execution of the Romanoff family in 1918. He trains her to impersonate the missing princess but soon begins to feel she may be the real Anastasia. Ultimately, the truth can only be decided by one person Anastasia's grandmother, the Dowager Empress.

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Intermezzo (Import)
Director: Gregory Ratoff
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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KOREAN IMPORT
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
SUB-TITLE: ENGLISH, KOREAN
NTSC ALL REGIONS
FULL SCREEN, BLACK & WHITE

ASIN: B000TN3N3E

Product Description

A concert violinist becomes charmed with his daughter's talented piano teacher. When he invites her to go on tour with him, they make beautiful music away from the concert hall as well. He soon leaves his wife so the two can go off together. "Eloquent, sensitive, poignant" (The New York Times), this romantic and heartbreaking film has an "absorbing power" (Los Angeles Times). Legendary Oscar winner* Ingrid Bergman (Casablanca, Gaslight, Anastasia), in her first English-speaking role, and Leslie Howard (Gone With the Wind) star in this "well-acted, expertly written" (Motion Picture Herald) tale that proves that music is indeed the food of love. Renowned violinist Holger Brandt (Howard) is delighted to be back with his family after a long tour. But when he meets his daughter's piano teacher, Anita (Bergman), and hears her play, he is captivated. Despite the devastating toll on his family, Holger and Anita begin a musical partnership that quickly becomes a passionate romance. But are they meant to live in harmony forever or is this merely an intermezzo?

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iNCREDIBLY STUPID FILM
Are you "gaslighting" me? (recommended)
"I HEAR VOICES IN THE NIGHT, BUT I AM NOT GOING MAD!"
Passive-aggressive behavior & effects, fabulously acted.
A classic and a great vehicle for Ingrid Bergman

Gaslight [Region 2]
Starring: Charles Boyer , Ingrid Bergman , Joseph Cotten , Dame May Whitty , and Angela Lansbury
Director: George Cukor
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00012SYWS

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Customer Reviews:

iNCREDIBLY STUPID FILM.......2006-05-06

This film really made me angry and pissed off I bothered watching it. The characters were cardboard and I can't believe Ingrid Bergman starred in this junk.The main character totally lost it, believing all what her husband was saying about her. She was totally unthinking in the whole episode until it was revealed that her husband was a con.

Are you "gaslighting" me? (recommended).......2006-04-13

When Roz asks: 'Are you "gaslighting" me?' in a first-season FRASIER episode, movie buffs instantly recall the tortured Paula (Ingrid Bergman) in GASLIGHT -- a movie classic so symbolic that it is immortalized in verb form. Paula's loyalty and sanity are tested to the limit as the deceitful Gregory (Charles Boyer) convinces his wife she "has no brain at'all" just like her mother. His obsession with gems, confiscation of letters, and mysterious disappearances in the night coincide with unexplained footsteps and dimming gas lanterns. Can her would-be hero (Joseph Cotten) save Paula from a fate worse than death? The conclusion may appear spellbinding to first-time viewers but in retrospect, provides sensible vindication. Each actor plays his part well but Bergman delivers considerable emotion in her facial expressions.

Movie quote: "I am mad. I'm always losing things and hiding things and I can never find them, I don't know where I've put them."

"I HEAR VOICES IN THE NIGHT, BUT I AM NOT GOING MAD!".......2005-04-23

Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman star in this dazzling mystery about two newlyweds who move into the wife's family mansion. While at the house Paula (Bergman) fears she is going mad when she begins to imagine things. Such as the lights flickering and hearing voices in the middle of the night. Joseph Cotten co stars as a man after ten years digging up a file on the murder of Alice Alquist (Who was killed in that house). While seeing Paula nearly frightened to death at a concert he knows that she is not mad, she is being driven mad. If this macabe nightmare continues Paula could be placed in an insane asylum. A macabeish film that unlock hidden secrets of the mind. Starring Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten and Dame May Whitty. Directed by George Cukor. 114 minutes.

Passive-aggressive behavior & effects, fabulously acted........2005-03-17

Books on passive-aggressive behavior often refer the reader to the 1944 movie Gaslight, where passive-aggressive behavior and its effects are splendidly acted by a cast of old time movie greats. The term "gaslighting" (attempting to drive someone crazy by hiding things and other psychologically coercive behavior originates from this movie.) Set in Victorian England, husband Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer) uses a variety of techniques to convince his wife Paula (Ingrid Bergman) that she's crazy. Smooth-talking, intensely romantic Gregory does a fine job of sweeping Ingrid Bergman's character off her feet and convincing her to marry him after only two weeks. They move into the Victorian townhouse she inherited from her famous opera star aunt who had been murdered there when Paula was a teenager. There the self-absorbed Gregory uses a variety of psychological tricks to drive Paula crazy-tricks still in use today like isolating her from visitors, commenting under the guise of concern that she's tired and forgetful, hiding jewelry, etc. He even tries to make her think the house is haunted. Ingrid Bergman does a brilliant job of playing the distressed Paula who increasingly doubts her own sanity and is driven to the brink of nervous breakdown. Gaslight showcases Bergman's acting better than Casablanca filmed two years prior.

Bergman and Boyer are helped by a fine cast of supporting actors. They have an intensely curious busybody old woman neighbor, played by Dame Mae Whitty who snoops on them as much as she can while she gardens or feeds the pigeons. She reminded me of Angela Lansbury in the television show "Murder She Wrote." Whitty, born in 1865, was a London stage actress beginning in the 1880s who found Hollywood success in her 70s! Another fine supporting actress was the feisty cockney-accented young maid. My friend with whom I watched the movie (whose review appears elsewhere on page) and I were sure we had seen her somewhere before in a variety of roles. Turns out she was a teenage Angela Lansbury in her movie debut--a role that earned her a best supporting actress nomination and showed that this woman was born to act! Another fine supporting actor was Joseph Cotten who played Scotland Yard investigator Brian Cameron.

It's really a tossup as to whether to give this movie four or five stars. I'm giving it four stars only because the movie has a slow beginning setting up the story that some modern movie viewers might find a bit boring. No spoilers, but this is one movie where it's well worth sticking around for the second half and the ending. You will be well-rewarded for any boredom you may have endured during the first half. :-)

A classic and a great vehicle for Ingrid Bergman.......2005-03-15

Set in the 1870s when the lighting in English households was powered by gas--hence the title--this psychological mystery worked as a diversion from the constant presence of the war for the American public when it was released in 1944. Starring the incomparable Ingrid Bergman (Paula) in an Oscar-winning role as a woman who marries a dark, handsome and mysterious man (Charles Boyer) only to fall prey to his desire to drive her mad and steal her jewels, Gaslight remains one of director George Cukor's many triumphs.

Joseph Cotton, Dame May Whitty, and Angela Lansbury (in her debut at seventeen as a saucy parlor maid) lent strong support. I was particularly delighted with the busybody Whitty, who was born in 1865 and had made her film debut at the age of 49. Here she is rapid-fire sure and feisty at age 78, and funny, both intentionally and unintentionally--or I should say that Whitty turned otherwise prosaic lines into little bits of delight. I also recall her in Hitchcock's Brit classic The Lady Vanishes (1938) in which she had the title role. The interesting thing is that in both movies Whitty meets the young star on a train (Margaret Lockwood there, and Bergman here) and they become friends--well, here their friendship is a bit difficult for Bergman's character for reasons that will become clear when you see the movie.

Some of this will seem familiar, especially the somewhat idiotic idea that a man may drive his wife crazy by playing nasty little tricks on her, such as taking down pictures and hiding them, or dimming the gaslights, or walking like a ghost above her bedroom. And the treatment may be a bit leisurely for today's audiences. However this movie is very carefully constructed with plausible twists of plot and some fine foreshadowing. Boyer is almost comical in his machinations at times, mad with jewel lust and syrupy smooth by turns.

A good reason to see this black and white classic is to compare how past-master Cukor features his leading ladies. He also directed Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady (1964), Judy Garland in A Star Is Born (1954) and Katharine Hepburn in Adam's Rib (1950) and Pat and Mike (1952) to name a famous few. One thing is clear, for several decades if you were a leading actress, being in a George Cukor film was an opportunity not to be missed.

But see this for Ingrid Bergman. She dominates the movie with her exquisite beauty and her oh so expressive countenance in one of her more demanding roles. The famous, beguiling Bergman smile however is not much in evidence since her character is so long-suffering and passive--and this too may try the patience of today's audiences. You may find yourself wanting to say to Paula, "Get a backbone," "Live a little" and "Get rid of that rake!" But fear not. Paula does eventual get back at her oppressor culminating in a (somewhat implausible, but nonetheless agreeable) scene near the end where he is tied up and begging her to get a knife and cut him free...

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Gaslight (Import)

Manufacturer: Sky Cinema
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Import from South Korea
Language: English
Subtitle: English, Korean
NTSC All Regions
4:3 Full Screen

ASIN: B000V65530

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