Gaslight (1940)

Gaslight
Directed by Thorold Dickinson
Written by A.R. Rawlinson and Bridget Boland from the play by Patrick Hamilton
1940/UK
British National Films
First viewing/Streaming on Amazon Instant Video

[box] Song at Cadbury Music Hall: It’s very aggravating when your love isn’t true…[/box]

I’m very glad I finally caught up with the original version of 1944’s Gaslight.  I loved it.

Paul Mallen (Anton Walbrook) and his wife Bella (Diana Wynyard) move into a long-disused mansion where a woman was brutally murdered 20 years before.  They also buy the empty house next door but Paul has refused all offers to lease it.  It soon becomes clear that the marriage is not a happy one.  Paul constantly berates his wife for forgetting things, losing things, and making things up and threatens her with commitment to an asylum.  He generally makes her life completely miserable.  In the meantime, retired detective Rough is sure he has seen Paul before as Harry Bauer. the chief suspect in the murder of his aunt for her rubies, which were never found.  He spends the rest of the story attempting to find evidence to support his suspicion before Bella slips into insanity for real. With Robert Newton as Bella’s cousin.

I generally love Anton Walbrook and he is great here.  In stark contrast to the suave, oily Charles Boyer, he portrays Paul from the start as the dispenser of the most vile emotional and verbal abuse.  I rapidly grew to hate this man but could not deny his fascinating but demented charm.  This version is also blessedly free of the romantic sub-plot but compensates by having a delightful turn by the cagey old Rough as Bella’s guardian angel. Diana Wynyard is suitably fragile and Cathleen Cordell as the flirtatious parlor maid Nancy is quite effective.  The film is taut and suspenseful right through.  I wouldn’t want to have to choose between this one and the Bergman version.  Very highly recommended.

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