Gaslight

I normally enjoy lighthearted movies, but for some reason ever so often a movie that is sad, scary will hit a nerve. And this movie definitely hit a nerve. If you want to see what bad people can do to good people, all the while pretending to be nice, this movie will show that. Gaslight with Boyer is for me still the prime example on how to gaslight a person, in this case, poor innocent Bergman. A wonderful cast of characters, including Lansbury in an early role and Cotton, makes this movie as relevant today as it was back in the 40s to show what damage a manipulative person can do.

I watched this movie with my husband & children (13-23 YO). I wanted my children to understand where the term "gaslighting" came from. The movie captured their attention from the very start. I will say, that it was a hard watch for them. They were really disturbed by Gregory Anton’s tactics and really empathized with Paula. It was a thrilling movie which led to a really good discussion afterwards.

This is a great movie

The quality of the film is good, not great but good. I would like to see put out by Criterion. Great acting and a good script.

Exciting movie from 1944. Charitors are believable, downright creepy at times. Not a horror fan, so I look at this as a psychological thriller. Great acting from Ingid Bergman & Charles Boyer. Interesting to have young Angela Lansbury hanging around, staring at them.

If you’ve not seen Gaslight (1944) you’re in for a treat: a classic film that became such a part of our society it’s title is used for actual reference to a certain human behavior: gaslighting. If you want to learn more about it, a quick trip to Wikipedia will give you the definition of gaslighting and how it’s attached to this film, Gaslight (1944). But in essence, it’s when someone does things to make you feel like you’re wrong and perhaps even crazy.Something you’ll watch play out throughout this film. Staring Ingrid Bergman as Paula and Charles Boyer as Gregory, follow his attempt to make Paula think herself crazy as he contrives to... you’ll have to watch. My wife and I have seen it a couple times (I’d seen it before on Sunday afternoon movies on TV), finding it both fascinating and infuriating. It drives my wife nuts (irony) how Boyer’s Gregory repeatedly says “Paula” throughout - I use it to mess with her, calling her Paula repeatedly - we have been married a long time. The point being, it’s a movie that makes you think and cringe at the reality of this story and how too real it can feel and be. Well done, watch the mental decline of a woman led to believe what she sees with her own eyes or knows, she comes to believe are not true. In the first film appearance by a strikingly young and beautiful Angela Lansbury, this story takes Paula and the viewer on a journey through the mind into a place of full on belief that what’s real is not. And it makes you - the audience - perhaps remember someone who may have tried to do the same to you (I’ve known a few people who figured things out in their lives from watching the movie).In the end, this movie is so well done it drives me crazy - making me mad for the woman being abused, but also seeing it done so well as to elicit such a response speaks to great filmmaking. We love it - and hate it - which makes Gaslight (1944) a great film for us.

I like it. It is a good psychological drama. Ingred Bergman and Angela Lansbury (her 1st, maybe 2nd, movie) are great in this film and Charles Boyer is a ——— (insert your favorite pejorative).

George Cukor takes "Gaslight" from the stage to the screen. This film is done so well, that one would immediately guess that Alfred Hitchcock directed it.What makes this film work so well (and something that very few of today's directors understand) is the subtlety in which Charles Boyer (Anton) makes his wife feel that she is losing her mind. Unfortunately, many of today's films rest in the violence and gore. I have found that films are more suspenseful when they don't show you everything. Hitchcock was a master of this, and Cukor shows the same restraint here. Don't believe me? Check out "Psycho" again and see how much is not shown on the screen, but allowing the viewer to fill in the blanks with his/her own imagination. This is a far more effective style of film-making.The film immediately starts off with aftermath of a murder in London, in which Paula (Ingrid Bergman) is being sent away after the tragic events that end with the death of her aunt. The film then jumps some ten years into the future with Paula living in Italy where she meets her future husband, Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer). Things appear to be well between them. But is Anton's true agenda and how is it linked with events of the past? I won't divulge any details about that here for those who have not seen the film.Ingrid Bergman (perhaps one of the greatest actresses in film history) took home her first Oscar for Best Actress for her performance in this film. It's not hard to understand why. She takes Paula from a sweet and happy young woman to someone who doesn't trust her own mental faculties anymore. This sounds like an easy job for an actress, but it isn't. She has to make the viewer begin to question things as well, and she does. The ending allows her the tremendous payoff that we've been waiting for ever since the film began, and we revel in her ultimate triumph along with her character.Charles Boyer is fantastic as the sinister Anton. He also creates a complex character who, at first, appears sympathetic toward his young wife to someone who is quickly losing patience with her. But, is there something else at work? Charles Boyer can give a hard gaze that would make anybody begin quaking in their shoes.Finally, one of my favorite character actors (Joseph Cotton) plays a young assistant at Scotland Yard who was a great admirer of Paula's aunt (who was a great singer in her day). He feels that something is not entirely right with Paula and her husband. Paula is all but shunned away from the public. Anton feels that he can't allow her illness to be given public light. The young assistant decides to find out for himself, and perhaps help Paula in the process.I've been a huge Ingrid Bergman fan for years, and this was one of the first films of hers that I came across. I loved it immediately, and quickly decided that this was the best psychological thriller that I'd ever seen. It works on so many levels that still work today.Keep an eye out for a very young Angela Lansbury as a saucy maid. She looks so young!If you're looking for great suspenseful fun weaves a tapestry through the long lost art of subtley without the violence and gore, then you are in for a true treat! Gaslight more than fits the bill!

This 1944 remake of Gaslight is undeniably great cinema, although how Bergman stole the Oscar from Barbara Stanwyck's performance in Double Indemnity that year is a mystery.It gives the full Hollywood treatment to the already successful story, previously translated from Patrick Hamilton's stage play in 1940 in a much lower budget but more tightly dramatic British film.MGM famously bought that earlier film along with the remake rights, and attempted to destroy every copy. The fact that they didn't succeed in this, and that the earlier film is now once more available for comparison, explains why they saw it as a potential threat to their own success.In adding layers of gloss in the Oscar winning production design, they strip away much of the grim reality of the subject, which went on to give its name to this particular form of psycological abuse. The adaptation too seems to feel the need to prop the screenplay up with additional threads of narrative and back-story, as though they don't trust the viewer to buy into the central plot without extra frills.For all this, Cukor's Gaslight is a classic piece of cinema. Bergman certainly steals the screen, and if Charles Boyer never quite matches Anton Walbrook's menace as her tormentor, he does give value for money.Is Gaslight about a romance that goes tragically wrong, or is it about a manipulative sociopath who deliberately sets out to destroy the woman he claims to love? Better to watch both 1940 and 1944 versions and decide for yourself...

I wanted to know what the type of emotional abuse known as "gaslighting" involves. I had downloaded the 1940 version but found the dialogue difficult to hear and there seemed to be gaps in the story. This 1944 version had clear diction and the story was complete. It satisfied my need to know about "gaslighting" and was an enjoyable movie it its own right.

This is the original film which explores the horrible process of gaslighting what might be called psychic bullying or co dependency. A brilliant thought provoking film for anyone who feels they are trapped in an unhealthy undermining relationship

There are some very good performances in this film. Angela Lansbury puts in a mature performance for a teenager who is coerced into antagonism towards Paula. Charles Boyer is good in dark, sinister roles rather than a protagonist. Joseph Cotten puts in an even better performance than he did in 'Shadow of a Doubt' and 'Under Capricorn'. But the most impressive performance comes from Ingrid Bergman who gradually begins to believe that she is losing her mind. She is beautifully shot in this film, and the one scene that stands out is when Charles Boyer shows her his pocket watch chain with the pocket watch missing. He looks in her handbag and shows her that she must have taken it off his chain. All this is silently done whilst they are seated in a private ball. The happiness dies in Ingrid Bergman's face as Boyer shows her the chain and the detached pocket watch in her purse. Her lip starts to quiver, and it is a compelling performance to see her emotionally change from happiness to paranoia and then an outburst. It is first class acting, and she deserved the Oscar she got for the role.

Great old Black & White Gem of a Movie! Its about a young Girl called Paula (Ingrid Bergman) who leaves her home in London, to start a new life in Italy after her Auntie was brutally Killed. The Killer however was never caught, and Paula has to bury the emotional trauma and try to move on in her life. While living in Italy and training to be a Singer like her Auntie, and under the same Teacher as her Auntie too, young Paula Falls head over heals for older Pianist Gregory, (Charles Boyer) and soon they Wed after a whirlwind Romance! Things seem great until Paula and Gregory move back to London, and into the very house she lived as a Child, and where her Auntie was Murdered. Once back in London Paula starts to hear some strange and Terrifying sounds and noises, and Husband Gregory begins to act strange and distant! Paula soon starts to doubt her own Sanity the Spiral of Fear and Madness soon begin to envelope her!This is a total Classic from the 1940's, Gaining Ingrid Bergman her first Academy Award, and a young Angela Lansbury her first Acting Role, and a Oscar Nomination to Boot! Making her a Star on her first Movie outing.I cant praise this old Gem enough!!! Sadly though it will probably be lost on a Modern Audience, as there is no S****y R&B or Hip Hop sound track, and no T**s and A** either!