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Wonderful character development!

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I had a lot of expectations for this movie, but I was disappointed. There are several films of this genre frankly superior. I found the rhythm of the film unnecessarily too slow and boring. The scene of Ingrid Bergman's "forgetfulness" induced by her husband Charles Boyer repeats itself too often, becomes irritating. The film would look better with less than 30 minutes of duration, because it was in the same to tell the story perfectly, would have more rhythm and avoid so many "repeated" scenes. Ingrid Bergman won the Oscar for best actress for this film. I've seen her it in several films with far better interpretations than this one. In this case, it is the typical case of the woman psychologically tortured by the husband and his performance brings nothing new to others of this kind. In this aspect I even find Charles Boyer's role more convincing, although it is also a "typical" performance. Too bad the little time Joseph Cotten had on the film, he always had great acting, he was a great actor. Angela Lansbury is doing very well in her first film role. In short, the film brings nothing new to the genre "noir," which I so much appreciate, and which has had so many good examples in film history, especially in the 1940s and 1950s. It's a reasonable film, nothing more.

As a fan of classic film 'Gaslight' is not quite one of my favourites, but it has a great cast who give almost uniformly fine performances and although the story has been done to death and is somewhat "dated" (a criticism this reviewer dislikes on the most part) much is done to make it gripping (especially the atmosphere) and the film has much to offer.The only real issue this reviewer found with 'Gaslight' was Joseph Cotten. It is not an awful performance, he is often sympathetic and charismatic and not as wooden as he sometimes could be. But he is very unconvincing as a Scotland Yard police officer, too young, too American and sometimes stiff, so he does seem out of place sometimes as a character that should have been introduced earlier and perhaps been in the film more.However, 'Gaslight' is a beautifully made film, the lighting just adds so much to the atmosphere and the tone of the film, the cinematography is haunting and luminous and the Victorian setting is so striking in its elegance and evocative atmosphere. Other excellent assets are George Cukor's intelligent direction, Bonislau Kaper's nail-biting, orchestrally lush and melodically rich music score (great use of classical music too) and a cracking script, which sizzles with subtle tension with the odd spot of wry humour that is surprisingly well balanced with everything else. Despite being a melodrama, 'Gaslight's' script avoids being too hammy or over-dramatic.'Gaslight's' story is not going to work for all tastes now and one can see the reservations. The criticisms that it is contrived, "dated" and that it has been done to death are valid and understandable. This said, this reviewer found herself absolutely riveted throughout the whole duration of 'Gaslight', even if the earlier film version is tighter structurally and a little less obvious (which were not problems at all to me, because the story on the whole is really well executed). The slow-folding tension and suspense was very effective, making the overwhelming intensity of the ending as this tension and suspense crescendos all the more powerful. Equally powerful was the whole dynamic between Bergman and Boyer, the intensity in the last half of the film genuinely frightening.Cotten aside, the acting is uniformly great. While Barbara Stanwyk in 'Double Idemnity' was my Best Actress pick for that year, Ingrid Bergman was still a more than worthy win in one of her best performances, she radiates on screen and performs her character's vulnerability with raw edge and poignancy. Have yet to see a better performance from Charles Boyer than the one he gives here in 'Gaslight', he is handsome and suave to begin with and then later on the more sadistic edge he brings is absolutely chilling. Dame May Witty brings a delightful dottiness and wryness, and Angela Lansbury is deliciously auspicious in a very early role.Overall, superbly menacing and very highly recommended. 9/10 Bethany Cox

George Cukor's "Gaslight" (1944), based on a play by Patrick Hamilton, was the MGM studio's attempt to overwrite history and replace the British film adaption of the same name made four years earlier. They succeeded. Few have seen Dickinson's "Gaslight" (1940), and most remember Cukor's. And it is indeed quite a treat. It's simply a well- made piece of cinema. British suspense has often been well translated into Hollywood and Alfred Hitchcock is probably the best example of this popular phenomenon. Cukor's film's British nature is veritably strong since it takes place in Victorian England, it has British humor and its share of Hitchcockian elements. The basic set-up of the story is that a woman, Paula Alquist (Ingrid Bergman) has lost her closest and dearest relative, a famous opera singer, at a very young age and now, as an adult, returns to the very place of crime with her husband, Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer). The familiar environment brings back memories and mysteries involved with the death of Paula's aunt. The strangely secretive marriage of Paula and Gregory as well as their few public appearances draw the interest of Brian Cameron (Joseph Cotten), a former fan of Paula's aunt, who thinks that Paula might be in danger. Overall, the story is very simple. The classical narrative works extremely well with a tight structure supported by a conventional style. To some, the film might seem utterly predictable, but in a way that's the whole point, and this is yet another parallel to Hitchcock. For the essence of Hitchcockian suspense lies in build-up rather than surprise. The viewer knows the mystery of "Gaslight" but is nonetheless excited to see the development of its revelation to the characters. As many know, the English expression "gas-lighting" refers to mental abuse where information is distorted in such a way that the person who receives it is made to think that she has lost her mind. This supplies the story with its basic motif, the gaslight, which strongly belongs to its historical milieu and is, despite its seeming narrative significance, left ambiguous in deeper meaning. Given this set-up, it is easy to see how "Gaslight" is really a film about power and imprisonment. On a historical-social level, it can be seen as an ironic comment on marriage as a prison for women who have been sentenced to a lower social status in comparison to their husbands. (Interestingly, Robert Siodmak's "The Suspense" (1944) reveals a situation where murder is the only escape for the husband from his Victorian-age marriage). On a general level of psychology, the film might also be seen as a story about being imprisoned by one's past, whereas, on a more private level, it can be seen as a story about the tormenting experience of manipulation. There is one scene in particular that deserves attention. Gregory has reluctantly taken Paula to a social get-together where he is able to make Paula believe in her kleptomania as well as in the urgent need of keeping her locked up, away from the eyes of the public. The private anxiety of Paula as she is surrounded by a large number of people is pure Hitchcock, whose films often feature brilliant sequences where characters feel most alert in crowded spaces.Although the film is hardly an imitation, its subtle sense of film-noir, the powerful presence of Ingrid Bergman, and its story about a frail woman being terrorized by a deranged man draw immediate associations with Hitchcock. For one, Hitchcock made his share of such stories in the 1940's, most notably "Rebecca" (1940), "Suspicion" (1941), and "Shadow of a Doubt" (1943). The films also bear a similar "predictability". If Stanley Donen's "Charade" (1963) is the best pastiche of the later Hitchcock style, "Gaslight" is a wonderful reflection of Hitchcock's style in the 1940's. Overall, and despite these parallels, Cukor's narrative in its classical nature is quite different from Hitchcock's perpetual desire to regenerate cinematic narrative and stands strongly on its own. The film is very worth seeing simply for the divine pleasure of watching the story unfold in a tight, precisely considered structure, making one yearn for Hollywood in the 1940's.

I wasn't expecting much of this movie, because i'm not a Ingrid Bergman fan, i always think she over acted in the dramatic scenes. But i think she's perfect in this movie, she is believable every single time, you inevitably go with her downwards that spiral of depression and despair for believing she's losing her mind. Charles Boyer was flawless as the sociopath that ruins ones live to serve his interests solely. I loved some of his facial expressions, and particularly that close up on his face when he asked Bergman about the picture.The movie is brilliant! I do love a good psychological thriller, being one of my favorite genres. The story is incredibly good, the pace is right, the dialogs weren't very clever, they didn't have much depth as you would expect of this genre. What i mean is, Bergman believed to easily she was losing her mind without questioning herself and the times she did it was as if it was a rhetorical question. But given the year it was filmed it's excusable since men didn't expect women to think too much.Overall putting the film in the year he was filmed, it's pretty good, and very enjoyable even for todays audiences. I rate it as a "must see".