Gaslight

directed by George Cukor
Category: "Suspense"
Year of Release:1944
Date Added:08/01/2025
Date Watched:08/01/2025
Description:A famous opera singer is murdered in London and the case remains unsolved. The singer's young niece, Paula (Ingrid Berman), who found the body, is sent to Italy to practice singing. She meets piano player Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer) and quickly marries him. They move to London, into the singer's house, which Paula has inherited. Gregory immediately begins a scheme to make Paula think she's going insane — accusing her of losing things, of stealing things, of having a lover. When Paula sees the gas lights in the house go down for no reason and hears noised in the attic, Gregory threatens to have her declared insane. Scotland Yard detective Brian Cameron (Joseph Cotten) knew Paula's aunt and gets suspicious of things he sees and hears about the couple. He and an assistant follow Gregory and discovers that he is wandering around in the attic at night looking for some valuable jewels given to the aunt long before — and that he is in fact the man who killed the aunt. Brian confronts Paula and convinces her that she's sane. Gregory returns, they wrestle, and Gregory is captured and taken away. He was trying to get Paula committed to an asylum so he'd be free to look for the jewels during the daytime. The movie ends with Brian stating his intention to call on Paula and help her.
My Rating:5

Reviews for Gaslight

Review - Gaslight

A famous movie, and one that has introduced a word into the vocabulary: Gaslight—to mentally manipulate another person into believing they're going insane.

The problem was that Boyer just came across like a jerk. It was impossible for me to believe that a happy, rational, talented young woman could so easily be made to believe lies about herself. Also, why would Gregory need to have Paula committed in order to be able to search the house? She wanted to go out and socialize—why not just let her.

A very young Angela Lansbury, whom I can't stand, played a brazen housemaid who disliked Paula and thought she could get in good with Gregory. Her character was annoying and pointless except that she dated a cop who shared what he learned with Brian.

Cotten was OK as a character, but he sure figured out what was going on from very few clues.

Reviewed by Roger on 2025-08-01 17:43:16

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