Bergman & Boyer brilliant together in 1944's "Gaslight," with newcomer Angela Lansbury!

You're becoming forgetful, aren't you Paula?

Boyer, with those huge dark eyes and deep voice, wow...

You really need to give top billing to Cukor, Rick.

Cukor did a great job with the suspense, more than a few folks have mistaken Gaslight for a Hitchcock film over the years.

Boyer was notoriously short so had to stand on an apple box for love scenes with tall ladies like Ingrid.

I was curious about the film after hearing the expression gaslight used so often. Didn't disappoint. Even has a happy ending

Boyer's last movie co-starred Bergman: "A Matter of Time" (1976). They also did "Arch of Triumph" together.

Did “Little Yellow Bird” chart for Miss Lansbury in 1944?

I liked Boyer in "All This And Heaven, Too." With Bette Davis...

Only wusses like this version. The original one, with Diana Wynyard and Adolf Wohlbrück, is the real deal. Better paced and much more disturbing.

Patrick Hamilton, who wrote the play that Gaslight was based on (called Angel Street on the stage) was also a brilliant novelist.

His Slaves of Solitude, Hangover Square and Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky are among my favorite books. Oh, and he also wrote the play Rope, which Hitchcock made into a great film.

Good ol' Diana Wynyard...

There is a great episode of What's My Line? on YouTube where Angela Lansbury is the mystery guest -having just opened in Mame. Berman's daughter Pia Lindstrom was on the panel, and Lansbury reminded her that they had met on the set of Gaslight when Pia was still a toddler. It was a very personal anecdote, and showed that Lansbury liked and supported Bergman (this being a time when she was non-grata in the US because of her affair).

As for Gaslight -I'm a big fan of this film version. Lansbury holds her own against Boyer and Bergman -no small feat for anyone, let alone a novice!

Lovely anecdote r13, and very sweet of Angela, but by 1966 Ingrid Bergman had long been welcome back in the US. I believe she was forgiven around 1956 when she was given her second Oscar for Anastasia.

She had old lady face even then

Poor Charles Boyer never recovered from the suicide of his only child, Michael.

Thanks for the thread, OP.

I was just watching this today as it appeared on the Movies!TV channel.

Not dated at all. Bergman and Boyer are splendid. And Cotton and Landsbury.

And you should have mentioned Dame May Whitty as the nosy neighbor Miss Thwaites who has the last line of the film with delightfully shocked "Well!.

She was the lady in question in Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes" which the same channel ran recently with their set of Hitchcock films.

[quote]She was the lady in question in Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes" which the same channel ran recently with their set of Hitchcock films.

Which is the role Angie played in the tepid remake.

What's My Line

Pia doesn't look too impressed with the memory. Her mother would have been more graceful.

I watched the original version, thought Anton as the villain was great, Diana did nothing but widen her eyes periodically. The production itself was flat and abbreviated. I'll stick with this '44 version!

Gaslight is playing on Prime.

Jeeeeeez, that Pia Lindstrom was a cold fish!

What am I, chopped liver?

As a matter of fact, yes, Joe.

[quote] Pia doesn't look too impressed with the memory

That's just the usual Scandinavian reservedness. Yes, her mother did seem a lot warmer in her interviews but she probably lost some of that Swedish iciness while she was banging Rossellini in Italy.

I think the entire WML panel knew who the Mystery Guest was from the beginning but kept the game going for the "fun" of it.

Did Pia ever work in the legitimate theater?

R25, is it because I banged Deanna Durbin and not Judy??!!

Wasn't there some incident recorded by either Christopher Isherwood or Don Bachardy about vile homophobic remarks made by Joseph Cotten at a party which they all attended? I'm sure I read about it here on DL.

Those shots of Ingrid as the girl Paula in the first scene are hilarious.

R5

He also happily wore a girdle and a toupee - refreshingly egoless.

I liked the running gag of people walking away from someone talking to them and then you get the shocked reaction of the remaining person. The best was at the recital and that woman who was next to Joseph Cotten. And of course Dame May's repeated Well!

Strongly agree with R10. Angela Lansbury is the only good thing in the Hollywood remake, which is bloated and overlong. This should be a taut melodrama. The story doesn't work without a strong performance by the actor playing the abusive husband. Boyer just isn't scary, but Anton Walbrook, who up until that point in his career had been playing romantic leads, is a genuinely frightening villain, a sadistic bastard who obviously enjoys torturing his wife. You see his eyes gleam with pleasure when one of his twisted manipulative ploys pays off and you know you're in the presence of a monster.

The Paula in the British version looks just like Jennifer Saunders to me. I kept expecting Dawn French to pop up as the maid. A little piece of trivia about the American version. IMDb lists Terry Moore as playing the young Paula. In the closeup it’s obviously Ingrid but in the long shot of the girl leaving the house perhaps it could be Moore. Maybe they filmed it with her originally but decided to replace her closeup with Bergman. Odd.

I rewatched the original. It has a different dynamic because we know the husband is messing with her much earlier. He is a more cartoonish villain who threatens her dog and has an affair with Nancy. I got a laugh from his line to Nancy when he says You're young and inexperienced. You are inexperienced, aren't you?!

Why do people always think items are hidden in the stuffings of furniture in these kind of movies?

In the source play ANGEL STREET the wife's name is Bella. It was changed to Paula for the Bergman/Boyer film. What is she called in the Wynard film?

So many of Bergman's early roles had her playing a breathless, wide-eyed simp.

The wife’s name is Bella in the British film, R38.

She was marvelous in Gaslight, as the sassy minxy maid cavorting in the back alley with the bobby.

The British version Nancy is a much bigger part.

Gaslight is on TCM tonight.

Yes it is, at 8 pm/ET on TCM. Followed by a very pale imitation, "Experiment Perilous," starring the twin peaks of wooden actors, Hedy Lamarr and George Brent. Supposedly, MGM wanted their star Hedy for "Gaslight" before Ingrid, but either Hedy or George Cukor vetoed the casting, depending on who you believe.

LB Mayer saw Hedy as the perfect replacement for the troublesome and reluctant Garbo. What he failed to understand was that while Hedy had the look (at least while posing stock still), she had absolutely no gravitas once she opened her mouth and started moving.

Hedy was gorgeous, but did not IT. Garbo (and Monroe) had IT: mesmerizing on screen. Mary!!! I know

That should be "Hedy did have IT."

Did Angela's character wind up solving the crime at the end as sort of a pre-cursor to Jessica Fletcher?

Would you care to try a third time r47?

Hedy Lamarr was not an inventive actress...

For those who do not get TCM, here's a 1080p version of "Gaslight."

One of my happiest memories is watching this movie in San Francisco at the Castro almost 40 years ago. When Ingrid confronted Boyer in the last reel the place went nuts.

I love Anton Walbrook and didn’t know about his version. IMDb says it’s on Crackle.

And Youtube.

A film that really drives you mad until the catharsis of the final scenes. For such a strong woman, Bergman plays the victim beautifully. You really do believe she could be overcome. Love Lynn Redgrave's summing up of the film's power: