Gaslight (1944)

Ingrid Bergman gives one of the greatest performances in the long history of cinema

About as perfect as a mystery thriller can be, George Cukor’s remake of Gaslight simply works on every level. From the stuffy and claustrophobic set design, showing Ingrid Bergman constantly surrounded by dusty old heirlooms, to the excellent performances by Charles Boyer, a 17-18 year old Angela Lansbury (she celebrated her 18th birthday on the set), an understated performance by Joseph Cotten, and that year’s Academy Award winner for Best Actress Ingrid Bergman. 

Boyer is mustache twirlingly sinister as Gregory Anton, whose dialogue seems to spit venom at Ingrid Bergman’s Paula Anton, a masterful performance as a wife who believes she is going mad. Add in a young and flirty Angela Lansbury playing the young maid Nancy very seductively and you have what you need for a great thriller set in a dusty old mansion where an unsolved murder took place many years ago. It’s Bergman who truly shines, though, as it’s said she really did her homework for this role, studying the movements of a woman in an asylum to get a feel for her facial reactions and possible tells when she got flustered or confused. It all paid off as she gives one of the greatest performances in the long history of cinema.

From the performances to the camera movements through the dusty mansion, the lamp lit streets of London (actually the MGM lot), and the Academy Award winning set design, this is one of those rare films where it seems everything simply hits the right way and 78 years later still holds up as one of the best films of its kind. The tension and suspense still hold eight decades later, so see it when you can. I can’t recommend it enough.