Film Review
Thorold Dickinson's inspired adaptation of Patrick Hamilton's popular
stage play remains one of cinema's most chilling portrayals of
insanity, thanks mainly to the remarkable performances of its two lead
actors. As the villainous husband to a fragile Diana Wynyard,
Anton Walbrook starts out as merely cruel and sinister, but he ends up
absolutely terrifying, the perfect embodiment of undiluted evil, and
quite mad with it. In the final gripping showdown, it isn't
obvious who is the pottiest, the venom spitting Walbrook or the knife
wielding Wynyard. It is a tribute to both actors that they play
these juicy roles for real, without going over the top and ending up as
comedy lunatics.
When he made this film, just before the outbreak of the Second World
War, Dickinson was one of Britain's most promising young film
directors, although his early promise soon fizzled out and he only
completed around a dozen features. Although
Gaslight was made quickly, it
demonstrates Dickinson's visual flair, with its long tracking shots and
film noir-like lighting and camera angles. The camerawork on this
film is particularly impressive; note how the spacious sets become
almost unbearably claustrophobic (they actually appear to shrink
physically) as Walbrook's hold over Wynyard tightens, like an enormous
claw-like vice. The cancan sequence is pretty spectacular too,
offering a welcome respite before the harrowing denouement is sprung on us.
When MGM bought the rights to Hamilton's play, the studio head Louis B.
Meyer insisted that all existing prints of this film be destroyed to
avoid comparison with MGM's remake. Fortunately, a few prints
survived and we are able to compare the two films. The
1944 MGM
version, which was directed by George Cukor and featured Charles Boyer
and Ingrid Bergman, is certainly a glossier production, but it lacks
the dramatic intensity, bleakness and sustained aura of menace which
the 1940 original has in a abundance.
© James Travers 2010
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Film Synopsis
Not long after moving into her new home, a grand London mansion, Bella
Mallen becomes convinced that she is starting to lose her mind.
In the evening, she imagines she hears noises in the empty rooms above
her bedroom and sees the gas lights dim mysteriously. Her
husband, Paul, shows her little sympathy and merely chastises her when
he discovers that she has been stealing and hiding objects around the
house for no apparent reason. B.G. Rough, a former policeman, recognises Mallen as the
nephew of an old woman who once lived in the house. Twenty years
ago, the old woman was murdered and her home ransacked; the culprit was
never brought to justice. Intrigued, Rough begins his own
investigation and soon realises that Bella is in the greatest of danger...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.