A good-sized hit, Gaslight earned just over $4,500,000 and made nearly $1 million profit. The public loved it and it was well reviewed. This is Hollywood golden years professionalism at its finest. Joseph Cotten gives a dashing and romantic turn as the stubborn investigating Scotland Yard detective Brian Cameron, while Angela Lansbury (Oscar-nominated in her debut at 18) as the lovestruck maid Nancy Oliver and Dame May Whitty as the nosey spinster neighbour Miss Bessie Thwaites complete the delicious main acting package.Īlso in the cast are Barbara Everest, Terry Moore, Eustace Wyatt, Emil Rameau, Edmund Breon, Tom Stevenson, Halliwell Hobbes, Heather Thatcher, Lawrence Grossmith, Arthur Blake, Lillian Bronson, Leonard Carey, Helen Flint, Gibson Gowland, Bobby Hale, Joy Harrington, Charles McNaughton, Syd Saylor and Eric Wilton. Bergman responds by being luminously vulnerable. This included a story-telling method to get Bergman in the right mindset as filming progressed, with Cukor narrating the film’s entire plot to Bergman up to the point of the scenes they were set to film each day, as the film was not shot in sequence and Bergman’s character was changing over time.Ĭontractually top billed Boyer is exceptionally creepy as the charming but ice-cold killer who weds his victim’s niece (Bergman) then tries to drive her out of her mind for the inheritance of a hoard of gems. It is propelled by the sleekest possible direction by Cukor, who brings out the best in all his actors. Quibbles over Bergman’s Oscar win apart, this is a supremely stylish, gripping psychological thriller, with the lavish Victorian period re-creation the Brits could not afford in 1938, with the art direction winning a second Oscar. It is noticeable, however, that she does not say ‘she has earned it by this performance.’ Stanwyck ended up with four Oscar nominations and no wins, while Bergman won again for Anastasia (1956) and Murder on the Orient Express (1974). Stanwyck was magnificently graceful and generous in defeat, saying she was ‘a member of the Ingrid Bergman Fan Club’ and didn’t ‘feel at all bad about the award because my favorite actress won it and has earned it by all her performances’. At Oscar time, the Academy voters surprisingly preferred Ingrid Bergman over the favourite Barbara Stanwyck (as the treacherous Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity) for her performance as Paula Alquist Anton, the naïve socialite wife (of Gregory Anton – played by Charles Boyer) driven to distraction. Though still set in the Victorian age, around 1874, Cukor’s film brings the 1938 Patrick Hamilton stage chiller Gas Light gleamingly and chillingly up to date and the larger scale and budget gives it a smarter feel, with intricate Victorian sets and beautiful period decorations. The Oscar voters surprisingly preferred Ingrid Bergman over the favourite Barbara Stanwyck (in Double Indemnity) for her performance as the naïve socialite wife driven to distraction (by Charles Boyer)ĭirector George Cukor’s polished and stylish 1944 Hollywood remake of the famous 1940 British paranoia thriller Gaslight in some respects is only equally good, but it greatly benefits from a much better, much costlier production. Gaslight ***** (1944, Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer, Joseph Cotten, Angela Lansbury, Dame May Whitty) – Classic Movie Review 1231
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