Gaslight (1940)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Thorold Dickinson

Writers:

Patrick Hamilton (play)
A.R. Rawlinson (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

10 November 1952 (USA)

Genre:

Thriller

Tagline:

A melodrama of a strange love!

Plot:

Twenty years ago, old Mrs. Barlow was killed in her home at 12, Pimlico Square for her priceless rubies...

Plot Keywords:

Rubies | Driven Mad | Murder | Paranoia | Pianist

Cast

Anton Walbrook	...	Paul Mallen
Diana Wynyard	...	Bella Mallen
Frank Pettingell	...	B.G. Rough
Cathleen Cordell	...	Nancy the Parlour Maid
Robert Newton	...	Vincent Ullswater
Minnie Rayner	...	Elizabeth, the Cook
Jimmy Hanley	...	Cobb
Marie Wright	...	Alice Barlow
Aubrey Dexter	...	House Agent
Mary Hinton	...	Lady Winterbourne
Angus Morrison	...	Pianist
Jack Barty	...	Chairman of Music Hall
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
The Darmora Ballet

Also Known As:

A Strange Case of Murder
Angel Street (USA)
The Murder in Thornton Square (USA) (new title)

Runtime:

84 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Warwick Way, Pimlico, London, England, UK

Company:

British National Films

Trivia:

When later remade as Gaslight (1944) with Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman, the studio (MGM) attempted to have all prints of this earlier version destroyed. Fortunately, it was unsuccessful (in fact it is thought that director Thorold Dickinson surreptitiously struck off a print himself before the negatives were binned).

Goofs:

Continuity: Camera pans across the tossed room with woman's dead body. When the police come up, the position of the woman's hand has changed.

Quotes:

Nancy the Parlour Maid: You're a rum 'un. I thought we was never going to do nothing.

Movie Connections:

Version of Angel Street (1946) (TV)

Soundtrack:

The Boy I Love

Claustrophobic and Machiavellian Psychological Thriller

In London, at Pimlico Square 12, the ancient lady Alice Barlow (Marie Wright) is brutally killed and her famous rubies miss. Because of the murder, the house stays empty for twenty years, when Paul Mallen (Anton Walbrook) and his sick wife Bella (Diana Wynyard) move to the place. Bella apparently had a nervous breakdown, having problems with her memory and becoming kleptomaniac. When the retired policeman B.G. Rough (Frank Pettingell) sees Paul Mallen on the street, he immediately recognizes him as being Louis Bauer, the nephew and killer of Alice Barlow. He decides to find evidences to prove that Paul and Louis are the same man, while Bella is being driven mad and menaced of being interned in an asylum by her husband.

"Gaslight" is a very claustrophobic and Machiavellian psychological thriller, in a bourgeois pre-industrial revolution London with an abusive exploitation of the proletariat. Anton Walbrook performs one of the most despicable villains I have ever seen and Diana Wynyard plays a very convincing fragile and confused Bella. The theatrical acting is excellent, and the smart B.G. Rough is a sort of "Sherlock Holmes" in the plot. The "can-can" dance is amazing, with the dancers showing a stunning elongation and agility. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "À Meia-Luz" ("Dimly")