Gaslight (1944)

- October Film Noir Selection


This is a superb film. Ingrid Bergman stars as Paula Alquist, a young woman who finds her aunt, a famous singer, murdered one night. She is sent to Italy to live and work with her aunt's mentor. There she meets and falls in love with Gregory Anton. After a whirlwind courtship they marry and move back to her Aunt's home in London. Once they are settled into the home where her aunt was murdered Paula begins to have problems. She is forgetting and losing things and Gregory seems to have to hide her away from the world. She is also hearing footsteps in the attic above her - the only problem being that the attic has been closed off and no one can be up there. Paula begins to wonder if she is going mad and her husband has lost all trust in her. However, a detective from Scotland Yard who is working on the aunt's unsolved murder begins to wonder if all is as it seems in the Anton home.

Ingrid Bergman won her first Oscar for this role and she was more than deserving. You can read so much through her facial expressions that she does not need to say much. Charles Boyer is also wonderful as her mysterious husband. This movie was also the film debut of a 17 year old Angela Lansbury as Nancy the maid.

There have been several versions of this movie. The original British version was made in 1940. There were versions made in 1939, 1946, 1947 and 1977. According to IMDB there is also a remake scheduled for release in 2007.