Sunday, December 18, 2011

FILM: Gaslight (1944)


Plot: In London, at Thorton Square 9, the prima donna Alice Alquist is strangled and her famous jewels miss. Her young niece Paula is sent to Italy to study music and the house stays empty. Ten years later, Paula decides to get married with the older pianist Gregory Anton, who convinces her to move back to the old address in London. When they arrive, Paula finds a letter from a mysterious and unknown Sergis Bauer, making Gregory upset. He psychologically begins to torture Paula and she has a nervous breakdown, insecurity and memory problems. When the Scotland Yard policeman Brian Cameron sees Gregory Anton [the couple] in a tourist place, he immediately recognizes Gregory [he see Paula who reminds him of her aunt; he does not know Gregory] and decides to investigate and find evidences to connect Gregory with the unsolved murder, while Paula is being driven mad and menaced of being interned in an asylum by her husband. Plot Summary for Gaslight (1944)

Credits:
Director: George Cukor
Screenwriters: John Van Druten, Walter Reisch
Cast: Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman. Joseph Cotten, Dame May Whitty, Angela Lansbury (IMDB)

Film Achievements: 1944 OSCAR Best Actress in a Leading Role - Ingrid Bergman; 1944 OSCAR Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White - Cedric Gibbons, William Ferrari, Edwin B. Willis, Paul Huldschinsky; 1944 OSCAR Nomination Best Actor in a Leading Role - Charles Boyer; 1944 OSCAR Nomination Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Angela Lansbury; 1944 OSCAR Nomination Best Cinematography, Black-and-White - Joseph Ruttenberg; 1944 OSCAR Nomination Best Picture; 1944 OSCAR Nomination Best Writing, Screenplay - John L. Balderston, Walter Reisch, John Van Druten Golden; 1944 Globe Globe Best Actress - Ingrid Bergman IMDB: Awards for Gaslight (1944)

Film Reviews: Gaslight (1944) (aka The Murder in Thornton Square) is a superb, definitive psychological suspense thriller from 'woman's director' George Cukor. [Previous Cukor films that were similar as period dramas included Little Women (1933), David Copperfield (1935), and Camille (1936).] The lavish and glossy MGM film, with authentic Victorian-era production design, was a remake of a taut and subtle film made four or five years earlier in Great Britain. This earlier version, starring a very sinister Anton Walbrook and Diana Wynyard, was directed by Thorold Dickinson and released in the US as both Gaslight and Angel Street (1940). When MGM decided to remake the film, it bought the rights to Dickinson's version and withdrew it from circulation (and reportedly - and unsuccessfully attempted to destroy prints of the film) - causing resentment among British film-makers (Tim Dirks). Gaslight (1944)

Gaslight is a 1944 mystery-thriller film adapted from Patrick Hamilton's play, Gas Light, performed as Angel Street on Broadway in 1941. It was the second version to be filmed; the first, released in Great Britain, had been made a mere four years earlier. This 1944 version of the story was directed by George Cukor and starred Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer, Joseph Cotten, and eighteen-year-old Angela Lansbury in her screen debut. It had a larger scale and budget and lends a different feel to the material. Wikipedia

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