A Filmmaker's Guide to 30 Things You Should Know About "Gaslight" (1944)
Released: 04-05-1944
One of my personal favourite films of all time was released on this day in 1944. The psycho-drama "Gaslight" (1944) starring Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman with Angela Lansbury's acting debut was released on this day 76 years' ago (as of 2020). I have loved this movie for a very long time because I really think Bergman's performance is something extreme. It is possibly one of her greatest performances of all time and, in my opinion, one of the greatest performances of any actress ever. If this film were to be remade then I think that Marion Cotillard would be brilliant as Bergman's character because it is just so psychotic and over-the-top. It is a crazy difficult role to play and I can see that Bergman played the character amazingly. I was in awe and still am over the greatness of the performance.
Let's get on to the good bit then!
Here are all the things you should know about "Gaslight" (1944)...
All the things you should know about "Gaslight" (1944)
1. The radio adaptation was 30 minutes and has Charles Boyer reprise his role as the lead actor
2. Hedy Lamarr turned down the chance to play Paula
3. The only film in which Ingrid Bergman wins Best Actress for a picture nominated for Best Picture
4. The only film of that year where Best Actor and Best Actress nominees came from the same film
5. Charles Boyer was shorter than Ingrid Bergman and so, the scene where they hug after she gets off the train meant Boyer had to stand on a box. Bergman found it very awkward
6. Greer Garson would have been the replacement for Ingrid Bergman if she was unable to do the movie
7. Lux Radio Theatre had a 60 minute radio broadcast with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer reprising their roles
8. It is the film of Angela Lansbury's first Oscar Nomination
9. At the end of the film, Boyer was supposed to tell Bergman that he loved her all along. But it was cut because the screenwriter was absolutely terrified that MGM tried to change the script
10. When Ingrid Bergman won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance in this film, she was the first woman to win Best Actress for the first time against actresses who had all been nominated before
11. The opera Ingrid Bergman is singing at the beginning of the film is called "Lucia Di Lammermoor" which is famous for the scene in which the title character goes completely mad
12. The book Paula reads aloud in "Villette" by Charlotte Bronte
13. MGM sued Jack Benny for parodying this film in his segment "Autolight"
14. Angela Lansbury wore platform shoes to appear taller
15. The source for the screenplay was the Broadway Play "Angel Street"
16. It was Bergman's first Oscar
17. In her autobiography, Ingrid Bergman calls Charles Boyer the most intelligent actor she'd ever worked with
18. it survived an eradication by MGM Studios because it was mislabelled "Angel Street"
19. The brass bed that was in the bedroom near the beginning of the film was also in "Meet Me in St. Louis" with Judy Garland
20. The movie takes place in 1874
21. Ingrid Bergman studied the states of mental patients for the role
22. The scene where Angela Lansbury lights a cigarette was postponed to the end of the film so they could wait for Lansbury to turn 18 so that she could have a cigarette
23. It won the Academy Award for set direction
24. Charles Boyer kept phoning his wife between takes because she was heavily pregnant with their first child. He kept checking on her health between takes and became increasingly worried as they'd been trying to have a child for years. The baby was born whilst he was still working on set and he broke down into tears. Production was halted to celebrate the birth of the child
25. To focus on the claustrophobia of Paula, the scenes are progressively filled with various bits and pieces of random stuff
26. The first time Boyer met Bergman was at the train station scene
27. May Whitty was the first actress to be called a Dame, knighted by the King at the time - George V
28. David O Selznick provided the loan of Joseph Cotton and Ingrid Bergman
29. Irene Dunne was interested in playing Paula
30. Ingrid Bergman was shooting another movie at the time she won the Oscar for "Gaslight" (1944) and stated that if she hadn't have won she was afraid that her new co-stars wouldn't speak to her.
Read my review of the film here: https://vocal.media/geeks/a-filmmaker-s-review-gaslight-1944
And, check out where it appears on my birthday special of my top ten favourite films of all time here: https://vocal.media/geeks/a-filmmaker-s-birthday-my-top-ten-favourite-films-of-all-time
About the Creator
Annie Kapur
200K+ Reads on Vocal.
English Lecturer
🎓Literature & Writing (B.A)
🎓Film & Writing (M.A)
🎓Secondary English Education (PgDipEd) (QTS)
📍Birmingham, UK
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