Gaslight (1944)

In this article, we will be looking at 2019’s book “1001 Movies to See Before You Die” and going through each film in a random order that I have chosen. We will be looking at what constitutes this film to be on the list and whether I think this film deserves to be here at all. I want to make perfectly clear that I won’t be revealing details from this book such as analyses by film reporters who have written about the film in question, so if you want the book itself you’ll have to buy it. But I will be covering the book’s suggestions on which films should be your top priority. I wouldn’t doubt for a second that everyone reading this article has probably watched many of these movies anyway. But we are just here to have a bit of fun. We’re going to not just look at whether it should be on this list but we’re also going to look at why the film has such a legacy at all. Remember, this is the 2019 version of the book and so, films like “Joker” will not be featured in this book and any film that came out in 2020 (and if we get there, in 2021). So strap in and if you have your own suggestions then don’t hesitate to email me using the address in my bio. Let’s get on with it then.

Gaslight (1944) dir. by George Cukor

I want to be perfectly honest with you, if you do not remember my favourite movies of all time list then you would have missed this film that was in the top ten. Starring the brilliant Charles Boyer and incredible Ingrid Bergman, this film is an amazing portrayal of convoluted plot-lines in which the audience and the characters are tricked by each other, deceived and often even double crossed. It’s an amazing storyline and I have loved this film for so long. In 2019, the film was rightfully entered into the National Film Registry within the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.

One of the greatest scenes in cinema history is the one where Ingrid Bergman makes the speech about not being able to do things right because she is ‘mad’. This comes near the end of the film and it is just amazing how she enacts this speech, it has to be one of the great films in all of cinema history.

Of course, Bosley Crowther weighed in on the film when it first came out stating that:

"And with Mr. Boyer doing the driving in his best dead-pan hypnotic style, while the flames flicker strangely in the gas-jets and the mood music bongs with heavy threats, it is no wonder that Miss Bergman goes to pieces in a most distressing way. Both of these popular performers play their roles right to the hilt. Nice little personality vignettes are interestingly contributed, too, by Joseph Cotten as a stubborn detective, Dame May Whitty and Angela Lansbury as a maid.”

Rightfully, Ingrid Bergman won a Best Leading Actress Oscar for her part in the film portraying the main character and subject, Paula. She also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Leading Actress for her part in the film. It is often considered to be among the greatest Best Actress Oscars and Golden Globe performances ever to be awarded these awards. On the 100 Greatest Thrillers list published by the American Film Institute, “Gaslight” makes it at number 78 on the list.

Considered one of the great noir films and great gothic romances, Emmanuel Levy commented on the film’s use of its era of setting and style in 2006. He stated this:

“A thriller soaked in paranoia, Gaslight is a period films [sic] noir that, like Hitchcock's The Lodger and Hangover Square, is set in the Edwardian age. It's interesting to speculate about the prominence of a film cycle in the 1940s that can be described as 'Don't Trust Your Husband'. It began with three Hitchcock films: Rebecca (1940), Suspicion (1941), and Shadow of a Doubt (1943), and continued with Gaslight and Jane Eyre (both in 1944), Dragonwyck (1945), Notorious and The Spiral Staircase (both 1946), The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947), and Sorry, Wrong Number and Sleep, My Love (both 1948). All of these films use the noir visual vocabulary and share the same premise and narrative structure: The life of a rich, sheltered woman is threatened by an older, deranged man, often her husband. In all of them, the house, usually a symbol of sheltered security in Hollywood movies, becomes a trap of terror.”

So I guess I’m justified for keeping this on my list of ten favourite films of all time. It truly is an absolute masterpiece of Golden Age cinema.