Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman star in “Gaslight”

Gaslight (1944) is an American psychological thriller set in 19th-century London. The film was directed by George Cukor and stars Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, and Joseph Cotten. The film features Dame May Whitty, and Angela Lansbury in her feature film debut.

Alice Alquist, a world-famous opera singer is murdered in her home in Victorian London. Her niece Paula (Bergman) is sent to Italy to study opera like her aunt, but unfortunately, she doesn’t have her aunt’s talent. When she reaches adulthood, she falls in love with her accompanist Gregory Anton (Boyer). They marry after a two-week romance and settle in her late aunt’s townhouse. Paula has a hard time living in the home where everything reminds her of that terrible murder. While moving her aunt’s furnishings into the attic, Paula discovers a letter from a man named Sergis Bauer. When Gregory sees the letter he becomes enraged, but then apologizes.

Is Gregory hiding something from Paula? If so, what does it mean?

 

Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer

George Cukor (1899 – 1983) was an American director. He was famous for directing comedies and literary adaptations of classics like Little Women (1933) and David Copperfield (1935). He was famously fired from directing Gone with the Wind (1939), but that incident didn’t mar an impressive directorial career that included The Philadelphia Story (1940), Gaslight (1944), and Born Yesterday (1950). Cukor won an Academy Award as Best Director for My Fair Lady (1964).

Charles Boyer (1899 - 1978) was a French-American stage and film actor. Boyer was nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award four times. He became a major movie star in the late 1930s in films like The Garden of Allah (1936), Algiers (1938), and Love Affair (1939). He starred as the evil husband of Ingrid Bergman in Gaslight (1944). Boyer starred opposite most of the top female stars of the period including Claudette Colbert, Marlene Dietrich, Irene Dunne, Jean Arthur, Greta Garbo, Bette Davis, Joan Fontaine, Katharine Hepburn, and Olivia de Havilland. As he grew older, Boyer played supporting roles in film and also starred on Broadway in Kind Sir (1953 - 1954) and The Marriage-Go-Round (1958 - 1960).

Ingrid Bergman (1915 – 1982) was a Swedish actress who became an international star upon her Hollywood debut in Intermezzo (1939). Few actresses were as popular as Bergman during the 1940s. In fact, she was the number two box office draw (after Bing Crosby) in 1946. She starred opposite Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca (1942), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) opposite Gary Cooper, and Gaslight (1944) for which she won the Best Actress Academy Award. She starred opposite newcomer Gregory Peck in Spellbound (1945) which was her first collaboration with director Alfred Hitchcock. Bergman would win another Best Actress Academy Award for Anastasia (1956) and a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Murder on the Orient Express (1974).

Joseph Cotten (1905 - 1994) was an American film, stage, radio, and television actor. Cotten achieved fame on Broadway in the original stage productions of The Philadelphia Story and Sabrina Fair.  He became famous worldwide after appearing in Citizen Kane (1941) and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). As one of the most popular leading men of the 1940s, Cotten starred in Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Gaslight (1943), Duel in the Sun (1946), and The Third Man (1949). Cotten alternated between work on stage and film into the late-1950s. Cotten also appeared on television guest starring in The Name of the Game, Cimarron Strip, and Ironside. Cotten’s last film role was in 1981.

 

Angela Lansbury and Ingrid Bergman

Gaslight trivia

• M-G-M tried to get the film negatives of the 1940 British version destroyed.
• Ingrid Bergman studied mental patients to help with her characterization of Paula.
• Angela Lansbury turned 18 during the production of the film. The cast and crew held a birthday party for her.
• Bergman was initially concerned that she wouldn’t be able to portray a fragile character like Paula.
• Boyer’s son and only child was born during production.
• In her autobiography, Bergman said that Boyer was the most intelligent actor she ever worked with and one of the nicest.

 

Click HERE to watch the film on the Internet Archive

Click HERE to join the online discussion on Monday, February 17, 2025, at 6:30 p.m. Central Time. Once you RSVP, you will receive an invitation with a link to join the discussion on Zoom.

 

Discussion questions

1. The film is described today as a psychological thriller. Does that description work for you? Would you categorize it differently?
2. What did you think of Bergman’s performance?
3. Charles Boyer was nominated for Best Actor for his performance in this film (he lost to Bing Crosby). What did you think of his performance?
4. Angela Lansbury had never acted before her role as the maid, Nancy. What did you think of her performance?
5. Joseph Cotten is hardly ever mentioned when this film is discussed. Is his a thankless role?

 

 

2016 #TCMFF: The First Full Day

Decisions, decisions. Friday, April 29, the first full day of the TCM Film Festival, was chock full of great movies. The morning schedule was especially strong featuring three movies I wanted to see on the big screen: The More The Merrier (1943), Shanghai Express (1932), and Love Me Or Leave Me (1955). I thought that Shanghai Express was the most likely candidate to be one of the TBD features on Sunday, films that proved popular enough to be repeated, so I had to choose between The More The Merrier and Love Me Or Leave Me. I decided on George Stevens’s The More The Merrier with Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, and Charles Coburn. Seeing this classic on the big screen with an audience was a delight. There’s nothing like a movie theater filled with laughter and Arthur, McCrea, and Coburn gave us plenty to laugh about.

I really wanted to see this movie, but I couldn’t be in two places at once.

After the screening of The More The Merrier, I ran into my first disappointment of the festival (last year I didn’t get to see Too Late For Tears). I was in line for Double Harness (1933), but the film, in one of the smaller venues, sold out almost immediately. Being a fan of William Powell and Ann Harding, I really wanted to see this film (I’ve never seen it). With nothing else on my schedule, I went to the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel to buy a copy of Illeana Douglas’s book, I Blame Dennis Hopper. I waited on line to meet Illeana and to get my book autographed. I asked her what we have to do to get Theodora Goes Wild at the TCM Film Festival? She said we just have to keep “pestering” them about it. She lamented that when she brings it up, they remind her that she’s only doing so because her grandfather is in it. The nerve! With plenty of time before the next movie, I had a rare sit-down meal, so I had a nice lunch at Mel’s Diner before I went to see The Conversation (1974).

The charming Illeana Douglas and me

The Conversation featured an interview with its director Francis Ford Coppola by Ben Mankiewicz. I have to say I enjoyed the Coppola interview more than the movie. Coppola came across as very humble and likeable. I expected him to be more brash and full of himself (not sure why I thought this). The Conversation wasn’t my type of movie, but I can now check it off of my list. After the heaviness of The Conversation, it was time for something different.

Snow making on the backlot for It’s A Wonderful Life

It’s A Wonderful Life (1946) was playing at the Chinese Theatre, an event I couldn’t pass up. I have this film on DVD and have seen it dozens of times, but to see it on the big screen with 900 + people, how could I pass that up? Craig Barron and Ben Burtt introduced the film. They shared how they made snow for the film, which was a new process at the time. Prior to It’s A Wonderful Life, movie snow was made from bleached corn flakes. The problem with the corn flakes is that when stepped on, you could hear them crunch, requiring the filmmakers to re-dub the dialogue, something, director Frank Capra didn’t want to do. The new snow was a mixture of fire retardant foam and glycerin, which looked real on screen and didn’t crunch. Barron and Burtt also treated us to film of a picnic wrap party that included the cast and crew, including star James Stewart and director Frank Capra, participating in sack and three-legged races, eating ice cream and watermelon…just like the rest of us.

Angela Lansbury watches James Gregory on TV in The Manchurian Candidate.

After the heartwarming tale of George and Mary Bailey, it was on to more serious fare with The Manchurian Candidate (1962). Ben Mankiewicz interviewed Dame Angela Lansbury before the screening. She explained how she got the role (Frank Sinatra originally wanted Lucille Ball) and the impact it made on her life and career (she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar). The performances of all the principals: Sinatra, Lawrence Harvey, and Janet Leigh were excellent. The movie, filmed in black and white, looked beautiful, which contrasted with the film’s serious tone and subject matter.

Well, that was the end of the first full day. Four movies!

Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard in Brief Encounter from
the first day of the festival

Films seen after two days:
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Brief Encounter
The More The Merrier
The Conversation
It’s A Wonderful Life
The Manchurian Candidate








2016 #TCMFF: The Festival Begins
2016 #TCMFF: Saturday, The Second Full Day
2016 #TCMFF: Sunday, The Third Full (and Last) Day

Top-ten posts of 2012

Here are the top-ten post, in descending order, from the past year. The interest in classic films, including the stars and directors who made them, seems to be as strong as ever. Two blogathons made the list as well as three posts promoting the special big-screen showings of three classic films.

10. A blogathon featuring the films produced by Val Lewton garnered some interest. Lewton is most famous for his horror films, but the blogathon featured other genres he worked in. This blogathon was presented and promoted with another classic movie fan, Kristina, who writes the amazing Speakeasy blog.

9. My review of the Academy Award winning film The Artist, which I saw almost a year ago today, attracted some readers. With it’s fictional recounting of the transition from silent to talking films, The Artist was a wonderful achievement. Classic movie fans should enjoy this film immensely.

8. Singing in the Rain was back on the screen for two days this summer. The classic musical included a taped interview with star, Debbie Reynolds, reminiscing about her participation in the film alongside Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor.

Jeanne Crain and Ethel Waters in Pinky

7. The feature, “Classic Films in Context” is somewhat self-explanatory. The reviews of classic movies puts each film in the context of when it was conceived and produced. Sometimes a little background information is required in order for us to fully appreciate a classic film. The post on Pinky, a 1949 melodrama starring Jeanne Crain as a light-skinned black women, enjoyed wide readership. Hardly remembered today, it was one of Elia Kazan’s early directorial efforts and a big box office hit for its film studio, Twentieth Century Fox. It also earned Crain a Best Actress nod (she lost to Olivia De Haviland).

6. The announcement for the much-anticipated Dana Andrews blogathon let me know that once it was launched it would be a success. And it was. See below.

5. The Dana Andrews blogathon started on July 28 and contributions and comments came fast and furious. Andrews biographer Carl Rollyson joined in on the fun, contributing a blog post, as well as commenting on everyone’s posts! Thanks, Carl, for taking the time and for making such thoughtful comments.

4. The Birds on the big screen! Yes, the Alfred Hitchcock classic had a one-night-only showing on movie screens across the country in September. I had the pleasure of seeing the film on the big screen for the first time ever and really enjoyed it. Somehow seeing a classic film in a theater with an audience is like seeing it for the very first time. The digital transfer looked great and the sound was amazing. Totally fun popcorn eating movie. I’m so glad I got a chance to see it.

3. Speaking of classic films on the big screen, Casablanca had a special showing in March to commemorate the 70th anniversary of its release. The restored digital transfer was impeccable. The black and white cinematography really popped and I found that I couldn’t take my eyes off of Dooley Wilson’s (Sam) white jacket that seemed to shimmer under the lights in Rick’s Café American. That showing was so popular that they included another one-night-only showing in April, which resulted in this post.

2. I was interested in the “Titanic” disaster before I was interested in classic films. So it was no surprise that I decided to tackle the “Titanic” disaster on film in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the disaster. I featured several of the most popular films detailing the tragedy, as well as other films and TV shows that included the disaster as part of the storyline.


1. The post with the most reads was one I did on Angela Lansbury when she was the TCM star of the month last January. With over 6,000 reads, this post is on track to be one of Classic Movie Man’s most popular posts of all time.

Well, that does it for 2012. Here’s hoping that 2013 is a prosperous, healthy, and happy new year for everyone. And thank you for visiting the Classic Movie Man blog. Look for some exciting new posts in 2013!