Gaslight

Year of Release:  1940

Director:  Thorold Dickinson

Screenplay:  A. R. Rawlinson and Bridget Boland, based on the stage play Gas Light by Patrick Hamilton

Starring:  Anton Walbrook, Diana Wynyard, Frank Pettingell

Running Time:  85 minutes

Genre:  Drama, thriller

In Victorian London a newly married couple, Paul (Walbrook) and Bella Mallon (Wynyard), move into a house where twenty years earlier an elderly woman was brutally murdered by an unknown robber.  Before long, Bella begins to notice small objects going missing, strange sounds in an empty upstairs room, and the light in the gas lamps flickering strangely.  Her husband also begins to act increasingly cold and harsh towards her.  Bella begins to worry that she is losing her mind.  The truth however is even more sinister.

You've probably read or heard the term "gaslighting" which refers to someone manipulating another person to make them doubt their perception of reality, and the term comes from the title of the 1938 play Gas Light and the two film versions, the 1940 British film which we are concerned with here, and the 1944 American film directed by George Cukor and starring Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer and Joseph Cotton.   The central story concerns an evil husband manipulating his wife into making her think that she is going mad.  This isn't a spoiler, it's revealed pretty much from the outset that that is what he is doing.  While the 1940 version isn't as well known as the 1944 film, it is a pretty good little thriller.  Anton Walbrook gives a great villainous performance as the cruel husband, either silkily persuasive or hissing venom at his long-suffering wife, even if there are times when you half expect him to start twirling his moustache, he's so gleefully wicked.  The wide-eyed Diana Wynyard is impressive as the tormented Bella, even if there are times you wish she was less quietly passive, however the scene where she turns the tables on him is wonderfully suspenseful.  Frank Pettingell plays the happily pleased with himself former policeman turned stable owner who decides to conduct a private investigation into Mallon.  The film is creaky by today's standards, but it is suspenseful and exciting and, despite being very obviously studio bound, the lighting and camera work is effective.  The story moves at a quick pace, the dialogue is well-written.  Anton Walbrook makes a memorable villain and Diana Wynyard is affecting as the manipulated Bella.