Gaslight (1940 film)

:"This article is about the 1940 film Gaslight. For the 1944 film see Gaslight."Infobox Film
name = Gaslight


image_size =
caption = VHS cover
director = Thorold Dickinson
producer = John Corfield
writer = Patrick Hamilton (play)
A. R. Rawlinson
Bridget Boland
narrator =
starring = Anton Walbrook
Diana Wynyard
Frank Pettingell
music = Richard Addinsell
cinematography = Bernard Knowles
editing = Sidney Cole
distributor = Anglo-American Film Corporation
released = flag|UK 25 June 1940
flag|US 10 November 1952
runtime = 84 min.
country = UK
language = English
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0031359

"Gaslight" is a 1940 film based on Patrick Hamilton's play "Gas Light" (1938). It was released in the United States under the title "Angel Street" so that audiences would not confuse it with MGM's 1944 version starring Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman, though both had essentially the same plot. The 1944 cinema "Gaslight" was released in England under the title "The Murder in Thornton Square".

Plot

The plot focuses on a young woman haunted by the murder of her aunt in a London townhouse that has lain vacant since the crime. Years later she is persuaded by her new husband to return in order to overcome her anxieties. She soon finds herself misplacing small objects and hearing odd noises, and before long her spouse has her believing she's losing her sanity.

This screen version, directed by Thorold Dickinson and starring Diana Wynyard, Anton Walbrook, and Frank Pettingell, adheres closer to the original play than the 1944 remake. The latter early on reveals the husband's sinister intentions, and cast handsome leading man Joseph Cotten as the detective who solves the case, contrasted with the heavyset, rougher and older Pettingell, who acts as a benevolent detective that intervenes after he observes strange events on his street. The 1940 version had a smaller budget than the more romantic 1944 edition, and concentrates on the abusive, manipulative marital relationship.

Reception

MGM reportedly tried to suppress release of the 1940 film in the United States, even to the point of trying to destroy the negative, so that it would not compete with their more publicized 1944 remake. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/oct/04/art.film.thorolddickinson]

References

Bibliography

*"The Great British Films", pp 52-54, Jerry Vermilye, 1978, Citadel Press, ISBN 080650661X

External links

*imdb title|id=31359|title=Gaslight
*tcmdb title|id=76014|title=Gaslight
*rotten-tomatoes|id=1066725-gaslight|title=Gaslight