![]() (Cunning linguists that we are, had the film retained the play’s title, 2022 may well have found us complaining that some villain tried to Angel Street us…) In the same review, Crowther sniped that Gaslight was “a no more illuminating title” than Angel Street. 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 the most distressing way. We can at least slip the information that the study is wholly concerned with the obvious endeavors of a husband to drive his wife slowly mad. In his review, The New York Times’ film critic Bosley Crowther steered clear of spoilers, while musing that the bulk of the theater-going public was probably already hip to the central conceit, following the successful Broadway run of Angel Street, the Patrick Hamilton thriller on which the film was based: A teenaged Angela Lansbury made her big screen debut. Ingrid Bergman, playing opposite Charles Boyer, won an Academy award for her performance. Winters.“Gaslighting” is unavoidable these days, five years after it was named 2016’s “most useful” and “likely to succeed” word by the American Dialect Society.Īs long as we’re playing word games, are you familiar with “ denominalization”?Īlso known as “verbing” or “ verbification,” it’s the process whereby a noun is retooled as a verb. Willis and Paul Huldschinsky, the costumes by Irene and Marion Herwood and the film editing by Ralph E. Also worth of note are the set decorations by Edwin B. Bronislau Kaper did the compelling music score, and Cedric Gibbons and William Ferrari the stunning art direction. Meritorious photography is the contribution of Joseph Ruttenberg, who is in the habit of making his work count. The others, headed by Emil Rameau as the musical teacher, do yeoman service in brief assignments. Dame May Whitty provides a priceless note of humor as the busybody neighbor, and Barbara Everest scores a solid, if unspectacular success as the cook. Her talents are marked to be able to stand out in such company. ![]() A fascinating Cockney maid is portrayed by Angela Lansbury in a debut of great promise. This is the job for which Cukor admirers have been waiting.Ĭotten has a relatively incidental role as a Scotland Yard man, but he does it with dashing presence. He utilizes small mosaics of sharp characterization in building to his climax and works in each facet faultlessly. And he increases his acting stature by playing the part, much as did Robert Montgomery by appearing in Night Must Fall.ĭirection by George Cukor is ever a display of fine craftsmanship. It is a far cry from his average romantic roles, actually his first unmitigated screen villainy. She is saved only by the timely intervention of the police who have never been satisfied with the mystery surrounding her aunt’s demise.īoyer’s performance of the husband is really brilliant. The husband seems intent upon driving his wife insane by psychological suggestion and, with diabolical cunning, lead her to doing away with herself. He plants the thought in her mind that she does not always remember what she has done, that she loses things which have been given to her, that her sanity may be impaired. Without her unforced ability to capture the very spirit of youth, the prologue would have been impossible.įollowing their return to London, a subtle change begins in her husband’s attitude. Miss Bergman is indescribably lovely as the young wife, but even more remarkable is her appearance as the teen-age child, quite the youngest girl you have ever seen an established actress portray seriously. But she gives up her music when she falls in love and marries the man who is her accompaniment, then with her husband returns to Thornton Square. She leaves the old house on Thornton Square, London, to study singing on the Continent. This introduces the heroine as a girl in her ‘teens, deeply touched by the tragedy of her aunt’s mysterious murder. True, a prologue has been added to the original play. In the complete honesty of the melodrama rests its strong bid for outstanding box office. ![]() Hornblow is to be congratulated for his sagacity in avoiding the usual Hollywood “production touches.” He has a melodramatic tale to tell, and he gives it to audiences straight-from-the-shoulder. There is the properly terrifying atmosphere of the Drury Lane era in this piece, the emotional content of which relentlessly grips and holds absorbed interest. ![]()
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