The Battle of 1940 and 1944's Remake Resolved...Finally!!

DVDs:

	• Gaslight Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman Warner Home Video, 2004 average customer review:based on 41 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The Battle of 1940 and 1944's Remake Resolved...Finally!!

Here is where I will break up the two films (the 1940s version, and the 1944 remake) to show you the differences and once and for all declare which one was better.

Gaslight (1940)

What a crisp, deeply rooted thriller Thorold Dickinson created. With vile creatures (Paul) and goofy policemen and maids, we are easily captured into the world of the Mallens. Diana Wynyard does a spectacular job as Bella, giving us the right amount of insecurity coupled with fear. She is the true victim of this film and Dickinson does not let us forget that. Wynyard is nearly overshadowed by my favorite character of the film, Paul Mallen, played with so much evil by Anton Walbrook. I have seen several films in my life, and I must say that Walbrook ranks amoung some of the most sinister villains of them all. He has no super powers, just the ability to manipulate Bella mentally, proving that he is stronger than her. He thrives on Bella's insecurities and makes them into his greatest form of punishment. These two working together really transformed this 40s thriller into something concrete and powerful. It is the dynamic between the two that kept me glued to my seat and continually asking for more.

Coupled with the superb acting is the creativeness of Dickinson and his writer A.R. Rowlinson. Together they set the mood with darkened corners and alleyways with that constantly looming feeling that the events are going to get grittier down the road. This team made Victorian London a spooky place to visit at night. They make Bella the victim throughout this entire film, making even me wonder if she really was slowly going mad. It isn't until the end that the truth is revealed and even then we are left in suspense. It isn't until the credits roll is the film over, and that is hard to accomplish for directors of the thriller genre today. Dickinson proved that he could handle all the elements with the greatest of ease and bring them to the screen in a film that would last the test of time. I am not embarrassed to show this film to friends because I do believe that they would see the value in this production.

Grade: ***** out of *****

Gaslight (1944)

This remake was the epitome of Hollywood's hands in the cookie jar. Instead of leaving a masterpiece at rest, the studio chose to remake this film only four years after the original was released and completely butchered it. To begin, they brought too many bigger named stars into the picture. Ingrid Bergman overacted her part as Paula Alquist, bringing Hollywood insanity to the screen instead of this feeling of real fear or insecurity. Also troubling is the role of her husband, played by Charles Boyer, who never quite gets that slimy taste in your mouth like Walbrook did. He is acting, and you can tell from the moment that he opens his mouth on screen. Add in one of the maids played by Angela Lansbury (of Murder, She Wrote notoriety) and you have a literal Hollywood remake equation. We have all seen this before, more money = bigger actors + bigger publicity + more chances for Oscars. Boy, did this equation work well for Bergman. She was awarded an Oscar for her portrayal (and nearly everyone else was nominated for their parts) of Paula, which to me seemed like nothing more than overacting to get that feeling of "insanity". There was no reality to her performance, and sadly should not have been awarded.

Watching these two back to back you really see how Hollywood the 1944 version became. It became even more apparent when there was more stories added to build character depth. The beginning where Paula is related to the murders and the subplot dealing with how her and Charles Boyer met was hysterical. It was unnecessary and a waste of time. The original did not carry these scenes and it was better, wouldn't you think that studio bosses would want to keep a good idea instead of turning it to mush? These added scenes and mixture of events only created a jumbled mess that was harder for me to follow than really enjoy. With so much excitement after watching the original, this was very difficult to watch. Director Cukor never captured that eeriness of the gaslight or the darkness of London as well as Dickinson was able to. Cukor was a Hollywood dog following the leash that was given to him by the studio. It was sad to see these two together and do not suggest this version. The beauty and innocence coupled with fear and insecurity just wasn't the central theme of this film (as it was with the original) and ultimately it hurt it in the long run.

Grade: * out of *****

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Chilling thriller with Charles Boyer at his best!

"Gaslight" (the 1944 version) is one of the best suspense classics I can think of that's not directed by Hitchcock, and the casting was simply flawless. Ingrid Bergman gives a excellent performance as a naive young woman ("Paula") who's nearly driven insane by her sinister, greedy husband, "Gregory" (played by Charles Boyer). Joseph Cotten plays the detective who comes to Paula's rescue just when she's almost lost her sanity. It is he who helps Paula finally realize that Gregory had only married her so that he could find very valuable jewels supposedly hidden in her house years ago. Charles Boyer is great even playing such an unlikable villian, and Dame May Whitty along with then 18-year-old Angela Lansbury in her film debut (who was nominated for best supporting actress) add great support to the main stars. This is truly an awesome dvd, and it includes the 1940 British version of "Gaslight" as well as a documentary "Reflections on Gaslight", the original trailer, and footage of Ingrid Bergman accepting her best actress oscar at the 1944 Academy Awards ceremony! This classic thriller is highly recommended.

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A hitchockian nightmare !

Charles Boyer made the peak work of his career , performing the role of a handsome gentleman who marries with Ingrid Bergman with the intention of empowering her around her doe .

The claustrophobic atmosphere and the spelling script make of this film a genuine gem and the masterpiece of George Cukor far beyond to me , A star is born .

Two Academy Awards for this move : Best Actress and B&W Decoration .

This is the debut on screen of Angela Landsbury.

Cukor Doing a Hitchcock

Cukor's GASLIGHT has been thought of as an anomaly in his career, the one fi;lm of his which might honestly been mistaken for a Hitchcock thriller.

Perhaps some of this confusion is set off by the presence of Bergman, one of Hitchcock's favorite actresses ("It's only a movie, Ingrid") together with Joseph Cotten, with whom Hitchcock teamed Bergman in the later UNDER CAPRICORN. The "one word title" of GASLIGHT is also reminiscent of how many one word titles Hitchcock employed over the years. Cotten and Bergman (as well as Hitchcock) were contracted to the former MGM head of production David O Selznick, who was making SINCE YOU WENT AWAY (also with Joseph Cotten) at the same time that Cukor was shooting GASLIGHT, so that Cotten was available to him only in the evenings.

For an MGM release in 1944 GASLIGHT is oddly bereft of MGM stars! Angela Lansbury made her debut here, but where are the other MGM notables? We know that during the war many of MGM's leading men were tied up in the service, but were there many MGM releases in 1944 in which none of the three leading players were under studio contract? I don't think so! This is definitely an odd duck among MGM's wartime films.

We have also long known that this was a remake of an older British film made by the esteemed director Thorold Dickinson, and some have cattily assumed that Cukor stole all of Dickinson's directorial flourishes in a paint by numbers Gus Van Sant does Psycho kind of carbon copy of the original. This DVD shows us both films side by side, and at last we can all judge for ourselves. I like Diana Wynyard, who's very good in the Dickinson GASLIGHT-she has a very different style than Bergman, but both are quite effective. Isn't the time ripe for a full scale Wynyard revival? Let's see her make a comeback via DVD!

Paula, the name of Ingrid Bergman's character, is a favorite name of Cukor's. Viewers will recall that the young society girl caught up in a destructive affair with drunken rouse John Barrymore in DINNER AT EIGHT was also called "Paula." And later on in life, perhaps, this fondness would explain why Cukor allowed Paula Strasberg onto the set of the film SOMETHING'S GOT TO GIVE, to coach the insecure Marilyn Monroe, with Cukor's compliance.

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"Strange drama of a captive sweetheart!"

As a thriller, the 1944 "Gaslight" remakes works significantly less well in the 21st century than it did when it was released. Though it was most certainly the crème de la crème of big-screen chills and in its day, nowadays "Gaslight" is just another old-fashioned thriller full of melodrama, shrieking damsels in distress, and somewhat-less-than-surprising plot twists. Far more thrilling films can easily be found in practically all of Hitchcock's films or even more modern films such as "The Sixth Sense" (now who saw that ending coming?)

Bergman portrays a fragile young woman, Paula Alquist, whom, after her aunt is murdered in their London apartment, falls for a piano player, Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer) while escaping her grief in Italy. It soon becomes painfully obvious to anyone with half a brain that Gregory is up to no good. And his creepily intense interest in the Crown Jewels during a rare visit outside of the house to the Tower of London makes the whole "mystery" even more obvious. We know what kind of man he is, who he is, what he is after, and where the film is going; all within the first thirty minutes.

As Paula slowly succumbs to the cruelty and isolation inflicted upon her by Gregory, it gives Bergman the chance to suffer magnificently. Whether cowering against the walls, writhing about in agony as Gregory brainwashes her into believing that she is going crazy, starring wild-eyed at the flickering gaslights, trembling with fear at the sight of the housemaids (including a youthful Angela Lansbury), or crying out in anguish at a piano concert, Bergman is so convincingly tortured and unstable that it earned her her first Best Actress Oscar in 1944.

Another part of the problem is that director George Cukor seems content to let Boyer portray Gregory as a one-dimensional, mercilessly cruel man. This leaves the audience with little to do but watch Paula slowly deteriorate into a shadow of her former self; a jumpy, frightened, emotional mess. There is no subtlety here, and it's rather like watching a bodybuilder kick a puppy for an hour and a half, making "Gaslight" an ephemeral and forgettable film.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, page 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

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