Hitchcock watched his competitors like a hawk and may have been influenced by Dickinson's film. We see three abuses of male authority here: a wife driven mad, adulterous exploitation, and outright murder for profit. Nancy is proud of her many gentleman friends and all too eager to 'meet' with her employer, and again there's no softening of the implications. Mallen tries to carry on an affair with his own parlor maid Nancy (Cathleen Cordell, much later of M*A*S*H and The Return of the Living Dead), a subplot that shows how easy it is for a Victorian householder to have his cake and eat it too, by making sure the servants don't talk to his wife. Suave and sinister, Walbrook's playing is much smoother than Charles Boyer's in the remake. We're not asked to have much sympathy for him. Crippen-Bluebeard type than a romantic ideal, carefully working out an unlikely but somehow credible scheme.
Bella is written straight to the one issue of male dominance, and is never overplayed.Īnton Walbrook ( The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The Red Shoes) is superb as the manipulative psychopath Paul Mallen. She's instead made the pawn in a sick game that causes her enough believable anxiety to provoke a real nervous breakdown. Her Bella Mallen just wants to be a happy housewife, she's shown being kind to some neighborhood kids, perhaps indicating a frustrated desire to have children. A trip to a music hall with a lively Can-Can dance is a smart break from the Gothic claustrophobia.ĭiana Wynyard was well known from Rasputin and the Empress and Cavalcade. There's the fancy piano recital scene interrupted by Bella's breakdown when she's accused of stealing her husband's watch. This early version probably hews close to the original play, taking place almost exclusively around a London square of upper-class homes. Dickinson's Gaslight is a good example of an always-popular subgenre of thriller that Hitchcock himself returned to on occasion, as in Under Capricorn, also with Ingrid Bergman. She's a damsel in distress trapped in her own household, a situation any wife can identify with. Mallen goes nuts, or at least thinks she is, while haunted by eerie phenomena such as strange noises and the dimming of the gaslight in her bedroom. This Gaslight begins with an old lady strangled in brutal close-up, and parallels the story inside the Mallen household with the improvised investigation of a retired detective, now a stable master (Frank Pettingell). In his absence Carol Reed thrilled the Brits with the exciting Night Train to Munich, which had a strong resemblance to The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes. Selznick and was laboring at making a different kind of Gothic romance/ghost story, Rebecca. Hitchcock had recently been enticed to America by David O. This well-received English version of Gaslight must have been though of as an heir to the Alfred Hitchcock throne of thrillerdom.
In short, the Victorian husband has the right to decide what is real and what is not, giving Paul the ability to inflict extreme mental abuse. His views prevail in every situation and make her a virtual prisoner. Paul imposes humiliating punishments as if she had no rights whatsoever. Bella Mallen (Diana Wynyard) has brought the money into the union but is completely at the mercy of male authority. Aristocratic Paul Mallen (Anton Walbrook) browbeats and tricks his wife until she believes she must be going insane, a process that's more than credible considering the view of marriage in Victorian times. Balderstonġ940 The Thorold Dickinson original version of Gaslight is a period melodrama with an interesting take on psychology, before the '40s Freudian fad hit Hollywood. Written by John Van Druten, Walter Reisch, John L. Starring Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, Rawlinson, Bridget Bolandįrom the play Angel Street by Patrick Hamiltonġ944 / 114 min. Starring Anton Walbrook, Diana Wynyard, Frank Pettingell, Hyde, and Warners is presenting us with some fascinating opportunities to compare Hollywood remakes.ġ940 / 84 min. Add in last month's double bill of two versions of Dr. This DVD treats this unsung first version as an added extra, as it did with the earlier Mystery of the Wax Museum on the House of Wax disc last year. Minus the star power, it is probably the better all-round thriller. But the original English film has a lot going for it as well. The most famous is obviously the Ingrid Bergman remake with its top star cast and ritzy direction from George Cukor.
Patrick Hamilton's play Angel Street was given two very good filmic translations in the 1940s.
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