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GaslightRating:
Release Date: 03 February, 2004 Retail Price: $19.98 OUR Price: $17.99 You SAVE: $1.99! Cast: Complete Cast (12 total) |
Gaslight Reviews
Excellent double-pack
There are two movies and three strong reasons to love this dvd. The disk contains two versions of GASLIGHT, based on Patrick Hamilton's stage play. The first, from 1940, is director Thorold Dickinson's English version starring Diana Wynyard as the retiring young wife and Anton Walbrook as the husband who is trying to drive her insane. The second is the famous one, directed in Hollywood by George Cukor in 1944, starring Ingrid Bergman (she won an Oscar for this one) and Charles Boyer.
I watched the 1940's version first and, somewhat to my surprise, enjoyed it very much. Walbrook's character in the first movie is the epitome of effete villainy, a hiss-able cad whose cruelty made me squirm. Boyer's husband, on the other hand, is a charming rogue with a cold, calculating, concealed and congealed heart. They both get the job done, but Boyer does so in a more believable manner. In the first movie Diana Wynyard's character is extremely shy and retiring, almost to the point where you wonder how she ever managed to make it to adulthood. Ingrid Bergman is given a character more assertive, even though still under her husband's control.
If you can't tell by now, the third reason I love this dvd is the chance it gives to see the evolution of a screenplay by comparing the two movies. That we're given the opportunity to make the comparison is ironic - reports have it that the studio tried to destroy all copies of the '40 GASLIGHT when they released Cukor's version. They shouldn't have worried. Although the `40 version is good, Cukor's is a classic. Wynyard is good is her showcase role while Bergman is transcendent.
Just saw this film
and I really enjoyed it! "Gaslight" is a suspense thriller with a Hitchcock eeriness to it - I was hooked. I felt as though I was being driven out of my own mind just watching Charles Boyer cunningly captivate Ingrid Bergman and manipulate her thoughts and emotions. I was burning with fury as he was so agrivatingly sly, and so subtle. Meanwhile, Bergman was perfect at playing the downslide from independence to vulnerable destruction. What was great about it was the two were believable as husband and wife - there was a sexual tone and moments of redemption on Boyer's part that complicated my sympathies. It's films like this that make you question your own sanity just a little as you realize how blurred the line is between what you think you know and don't know at all...
Angela Lansbury was also a real surprise, playing a brilliantly cheerful maid who manages to brighten this otherwise chilling drama. Excellent entertainment, my mother and I were hooked. If you like Hitchcock-style thrillers, this one is for you!
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