Director: George Cukor
The second picture to be adapted from Patrick Hamilton’s play “Angel Street” – the first being a British production released in 1940 – Gaslight was brought to American screens by George Cukor, who diverged from light comedies and sweeping romances to subject matter seemingly better suited for Hitchcock. Ingrid Bergman plays a newlywed who, while living at a family mansion with a dark past, believes to be going insane, and Charles Boyer is her manipulative husband whose intentions are clearly impure from the beginning. It is a terrifically atmospheric picture, with foggy London streets and the dim glow of low-burning lamps. Cukor was adequate at directing suspense – there is a memorable moment in which a threat is introduced by a simple adjustment of the lights – but where he succeeds most is in suggesting the escalating psychological tensions, just as he would later do with Judy Garland and James Mason in the remake of A Star is Born. Bergman, who won an Oscar for the role, was at the peak of her career, and though the performance is big, it suits the character’s delirium. When one watches the way that her frightened eyes follow the perhaps phantom footsteps marching across her ceiling, it becomes apparent that few Hollywood stars in history have had faces so beautiful and expressive.
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