Gaslight (1944) begins with Paula (Ingrid Bergman) moving to Italy to study music under Signore Guardi following the murder of her aunt, Alice Alquist, a world-famous opera singer. Alice was killed in her home, Number 9 Thornton Square, London. Her corpse was discovered in front of the fireplace by her distraught niece. Following a whirlwind romance ten years later, beautiful Paula returns to London with her dashing but oily husband, Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer), a pianist, and more. In London, they take up residence in the same house where Paula’s aunt was murdered, much to Paula’s discomfort. Gregory assures her with a kiss that they would soon fill the dreary house with happy memories.

In a mentally draining turn of events, Gregory, using a series of carefully thought out tricks, makes his wife question her sanity and the core of her identity. But Paula is just a footnote in Gregory’s shiny plans.

Analysis and Themes

Written by Patrick Hamilton and directed by George Cukor, Gaslight (1994) was many years ahead of its time. With themes that are universal and still relevant today, the movie is timeless and captivating. The psychological term, “Gaslighting” is eponymous with the movie. It refers to any behavior that attempts to distort a person’s perception and reality to undermine their sanity.

The Mental Strings of a Puppet Master

The major themes of Gaslight (1944) are gaslighting, emotional abuse, and manipulation. For lack of a better word, Gregory Anton is a mind fuck. He implements many tricks to make Paula doubt her sanity, notable among which is making the gaslights go dim each night and making Paula think she was imagining it. Everyone focuses on the gas lights (and they should!) and how their fluctuating brightness is the point where Paula thinks she really had a few screws loose. However, this trick is just the cherry on top of the toxic cake. Gregory starts small. He puts her on a pedestal, love bombs her, and makes her feel like the sun around which his world revolved.

Next, he begins to think for her and subtly tells her how (not) to act and where (not) to go. One of the many things I have to applaud the directors for is their impeccable choice of cast. There is a certain air of dreamy, almost schoolgirlish helplessness around Ingrid’s character (Paula). While future faking, Charles Boyer (Gregory in the movie) paints a vivid picture of insincerity with fulsome smiles and accented sweet nothings. After priming her with sweet words, he plants the idea of moving to London- to the very house that is a setting for all her nightmares- in her head.

In London, like any textbook narcissist, Gregory shows time and time again that Paula’s feelings, no matter how valid they were, always came second to his. Though Paula was obviously uncomfortable being in this house, Gregory assured her she would be fine and all they needed to do to make things better was “to remove these things that remind you so of her.” While going through her Aunt’s things, Paula finds a letter sent to her aunt by a secret admirer. Gregory lashes out at her at this discovery. When Paula recoils in shock, in the first-ever incident of gaslighting in the movie and a quintessential display of cognitive dissonance, he tells her he only lashed out at her because he was upset at how upset the letter made her. And goo-goo-eyed Paula drank it all up.

The next thing on the agenda was isolation. Gregory isolates her, preventing her from making new friends or meeting old ones. Like a game of Jenga, Gregory stacks Paula’s mind with his many blocks of tricks. He convinces everyone, including Paula, that Paula is high-strung, unwell, and easily excitable. The dearest Mr. Anton hires a maid called Nancy (Angela Lansbury) to help keep Paula firmly locked in. Like any flying monkey worth their salt, Nancy carries out her Master’s bidding to a T and wears a distinct air of insubordination about her for good measure.

The gaslighting begins in full force afterwards.

A missing brooch here. A couple of missing/moved pictures there.

With each misplaced item, inch by painful inch, Paula loses grip with reality and doubts the efficacy of her memory. Just when she thought things couldn’t get any worse, she begins to hear footsteps up in the empty attic and see gaslights that go dim on their own. The relationship pretty much goes to hell in a handbasket from there. In a 360 turn from the status quo, Gregory becomes crueler and starves Paula of attention and affection. He staggers incidences of cruelty with niceness by breadcrumbing her with serenades, outings, and small slices of affection. However, he still flirts with the insolent maid in Paula’s presence.

Use. Disuse. Discard.

This is the mantra of the narcissistic manipulator. Gregory had completed Phase 1 and Phase 2 successfully and was preparing for the last phase. He tells Paula he did some research on her genealogy and found out her mother had died in an asylum. After implying she had inherited her mother’s affliction, he makes preparations to have her shipped off to an asylum. At this point, Paula is a weepy, psychological mess.

The mind, according to author and clinical psychologist, Doctor Ramani, is useless in a toxic relationship. Our bodies are more honest. The body keeps score. Interestingly, we see this as Paula keeps making excuses for her husband even when his intentions and actions become obvious. She was emotionally broken and physically ill but she had faith in her husband even in the face of damning discoveries.

I found some aspects of Gaslight (1944) unlikely and was left with questions after some scenes. It seems very unlikely that a Scotland Yard representative would sympathize with a lonely, forlorn-looking wife and even more improbable that he would disobey orders and go out of his way to get to the root of the mystery of her husband’s nightly whereabouts. Nevertheless, Gaslight (1944) is just the right amount of unsettling with characters that are easy to like in Brian Cameron’s (Joseph Cotten) case, hate in Gregory’s case, and empathize with, in Paula’s case. I can only imagine how the public received this movie in 1944 against the backdrop of World War II.

Verdict

Strength of the Plot: 9.5

Plot Progression: 8.5

Character Development: 7.5

Visuals: 8.0

Total: 8.37

On a scale of 1 to 10, Gaslight (1944), is a lit movie (literally and figuratively). It is sure to jar your nerves and have you shuddering, at different turns, in anger and anxiety.

Originally published on Medium.

Like what you read? For more movie reviews, check out When God Builds a Church: Review of The Unholy (2021) and The Pain of Wasted Talent: Review of A Bronx Tale (1993)

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