Gaslight

In another context someone wrote, ‘better? There is no “better'”. That applies to the film classic Gaslight, running on TCM this weekend.

A movie who’s title has become a verb, the plot in short is: a young English voice student on the mainland meets an imposing and romantic older man. He woos her, she falls in love and marries him. When they move back to her aunt’s old house in London she begins losing things, feeling “not well.” She sees the lights dim and hears footsteps upstairs at night, and hubby tells her she’s going insane. He’s going to commit her. But is she? Joseph Cotten plays the detective who had a boyhood crush on the mother and takes an interest in what exactly is happening in that house.

Joseph Cotten is the prototypical modern actor. At this stage in cinema, a few of actors were still pretty stagey. Viz for example several performances in this very film. Boyer can be “operatic” at times (which is appropriate in a way), and some of Angela Lansbury’s moves seem designed to be seen in the third tier (this was her first film). But Cotten’s performance is timeless, and would fit in with any movie made today.

Ingrid Bergman is in a class by herself. For example, the scene where the husband furiously seems ready to strangle her: In one look she conveys at least five different attributes while moving nothing but her face — sexuality, vulnerability, resignation, exhaustion and bravery — when she tells him she never lies to him. And the scene at the reception, when his watch “disappears,” and she slowly and publicly cracks up is a masterpiece of a slow unwinding.

Anyway, I expect everyone has seen this; but if you haven’t what are you waiting for? There is no better.