Gaslight

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

The title of this film, Gaslight (1944, although there is a shorter 1940 version), directed by George Cukor, has become a psychological term which indicates when a person manipulates another to the point where there is doubt on the part of the victim about the perception of reality. So, the theme of illusion versus reality dominates the story. The movie also deals with how love for a person is not as important to some who value materialism as the primary source of affection.

 

The film begins with the street gas lamps being lit in London around 1874. The image is meaningful since brightness is supposed to shed light on what has been obscured by darkness. Ironically, in this film, the gaslight is used by the villain to suggest what is not there, and thus makes the heroine not believe her own eyes. There is a flashback to Thornton Square in the city and a newspaper headline notes there has been a strangling at this location, with the killer still at large. Paula Alquist (Ingrid Bergman, winning the Best Actress Oscar for this role) is dressed in mourning black as she leaves the house where her Aunt Alice, a concert singer, and she lived. Alice Alquist was the victim noted in the newspaper. Paula is to go away to Italy and is advised to forget the gruesome past and focus on her own future as a singer. 

 

Time has passed and Paula is practicing singing opera with the help of Maestro Guardi (Emil Rameau). Her selection is from Lucia Di Lammermoor, an opera which has a woman going insane, an instance of foreshadowing. Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer) is playing the musical accompaniment. After he leaves, Guardi tells Paula that her heart is not in her singing, that she seems too happy to be playing a part that is tragic. He guesses that she is in love, and tells her that she did know tragedy in her past, but she should enjoy her current joy because “happiness is better than art.” He is advocating a vacation away from her singing and immersing herself in life instead (the Victorian Age poets such as Browning, Tennyson, and Arnold were torn between withdrawing from society to create art versus engaging in life’s adventures). However, while she believes she is choosing an outgoing life, the result is just the opposite.

It turns out that Gregory is the man she is in love with. Outside, he states how he wants to marry her. She admits she is hesitant because she doesn’t know much about him, having only known each other for two weeks. That is the first red flag waved at us. He asks if she is afraid of him, and she says “never,” which will turn out to be an ironic statement. Paula does decide to slow things down a bit and go away for two weeks.

 On the way to her retreat at Lake Cuomo, an elderly British woman, Miss Bessie Thwaites (Dame May Whitty), who loves a lurid tale of murder, exhibits her excitement about a book she is reading that has a woman finding out that the man she married has six previous wives “buried in the cellar.” Here is more foreshadowing about the hidden sinister nature of a lover. The woman resides in Thornton Square, where Paula lived and her aunt was murdered. It is a spooky coincidence. Appropriately, as it turns out, Paula, after hearing about murders from Miss Thwaites, encounters Gregory, who surprises Paula right outside her train car door. Even though she said she wanted to be away from him for this trip, she is so under his spell that she is happy to see him.

The two get married and go on their honeymoon. It seems very romantic, but then he suggests that they settle in London, because he was there once and always thought it would be comfortable living in a house in one of the city’s squares. London is the place that embodies disturbing ghosts of Paula's past, and she is upset to hear about it. She tells him that she didn’t know her father and her mother died when she was young, so her Aunt Alice raised her. She left the house to Paula, which came to feel like a “house of horror” in Paula’s dreams. (It does seem convenient that Gregory wants to live in the type of house in London that Paula just happens to own). But, she says that she hasn't lived in fear since she has known Gregory because he has driven it away. Her statement turns out to be ironically inaccurate. She proclaims that she has found “peace” with his love, and declares, despite his false objections, that she can now live in the Thornton Square house with him.

 Paula and Gregory arrive at the Alquist house. The couple enter the building to a soundtrack with slow bass tones, suggesting Paula’s dread of the place. The house looks like an abandoned museum with furniture and chandeliers cloaked in cloth, looking like burial shrouds. The dark lighting and shadows add to the macabre feel. The appearance is reflected in Paula’s words when she says the drawing room used to be full of light and life, and now, “the whole place seems to smell of death.” She is caught up in the remembrance of the horrible loss of her aunt. There is a painting of her aunt in the role of the Empress Theodora over the fireplace, and Gregory appears awestruck by the portrait. Gregory points out that Paula resembles her aunt, which is another ominous fact. Paula found her body right under the painting. Paula says she can’t be there with all these reminders of her aunt’s death. According to IMDb, the crowded interior setting symbolizes “Paula’s increasing sense of claustrophobia.” Gregory suggests that they put all of Aunt Alice's stuff in storage so Paula will not be reminded of her death. Paula wants to have parties in the house again, but Gregory wants their privacy for a while. This isolation will be used for devious reasons. Gregory begins to play the piano, and Paula comments that the music he plays is what her aunt used for an encore. It is another interesting coincidence, showing how Gregory may know more about Paula’s aunt than he divulges. Paula picks up some sheet music which contains a letter to her aunt written two days before the murder from a person named Sergis Bauer. It relates wanting to see Alice again after Bauer followed her to London. At the man’s name, Gregory hits a symbolically discordant note, stands up, and forcibly grabs the letter out of Paula’s hands. He tries to recover by saying that it isn’t the letter, but the fact that all of these reminders of what happened to her aunt will bring back Paula’s fears. He says she must forget her. It is interesting here that Gregory encourages forgetting something and later accuses Paula of being absent-minded. But, Paula quietly disagrees, distinguishing between remembering her aunt from forgetting what “happened to her,” as she looks sideways in a wary way at what Gregory suggested. 

 

Miss Thwaites questions the Antons’ cook, Elizabeth (Barbara Everest) about the couple receiving visitors. Elizabeth tells her that Gregory doesn’t feel that seeing others is good for Paula, and she notes that Paula “hasn’t been feeling too well lately.” By being more isolated, Paula has no means of diverting herself from her grief about her aunt, and doesn’t have objective reference points to gauge her emotional status. She becomes more dependent on Gregory, and also more vulnerable. Interestingly, Miss Thwaites says the house looks fine from the “outside,” which metaphorically suggests that the benign appearance may be misleading. 

 Gregory is giving instructions to the new housemaid, the sassy Cockney, Nancy (Angela Lansbury, in her first film role, for which she received an Oscar nomination), who reveals an immediate attraction for Gregory. During the film she comes onto Gregory which he fuels with his compliments and thus makes her an unwitting ally in undermining Paula. He brands Paula as disturbed by saying Nancy must not “bother” Paula “about anything,” with the excuse that his wife is “highly strung.” Gregory issues a warning when he says Nancy should remember his instruction, since the prior employee did not keep her distance from Paula and was fired. Here is more evidence of Gregory’s attempt to dominate Paula's life. 

It is three months since Paula and Gregory were married and he gives her a brooch that belonged to his mother. The pin needs fixing, and he tells her that she loses things so she must remember he is putting it in her purse in the meantime. He is undermining her mental capacity here as she must defend her memory in this scene. She seems glad to get out for the afternoon, which emphasizes the impact of her recent confinement on her. Nancy comments to Elizabeth that Paula doesn’t look ill to her, and the suspicious Elizabeth comments that Gregory “keeps telling her she is,” which builds concern about Gregory’s intentions.

 

The couple visit the Tower of London, an ominous place for Paula given its history of imprisonment. The guide relates gruesome details about beheadings, the separation of the brain from the body, which, given this story, reminds one of “losing one’s head,” a possible reference to insanity. Appropriately, at this moment Paula opens her purse after using a handkerchief and can’t find the brooch. She is confused as to how she could have misplaced it. She wanders off searching for the missing object, and when Gregory approaches her, she pretends that nothing is wrong, covering up her version of the truth.

 The couple stroll outside and pass by Brian Cameron (Joseph Cotton), who appears to recognize Paula as he doffs his hat. She reflexively smiles in return. Brian tells his children that he feels as if he has seen a ghost, most likely because Paula looks like her dead aunt. Gregory interrogates Paula as to why she acted as if she knew the man if she says she didn’t. He sows more of his doubts about her sanity when he says her present behavior is, “like the other things.” He tells her that she has been forgetful and suggests maybe it’s because she is tired. She hooks onto that reason and wants to go home, reflecting fear about her own mental health. He says that they should still see the Crown Jewels in another building. Since he said he didn’t know London she wonders how he knows where the jewels are, which creates doubt concerning Gregory’s honesty. His excuse is that the guide told them and uses her inquiry to add being overly “suspicious” to her list of symptoms. As they look at the Crown Jewels, Gregory seems to know their whole history, and looks mesmerized as he relates facts about them. In the crowd is Brian who secretly observes the couple. Paula again says she wants to go home, which she has come to feel is her sanctuary.

 

At the house, Gregory asks for the brooch to be repaired, which agitates Paula, given her husband’s accusations about her absent-mindedness. She sadly confesses she doesn’t have it, and asks if he is sure he placed it in her purse. He is condescending as he wonders why she doesn’t even remember him putting it there. His plan is working since she admits that she is starting to “not trust my memory at all.” He plays it down telling her not to “worry,” but the concern has already taken hold.

 Paula wonders, if she and Nancy have not turned on additional lamps, why the gaslight in her bedroom has diminished in brightness (the fuel supply to individual lamps goes down when other lights are used). Here is the source of the title of the movie which metaphorically links the decrease in the lamp’s flame to a lack of rational powers. Alone, Paula hears footsteps in the boarded-up floor above her, where her aunt’s belongings have been sequestered. Paula’s wide eyes reflect her fears concerning her mental faculties.

 

Miss Thwaites encounters Brian in the square as he stares at Paula’s house. She assumes Brian is curious about the murder that took place there and comments that the new inhabitants are odd. She mentions that Paula never leaves. But, Paula now comes through the front door for a walk. She hesitates and goes back to ask Nancy for an umbrella. The housemaid, acting as Gregory’s proxy, asks what she should tell Paula’s husband if he asks where she is and what she is doing. Paula is so unsure of herself at this point and intimidated by Gregory’s assessment of her that she aborts her walk and retreats to the supposed safety of the house.

 

Brian’s curiosity leads him to look at the police records at Scotland Yard regarding Alice Alquist’s death. Brian is the assistant to General Huddleston (Edmund Breon), who is upset that Brian is digging through the cold case’s documents. Brian admits that he was a fan of the deceased singer, met her once, and thought her beautiful. The General says that Brian is using the case to meet the woman who looks like Alice. But, Brian says he thinks there is something odd going on. The General accidentally mentions that the famous jewels of another country, which Alice owned, went missing after her death, and this fact was thought to be the motive behind the killing. The absence of the jewels was hidden from the public, which lends to the film’s theme of concealed motives. This revelation also adds insight into Gregory’s fascination with precious gems, since he said of the Crown Jewels that they “have a life of their own,” as if they were more alive for him than other people. Brian subsequently enlists a policeman, Williams (Tom Stevenson), to aid him in his investigation.

 Gregory appears to be sleeping in a chair in front of a fireplace, but he is awake, which adds to him being a man of deceptive appearances. Paula seems to want to add fuel to the fire, but hesitates. When Gregory shows that he is not asleep he tells her to ring for the housemaid to tend to the fireplace. She says she can do it, but he sternly says that they have discussed the matter before, and he insists that she call for Nancy. At this point Gregory has caused Paula to be afraid of doing anything, in this case warning her that she might set the house on fire. When Nancy arrives, Gregory seductively comments about how pretty Nancy looks. He mentions that there is a new policeman patrolling the area (Williams), and possibly her makeup is to attract him as she has other cops before. His words instill in Paula his supposed jealousy toward Nancy. But they also show his astute observational abilities about the new patrolman. After Nancy leaves, Paula questions Gregory’s flirting with the housemaid, which has made Nancy hostile toward Paula. Gregory just uses Paula’s accurate observations to paint his wife as imagining things.  He pretends to be concerned by saying it hurts him when she is “ill and fanciful,” portraying her as prone to delusional thinking. 

 

Gregory shows his anger again when Nancy says that Miss Thwaits is there with someone else, which turns out to be Brian, and they want to visit with Paula. Paula says they have turned away the neighbor several times. Gregory erupts, saying Miss Thwaits is a “busybody” and he doesn’t want people in his house, and then tells Nancy to send them away. Paula is wide-eyed at the ferocity of her husband’s reaction. She says she would like to see Miss Thwaits, and then he calmly places the blame on Paula by saying all she had to do was to say so. 

 

Gregory tells Paula that she has no time for company since she must prepare for going out that evening. She was unaware of that fact, but is now wondering if Gregory told her and she forgot. Paula darts her eyes around in worry, as if searching her memory (Bergman visited a mental institution and found patients shifted their eyes about out of uncertainty about what was happening). He says that it is a surprise and that he is taking her to the theater, so she hasn’t forgotten about it. She is elated that this fact is not another item she does not remember. She dances and sings as he plays a waltz. But, he stops and looks stern again as he points out that a small painting has been removed from the wall. He asks her to get it, and of course she doesn’t have an inkling as to what happened to the painting. She is getting whiplash from how she is being jerked from one emotional state into another. The servants swear that they did not remove the picture. Gregory glares at Paula and tells her to find the item. She goes up the stairs and reaches for the painting behind a statue on the landing. She says it was the same place the picture was found twice before and that is why she looked there. He now deprives her of going to the theater after getting her hopes up by saying she is in no state to go out. She concludes, “then I don’t know what I do anymore,” which is exactly the desperate state that Gregory wants her to be in. She pleads that she needs his patience to deal with her as she clings to his stability to keep her sane. It is ironic since he is the one driving her mad. She begs that he not go out because she hears voices and footsteps and is afraid of the house when she is alone. He closes the bedroom door on her, as if locking a prison cell. 

 

Gregory goes out in the London fog which is symbolic of the psychological confusion in which he is enshrouding Paula. He has a studio where he says he works on his music. He acts as if he is walking there, but then stops and hides in the shadows, suggestive of his covert activities. Paula again hears walking above her in the closed-off section of the house. The gaslight dims, supposedly for no reason, adding to her fears of irrationality.

 Brian attends a concert organized by Lady and Lord Dalroy (Heather Thatcher and Lawrence Grossmith), hoping to sit next to Paula to find out why she is so isolative. But Gregory wrote they were not going because Paula was not well. However, Paula gets dressed up and asserts that she is feeling okay and wants to get out into the world and visit with Lady Dalroy, who was kind to her as a child. Gregory, not wanting to support her in this act of independence, tells her she must go by herself. When his ploy doesn’t work to keep her home, he then acts happy to go with her. He is like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as he shifts back and forth between pretending to be loving and supportive and then acting harsh and dismissive. Nancy calls a cab for the couple and is approached by Brian’s spy, Constable Williams from Scotland Yard, and we learn that he has been seeing her on a regular basis so he can gather information. 

 As the music plays at the concert, there is a shot of Gregory and Paula listening with Brian seen in the background, pictured between the couple, implying he is coming between the Antons, like a wedge to pry apart the destructive connection between the two. Gregory catches Brian looking at them and senses a threat since he most likely remembers him from his previous walk with Paula. Paula is finally looking happy as she hears the pianist playing music she loves. But, Gregory will not allow her that pleasure as he tells her that his watch is missing, again injecting doubt as to her rationality. Her eyes dart around again as if trying to escape the fear of madness. Bergman is quite good at showing a look that implies she wants mercy and not the judgment that Gregory delivers. He takes her purse and pulls out the watch, like a policeman finding the damning evidence of a transgressor. Paula breaks down in tears and disrupts the proceedings, and he escorts her out. Gregory’s plotting substantiates his claims among those in attendance that his wife is not emotionally well. 

 

At home, Gregory berates Paula by saying he tried to confine her to the house to prevent her from doing “these crazy, twisted” things. As she questions her sanity, she searches her actually rational mind as to when his accusations began. She remembers it was when she found the letter dated just prior to her aunt’s murder from Sergis Bauer which stated he wanted to see Alice again. He agrees with her but now says that there was no such letter, and she hallucinated its existence. He says that he learned that her mother also heard voices and footsteps and went insane and died in an asylum. The thought that she may have inherited that madness pushes Paula to break down in fearful tears. Gregory is in a rage now as he accuses her of wanting to go to the concert to meet Brian, who she continues to deny ever knowing. Despite his accusations that she is a liar, she pulls it together to say that she “never lied” to him. He says that she knew Brian but probably forgot about him like everything else. He has laid the groundwork to now call in doctors, and says the required number is “two,” which means he is talking about certifying her to be institutionalized. 

 

Gregory again walks outside in the foggy night, which mirrors his dark deeds, as Williams passes him by. Gregory lights a cigarette and the match reveals a sign that shows the house next door is open to new renters. There is a man standing behind the trees in the square observing Gregory, and it is Brian. Gregory repeats his previous actions of hiding in a back alley and then he disappears as neither Williams nor Brian sees him afterwards. There is no back entrance to his own house, so the two men wonder if Gregory somehow went back to his own place for some reason through the adjacent empty property.

 

There are more noises from above Paula’s bedroom and of course we can assume that it is Gregory gaining access to the closed off section of the house and creating the commotion and drawing gas from lights to drive Paula crazy. She cries out to Elizabeth, who is hard of hearing, which seems to be the reason that Gregory hired her so she wouldn’t hear the sounds being made by him. 

 

Williams visits Brian as he is drawing a sketch of how Gregory might be getting back inside the house. Williams said he saw Gregory during the night walking back to his house and he appeared disheveled, as if he was rummaging in a cellar. The constable also says that Gregory told Nancy that Paula may be going away for some time and wanted Nancy to stay on and look after him. Brian and Williams plot to have Williams occupy Nancy that night as Brian gets inside the house to talk with Paula while Gregory is out. 

 Brian gets past Elizabeth by saying he is there to help Paula. Despite Paula’s attempts to dismiss Brian, he persists and gains her trust by showing her a glove her Aunt Alice gave him when he attended one of her performances. She is happy to see that the glove matches the one she has. He sees the light dim and hears the noises above, which shows Paula that she is not imagining things as her husband made her believe. Brian gets her to admit that all these odd occurrences happen when Gregory is away and then they stop when he returns. Brian gets her to conclude that it is her husband entering next door and accessing the boarded-up floor above from the roof. Brian discovers that all her aunt’s belongings are in the secluded area. Brian must be guessing that Gregory is searching for the missing jewels that could be hidden among Alice’s personal items. 

 

We finally get a look at this secret upper floor as Gregory tosses and rips items looking for the jewels. Brian asks if Gregory has a weapon and Paula directs him to his desk. Gregory’s revolver is missing, and Paula discovers the letter that Gregory said she imagined. The name of Sergis Bauer is familiar to Brian who remembers that he was the pianist who played for Alice Alquist. The handwriting on the letter to Alice and the one sent to Lady Dalroy are the same, so Gregory is Bauer, and hid the true reality behind a false façade. Brian says that Bauer killed Paula’s aunt and searched for the jewels but couldn’t find them. By marrying Paula and then having her declared mentally incompetent, he would have open access to Paula’s aunt’s possessions. Brian also knows that Sergis Bauer has a wife who lives in Prague. All that was deceptively hidden is now revealed. Paula is devastated because she realizes there was, “nothing real from the beginning,” no real caring, and the man who she loved and thought loved her was a fraud. The things that she felt might be delusions were real, and what she thought was true was a lie.  

 Back upstairs, Gregory sees moonlight coming in through the skylight as it illuminates a dress that Alice wore. The jewels were sewn into it and Gregory removes them. Brian, thinking Gregory will return to the house from the street, waits for the man outside. Instead, Gregory squeezes through an opening where the boarded-up door leads to the house. He goes to his desk and finds that it has been opened. He accuses Paula of breaking into the desk and she tells him that a man arrived and opened it. Gregory questions Elizabeth who strangely says there was no man, which feeds into the idea that Paula is delusional. (Is Elizabeth complicit in Gregory’s plot? Possibly not, as she may just not want to contradict her employer. The film is unclear in answering this question). Just as Paula begins to think she hallucinated Brian, he shows up at Gregory’s bedroom door. He entered the upper floor and now has the dress from which Gregory stole the gems. 

 

Gregory tries to shoot Brian, but the latter prevents him as the gun discharges. Gregory heads for the upstairs room with Brian and Williams, who heard the shot go off, chasing him. They overcome Gregory and tie him to a chair. Brian hands Paula the jewels. She wishes to speak to Gregory alone. He tries to talk his way out of it, saying Brian is lying about Gregory because Brian is in love with her. He tries to tell lies that he hopes she wants to believe. He says he changed his name because his early life was a musical failure. When he mentions Italy, she insightfully says that she felt that maybe she “dreamed” those times, since they now seem unreal because he was not who he pretended to be. He asks her to go to a drawer to get a knife and free him. She picks up the knife and is sarcastic, saying she is mad so she can’t be holding a knife, or maybe she misplaced it, but can’t remember. She then finds the brooch he hid, and yells at him, saying that because she is insane, as he said, she can have no pity for him. She calls to Brian to take Gregory away.

 

As he leaves, Gregory says that the jewels were “a fire in my brain that separated us,” and admits he always wanted them. As he says these words, his eyes widen and shine like a blaze. For Gregory, the objects he obsessed over having, came to possess him.

 

The film ends with Brian escorting Paula onto the balcony of the upper floor as the cloudy night will make way for the light of day, and will allow Paula to see things clearly again, and freely.

The next film is The Grapes of Wrath.