It’s suddenly everywhere: The New York Times, CNN, and even Psychology Today have all used it in headlines the Chronicle of Higher Education recently ran a thorough blog post on its etymology. Surely you’ve heard the word “gaslight” in the past couple of months, if not the past couple of hours. In this retrogressive cultural climate, it makes a certain amount of sense that an early contender for the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year actually comes to us from Gaslight - a movie from 1944, based on a play from 1938, which takes place in the 1880s. My book club is not the only one currently reading It Can’t Happen Here, Sinclair Lewis’s satirical 1935 novel speculating what would have happened if an economic-nationalist-turned-totalitarian had beaten FDR for the presidency in ’36. 1984 is back on the best-seller list copies of The Handmaid’s Tale are flying off the shelves. Rough), Cathleen Cordell (Nancy, the Parlour Maid), Robert Newton (Vincent Ullswater), Minnie Rayner (Elizabeth, the Cook).Since the election of Donald Trump - in this disorienting moment when American democracy and the nature of truth itself are both on shaky ground - it has been both a comfort and a shock to engage with art that feels eerily prophetic. Principal Cast: Anton Walbrook (Paul Mallen, aka Louis Bauer), Diana Wynyard (Bella Mallen), Frank Pettingell (B.G. Rawlinson, Bridget Boland, from play Angel Street by Patrick Hamilton Producers: John Corfield, Richard Vernon (associate) Vienna-born Walbrook (1900-1967) established himself as a star of stage and films in Germany and Austria before emigrating to England and becoming a Continental leading man in such films as The Red Shoes (1948) and La Ronde (1950). In the 1940s she was married for four years to the celebrated film director Carol Reed. London-born Wynyard (1906-1964) was a distinguished star of the British stage who also succeeded on Broadway and in American and English films, winning an Oscar nomination for Cavalcade (1933). Walbrook was singled out by critics of the day for particular praise as the husband, whose outward veneer of suave sophistication hides inner cruelty, greed and desperation. Bella at last finds an unlikely aide in an ex-Scotland Yard detective (Frank Pettingell) she has met socially.īoth roles offer plum parts for actors, with Wynyard delivering a convincing performance in the role that would win Bergman a Best Actress Oscar. In the British film, Walbrook plays Paul Mallen, who convinces his bride Bella (Wynyard) that she is losing her memory and indeed her mind while he searches her Victorian mansion for the rubies that had belonged to her late aunt. Luckily for film fans, the original somehow survived and may be enjoyed today.īoth versions of Gaslight were adapted from Patrick Hamilton's Angel Street, a long-running London stage mystery that also enjoyed success on Broadway in 1941 with Vincent Price and Judith Evans in the leading roles. Indeed, many critics still feel that the British version is superior, portraying as it does the casual cruelty of the English class system. Because the original had won high critical praise, the studio hoped in this manner to avoid unfavorable comparisons to the lavishly produced remake. When MGM bought the rights to remake this Victorian mystery-thriller with Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman in the leading roles, it ordered all copies of the British film destroyed. The original stars Anton Walbrook as the villainous husband in search of a fortune in rubies and Diana Wynyard as the unfortunate wife who is almost driven insane by his devious ways. The British version of Gaslight (1940), also known in England as A Strange Case of Murder, preceded its American remake by four years.
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