--- title: "Gaslight" year: 1944 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/gaslight" fi1m_score: 81 critics_score: 73 critics_reviews: 9 published: "2026-09-20T01:15:37.518736+00:00" updated: "2026-09-20T01:15:55.543811+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Gaslight (1944) Directed by George Cukor · 1h 54m · Thriller, Drama, Mystery, Crime **Fi1m score: 81** · Critics 73 from 9 reviews *In a sentence:* Charles Boyer dims the gas, moves the pictures and asks his wife, so gently, why she is so forgetful > George Cukor’s Victorian thriller is slow, plush and quietly horrible, and Ingrid Bergman is superb as a woman being talked out of her mind. It dawdles in Italy and the detective is a device, but the house scenes are as good as the form gets. ## Synopsis Victorian London. Alice Alquist, a singer, is murdered in her house in Thornton Square, and her niece Paula is sent to Italy to forget. Years later, Paula Alquist (Ingrid Bergman) is studying singing under Maestro Guardi (Emil Rameau) when she falls for the pianist Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer), marries him within a fortnight and lets him talk her into moving back into her aunt’s house. Things start to go wrong: a brooch he gave her vanishes, a picture comes off the wall, footsteps sound in the boarded-up attic. Gregory is gentle about it. She is forgetful, he says, and tired. Across the square, Miss Thwaites (May Whitty) watches, and a Scotland Yard man, Brian Cameron (Joseph Cotten), notices how like her aunt she looks. ## Review George Cukor’s *Gaslight* is a film about a marriage in which one partner is quietly taking the other apart. Adapted from Patrick Hamilton’s stage play, it brings a young woman back to the London house where her aunt was murdered, gives her a devoted husband, and then lets that husband spend the best part of two hours persuading her that she cannot trust her own memory. It is slow, plush and unhurried, and it frightens without once raising its voice. We recommend it, with a caveat about the opening, and we would have recommended it for Ingrid Bergman alone. Bergman plays Paula as a woman who arrives already half apologising. She loses a brooch and blames herself before anyone else can; she hears footsteps overhead and asks rather than tells. The performance is in the hands, which never quite know where to settle, and in a face that keeps checking her husband’s for permission to be well. There is a scene where Gregory takes a picture from the wall, waits for her to notice, and then makes her search the house for it in front of the servants. We were angry watching it, properly angry, and it took a moment to realise the anger was at Charles Boyer’s manners rather than at anything he had done with his hands. Boyer never shouts. Gregory is soft-spoken, patient and forever concerned for his wife’s health, and every kindness takes something away from her: a friend, an outing, a fact. He tells her she is tired in the tone of a man tucking in a blanket. Boyer plays the concern straight, so that for long stretches we could see how a woman with nobody else in the house might take it for love. He is the only person who is ever nice to her, and that is the method. Joseph Ruttenberg photographs the house in Thornton Square as a place with too many doors and not enough lamps. Fog sits on the square outside, the hall is mostly shadow, and when the gas dims because a jet has been lit somewhere else in the building, we watch the light fall on Bergman’s face rather than being told it has. Ralph E. Winters cuts patiently and holds on her longer than a thriller normally would, which is where the dread comes from. Bronislau Kaper’s score leans on the strings at every fright, and the film is better in the stretches where he stays quiet and we hear only the house. Irene Lentz buttons Bergman to the throat in dark silks that look heavy to move in. Angela Lansbury, in her first film, plays Nancy the maid with a cigarette, a London vowel and an open contempt for her mistress, and she is a jolt every time she comes in, the one person in the house who says what she thinks. May Whitty’s Miss Thwaites, across the square with her murder novels and her window, is the comic relief and also the only neighbour paying attention. Barbara Everest’s Elizabeth, hard of hearing and loyal, is the household’s decency. Joseph Cotten, as the Scotland Yard man Brian Cameron, is likeable and a little dull, because the script by John L. Balderston, Walter Reisch and John Van Druten needs him to notice things and turn up, and gives him nothing much else to do. That is one of two flaws. The other is the start. The film opens in London, then goes to Italy for a courtship under Maestro Guardi (Emil Rameau) that is sunny, brief and weightless; we knew where the story was going and wanted it to get there. Once it does, the pressure builds steadily, though the last stretch goes back to the play for its confrontations and you can feel the boards under the carpet. There is also the matter of suspense. The film does not seriously hide what Gregory is doing, only why, so the question is never whether but when, and how much of her will be left. The word the film gave the language has outlasted most of its contemporaries, and having watched it again we understand why: it is a precise account of a particular cruelty, done by people who knew exactly how it worked. It runs 114 minutes and opened in British cinemas on 14 July 1944. Watch it at night with the lamps turned down, and see how long you last before you turn them up. *Fi1m score 81, published 20 September 2026.* ### Reviews we read (9) - **Los Angeles Times**, Jon Matsumoto (90/100, inferred): Boyer delivers one of his most memorable performances as the ruthless husband trying to drive his wife insane in this 1944 psychological mystery-drama; the film maintains a tantalizing aura of mystery around his motives. It is buttressed by strong supporting turns, including Angela Lansbury as the impudent maid and Joseph Cotten as the determined detective. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-02-10-ol-38354-story.html) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, THR Staff (90/100, inferred): The review highlights the strong performances by Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer, and Joseph Cotten in this psychological thriller, praising the film's suspenseful characterizations and George Cukor's skillful direction. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/gaslight-review-1944-movie-999932/) - **Little White Lies**, Stephen Puddicombe (80/100, inferred): Praises the film as the first major Hollywood picture to depict an abusive relationship. Highlights its realistic and grounded portrayal of emotional abuse through subtle manipulation, strong performances by Boyer and Bergman, and psychological realism. [Read](https://lwlies.com/in-praise-of/gaslight-ingrid-bergman-film-noir) - **Sight and Sound**, Pamela Hutchinson (75/100, inferred): Describes the film as the epitome of the paranoid melodrama and a period film noir. Praises Bergman's performance of naive vulnerability and the enjoyable final-act revenge scene, noting its vivid depiction of domestic emotional abuse. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-hollywood-melodramas-1940s) - **The AV Club**, Drew Gillis (70/100, inferred): The piece positions the film as a bridge between classic melodrama and modern themes, examining its depiction of psychological manipulation and the origins of the term 'gaslighting' through the abusive husband-wife dynamic. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/gaslight-at-80-ingrid-bergman-george-cukor-1851455248) - **The New Yorker**, David Lardner (70/100, inferred): Gaslight is a natural story that will scare viewers even if they know the plot from the play; the principals are a shade too mannered but still effective overall, providing a good way to spend a horrified evening. The film adds some early happy scenes in Italy that serve little dramatic purpose but offer relief from the spooky house. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1944/05/13/1944-05-13-066-tny-cards-000014114) - **The New York Times** (70/100, inferred): The film is a dark study of Victorian villainy adapted from the play Angel Street, with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer delivering strong performances as the distraught wife and her wicked spouse. Director George Cukor gives a pungent production, though the film loses some of the play's fearful immediacy due to the camera's flexibility. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1944/05/05/archives/gaslight-adapted-from-play-angel-street-at-capitol-hardys-blonde.html) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (70/100, inferred): The faithful adaptation of Patrick Hamilton’s stage melodrama receives an exciting screen treatment with fine star performances and a solid screenplay; Cukor keeps an even pace that heightens dramatic suspense. The film lacks some of the stage play’s theatrical element but benefits from strong production values. [Read](https://variety.com/1943/film/reviews/gaslight-2-1200414312/) - **Slant Magazine**, Eric Henderson (40/100, inferred): The critic notes Bergman's Oscar-winning suffering and Cukor's expert pacing but finds the melodrama overly genteel and lacking in psychological subtlety or lasting impact compared to edgier thrillers. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/gaslight/) ## Details - **Director:** George Cukor - **Director:** George Cukor - **Screenplay:** John Van Druten, Walter Reisch, John L. Balderston - **Cinematography:** Joseph Ruttenberg - **Editor:** Ralph E. Winters - **Music:** Bronislau Kaper - **Costume design:** Irene Lentz - **Producer:** Arthur Hornblow Jr. - **Cast:** Charles Boyer as Gregory Anton; Ingrid Bergman as Paula Alquist; Joseph Cotten as Brian Cameron; May Whitty as Miss Thwaites; Angela Lansbury as Nancy; Barbara Everest as Elizabeth; Emil Rameau as Maestro Guardi; Edmund Breon as General Huddleston - **Runtime:** 1h 54m - **Release (the US):** 4 May 1944 - **Genres:** Thriller, Drama, Mystery, Crime - **Budget:** $2 million - **Box office:** $5 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnGdlnH2BDY ## Where to watch in the US - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - Amazon Prime Video: rent $1.99, sd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $7.99, sd *Checked 2026-09-20.* Also available in: AT, AU, BR, CA, CL, CO, ES, FR, GB, IE, IT, MX, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1945: Best Actor (nominated); Best Cinematography, Black-and-White (nominated); Best Picture (nominated); Best Supporting Actress (nominated); Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (nominated); Best Actress (won); Best Art Direction, Black and White (won) - Golden Globes 1944: Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama (won) ## If you liked this - *Gaslight* (1940): Thorold Dickinson’s British original: shorter, nastier, and worth seeing before deciding which you prefer - *Suspicion* (1941), Fi1m 72: Hitchcock gives Joan Fontaine a charming husband and a glass of milk she cannot quite trust — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/suspicion.md) - *Les Diaboliques* (1955): Clouzot’s French cousin: a wife, a mistress and a bath, with the cruelty turned up - *Rosemary's Baby* (1968): Polanski’s Manhattan wife is told she is imagining things by everyone, including her husband - *The Invisible Man* (2020): Leigh Whannell updates the same marriage for a century that has a word for it --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/gaslight