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Gaslight

Gaslight

List Price: $19.98
Your Price: $15.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: What is Warner Bros. thinking?
Review: Is Warner Bros. really releasing classic films like "Gaslight", "Grand Hotel", "Mrs. Miniver", "Mutiny On The Bounty" and "The Great Ziegfeld" in COLORIZED versions. What are they thinking?! These films were released in glorious black & white, which, along with the casting, direction, story, cinematography and editing, made these films classics. I can't imagine a studio with any sense of pride stooping so low as to release their classics in anything other than their orginal versions. If this is true, all I can say is I'm glad Warner Bros. isn't in charge of the Louvre. They'd probably recast the Mona Lisa with Britney Spears sporting a big, toothy grin. Smarten up, Warner Bros. I do not plan on buying any film that has been butchered like these films will be.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Short of a "classic". Just watch the 2 leads!
Review: "Gaslight" is an above average suspense/murder mystery. There are far more strong points than weak. It is seriously recommended to old/serious movie fans, albeit with a few definite reservations. The former include the two leads- Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman, playing husband and wife. Both are excellent. The film opens just as her aunt has been murdered in her London townhouse. A very young Bergman is forced to move to Vienna, where she falls in love with a music teacher, none other than Boyer. Somewhat too conveniently, they return to London and surprise (!) discover that the same old townhouse is for sale. They move back in to the murder locale. At this point, the reservations come to the surface as GL starts to telegraph that Boyer is "up to something". The honeymoon ends. Joseph Cotton enters the film as a very (!) Americanized Scotland Yard Detective. It seems he originally investigated the murder of the aunt. His superior officer at the Yard orders him not to reopen the case but he defies his boss and does exactly that! Cotton's key role is the weakest link in GL. It is difficult to accept an American detective midst all the Europeans and harder still to swallow his direct defiance of his boss. Would a true SY detective be so brazen? Furthermore, Cotton's "discoveries" are a tad too slick. GL also over-portrays Boyer as a "somewhat less than loving husband", when that fact is patently plain. Finally, GL's stage origins shine through. This was obviously NOT filmed within 5,000 miles of London but on a studio lot. That "mansion" was cobbled together by the Hollywood Carpenters local! The "pea soup" background is laughable, though the gloomy black and white film serves the story well. Why then, is GL recommended? This reviewer believes that the two leads are so strong that they support the movie themselves. Most seem to praise Bergamn since she plays the sympathetic role of the abused wife. What a jerk she was married to! And indeed, Hollywood gave her the Best Actress Oscar. This reviewer favors the evil, smarmy, slimy, manipulative Boyer as the strongest element of GL. Together this mismatched husband and wife elevate "Gaslight" to a serious suspense movie, just short of a "classic". For the record, both Mr. Boyer and the movie itself lost Oscar races to Bing Crosby and "Going My Way". I guess the wartime United States could not get too serious over movies. This reviewer doesn't divulge endings although it may already be obvious. The resolution is not the key. Watch "Gaslight" for the strange alchemy twixt the leads.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the great ones!
Review: I've been waiting for this one on DVD for as long as I've had a DVD player. A true classic! One of George Cukor's best -- and he directed a lot of great movies! Based on the play, this taut drama brings us one of the great villians of all time. Boyer is not some scenery-chewing, soap-opera villian shouting and throwing tantrums. No, he's a soft, purring villian, a loving, concerned husband who is in truth driving his wife mad. She never looked better and Cotton is at his best. Check out the young Angela Landsbury too. Wonderful movie. I don't want to give it away. Just buy it -- you will not regret it!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wow!! It's about time!!!!
Review: It is truly incredible that it has taken so long to get this film onto a DVD. We can only hope that the edition will do justice to this great film, easily in my personal top 10 of all time. It should have a commentary track, cast background, any outtakes, a documentary on earlier versions of the film, and the subsequent history of this version--something like that. It really deserves a first class treatment. Ingrid Bergman is stunningly beautiful and palpably anguished as the slowly-crumbling Paula. Charles Boyer is consummately dark and evil as the insidious husband. Angela Lansbury is the tasty tart of an upstairs maid. Joseph Cotten is suitably efficient and ardent as the heroic rescuer. No words can describe the atmosphere of this movie, the gem-like quality of the images, the nauseating effect of the heroine being driven mad..... Ah....think I'll pull out the VHS and savor it again--why wait until February!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Gaslight
Review: It's a marvelous film which should have been released on DVD long before this. Now Facets Multi-Media in Chicago says it will be released in that format on Feb. 3, 2004 and is taking orders for it while Amazon is still asking us to vote if we want "Gaslight" on DVD sometime in the future. I'm disappointed Amazon doesn't seem aware it is to be released in the DVD format, because I would rather order from Amazon but will go with Facets if Amazon doesn't come up with info about a DVD release of this film very soon. Apologies for using what was supposed to be a review to complain, but I couldn't find any other spot on your web site on which to lodge my complaint.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Best Picture Film Ever
Review: I remember a little bit about seeing this movie from 2 years ago.I think that Gaslight is a pretty good movie.I love Joseph Cotten who played in this movie,he's one of my faovrite Actors.I bet that this movie won an Oscar.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: TENSE PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER.
Review: After her aunt and guardian, Alice Alquist, a renowned opera singer, is strangled to death in their London home at #9 Thornton Square, traumatised teen-ager Paula Alquist moves to Italy. Ten years later, Paula confesses to her devoted voice teacher, Maestro Guardi, that she has finally put the past behind her. Guardi encourages Paula to follow her heart, so she marries a pianist named Gregory Anton - whom she has known quite briefly - and to please her husband, they relocate at #9 Thornton Square in a fashionable section of London. Strange things begin happening...A classic excursion into "head games", this infinitely enjoyable Cukor - directed film was filmed priorly (and some say more effectively) under the title ANGEL STREET in England back in 194O: it starred Diana Wynyard and Anton Walbrook. Originally, Vincente Minnelli was to have been the director of this M-G-M glossy, but screenwriters John Van Druten and Walter Reisch pushed for - & got Cukor. Can you imagine? Irene Dunne and Melvyn Douglas (!) were to have been the original stars...At 19, Angela Lansbury made a stunning debut in films winning herself a BSA AA nomination for her portrayal of the spirited & cheeky maid, Nancy Oliver. The luminous Ingrid Bergman gives a sterling performance: she won an BA AA plus a National Board of Review award for her playing of the terrified Paula. The film also won an Oscar for the Best Art Direction for a black-and-white film for the year 1944. A gem which is curiously fascinating to many: we love to watch the results of one person dangerously playing with another's mind, somehow. Boyer is splendid.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: SUPERB ACTING AND A CHILLING PLOT..
Review: Bergman and Boyer are perfect together in this 1944 film. The story demonstrates the detestable actions one is capable of when motivated by greed. The viewer pities poor Paula all the way through, for to drive someone mad must be one of the greatest of cruelties. Gaslight is far superior to the 'thriller' films of today, which rely upon graphic depictions of horror which seem to know no limit.
This is one of my all-time favorites. What vindication the viewer is treated to at the end, without violence. Superb!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: ...or is he?
Review: "Gaslight" is a real gem. It features a top-notch cast including Joseph Cotton (Citizen Kane, The Third Man), Ingrid Bergman (Casablanca) and a charmingly young Angela Lansbury (Murder, She Wrote, Beauty and the Beast.) playing a tarty young maid, always up for a bit of fun. Bergman took home the Oscar for Best Actress from this film, and it shows.

A psychological thriller, "Gaslight" offers up many creepy moments, and enough plot twists to keep you in suspense. The ending is a definite "Ah-ha!" moment. The film holds up well, although it does show its age in parts. Moody and atmospheric with a touch of the melodrama, this is the kind of chill that only comes from a black and white potboiler. While not up to the standards of "classic," it is a good film and an enjoyable way to spend an evening.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Victorian Chills
Review: George Cukor, whose name is synonymous with so-called women's movies directed this tightly knit psychological Victorian gem of a thriller. On the surface it is not a complicated premise. Young Paula Alquist, played by beautiful Ingrid Bergman is sent away Italy to finish her schooling after her famous aunt is found murdered in her home. The murderer was never found. Nor were the jewels she was rumored to have.

Fast forward years later. Paula has fallen in love with charming and dashing Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer). She marries Anton and they return to her aunt's house which is now Paula's by inheritance. Paula cannot see it, but the audience sees that her husband's charm is quickly fading as he isolates her from their social circle under the guise that she is ill and cannot see anyone. He manipulates her to the point that she is fears that she is losing her mind. The viewer watches Ingrid Bergman's character change from an intelligent, secure young woman to a paranoid recluse slowly being driven mad by her husband who skillfully controls her mind. By now we have learned that it is no coincidence that Gregory Anton, met, married and convinced Paula to return to London to live in her former home. He is determined to continue his search for the jewels which was interrupted by Alice Alquist years ago.

As Paula struggles with her sanity, she has no one to turn to for help until an inquisitive neighbor, Miss Thwaites (Dame May Witty) elicits help from Brian Cameron (Joseph Cotton) who happens to be a Scotland Yard detective. Cameron has his own reasons for being curious about the never seen Paula Alquist. Be sure to watch for a very young Angela Lansbury as the cute tartish young maid who has eyes for Boyer.

Gaslight is one for those movies that you can again and again and still have it give you the shivers as you watch Boyer skillfully and cunningly drive his wife to the brink of insanity. But Bergman's revenge is sweet. A brilliant movie.

Vannie(~.~)


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