TCM Presents...Gaslight

Title: Gaslight (1944)

Director: George Cukor

Screenwriter(s): John Van Druten, Walter Reisch, & John L. Balderston

Producer: Arthur Hornblow, Jr.

Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

In Theaters: May 4^th, 1944

Run Time: 114 minutes

Color: B&W

Starring: Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, & Angela Lansbury

Genre(s): drama/mystery/thriller

Storyline: Paula’s aunt Alice Alquist, a famous entertainer, is murdered in her home. Paula, who lives with her aunt finds the body. Police fail to find the killer and Paula is sent away to school. Ten years later, Paula returns to London with her new husband. They take up residence in her aunt’s house, which she has inherited. Paula is increasingly isolated by her husband but does come to the attention of an admirerer of her aunt, Mr. Brian Cameron.Written by Sandra Douglass

Movie Trailer: 

My Review: I can’t remember ever seeing an Ingrid Bergman movie I enjoyed so much, because of her! Casablanca I love because of Humphrey Bogart, of course. But with the mystery of Gaslight and the way she portrayed her character, I see why she won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1944. I must say the movie seemed all too predictable at first. I mean, you know instantly that he’s messing with her mind trying to make her think she’s going crazy. What I don’t realize is there is much more behind his reasonings for her hearing the noises going on upstairs. It’s a brilliantly written script because it allows the audience to interact with a mystery movie that not many are capable of doing today. I find a movie that claims to be of mystery and suspense to be of the highest caliber when it it able to allow me to guess what’s coming next yet still find me totally stumped once the twist of an ending is revealed. If a movie can do that, it can easily stand the test of time, therefore, entering into the realm of a classic.

This is my first Charles Boyer film and I must say he is NOTHING like how he is made out to be in that classic I Love Lucy episode. But I suppose he was supposed to be making fun of himself as well. I can see why he might have had quite a female following although, compared to other actors coming from that time period, I wouldn’t consider him among the best of them.

Angela Lansbury’s part in all this, while funny, at times, confused me very much. I wasn’t sure if she was working for him, in that she knew his scheme all along for making his wife believe she was going mad? Or not? I think they could have done more with not just her, but with her character, that it fell flat for me, when after all the fuss was made over how she felt about Ingrid Bergman’s character, they don’t pursue the storyline. Especially, when they also make it a point to mention that she’s been seeing the police constable on the beat of that neighborhood during her off hours.

This is definitely a movie I will see over and over and over again, knowing I will see something new I didn’t see the first time around. Don’t you love when a movie can do that?

Have you ever seen Gaslight? Either this version or the 1940 British version that MGM famously tried to buy the rights of and then burn before it made it to the U.S.?

My Rating: ★★★★★

Original Article

Hitlerland by Andrew Nagorski (Book Review)

Hitlerland: American Eyewitnesses to the Nazi Rise to Power

by Andrew Nagorski

400 pages

Simon & Schuster, March 2012

German History/politics/government

Read in 14 Days

My Rating: ★★★★ 1/2

Amazon.com | BN.com

My Review: I can't remember ever reading a book that I took such an interest in that was factually based on history. Everything I knew prior to reading this book on Hitler I got from history text books and what I was taught in school. I was amazed by how much I did not know. I came out of this asking questions, which, I believe, is essential to great literature. When your mind is further engaged to want to do further research on what you've just read, then the author has truly done their job. Of course not every book is written with that outcome in mind but this book definitely got me wanting to learn more about WWII. So much so I will be purchasing and reading the book on the History of the Third Reich written by Shirer, one of the main people in this book, Hitlerland.

If you want to get a first hand feel of what it was like to be an American living in or just visiting Germany just before Adolf Hitler came into power, this is the book to read. Not only that, but this takes the journal/diary entries of several journalists who were able to interview Hitler himself! It's mind-boggling to understand their mindset as they were sent to Germany with the express purpose of informing those in the United States is this man was truly a threat. Many either felt he was too insane to pay any real attention to while the few who had a bad feeling were told not to "over exaggerate" their isolated feelings so as not to incite an unnecessary fear here in the U.S.!

Of course, knowing the outcome that came about by our not intervening and stopping Hitler when he started out, it's even harder to read this story and just shake my head in shame at their ignorance or lack of fortitude to stand up to those above them telling them to be silent. In a way I have a better understanding of why we took so long to help the Jews and others being persecuted in Germany. You think you know who is to blame from top to bottom but there was truly so much going on from so many different hands all at the same time it's hard to place the blame on just one moment. Turning a blind eye and ear was the least of the problems going on then. And while this book takes just one point of view it should go down as one that many should read who need reconciliation for what took America and American's so long to join a fight that we should have, if we knew the truth about what was going on, years earlier.

There is no going back to correct the terrible tragedy, but what I found even more profound is the parallels of what went on during the mid 1930's to the mid 1940's and what is happening today. When will we learn?

Summary: Hitler’s rise to power, Germany’s march to the abyss, as seen through the eyes of Americans—diplomats, military officers, journalists, expats, visiting authors, Olympic athletes—who watched horrified and up close. By tapping a rich vein of personal testimonies, Hitlerland offers a gripping narrative full of surprising twists—and a startlingly fresh perspective on this heavily dissected era.