Gaslight (1940 film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the 1940 film Gaslight. For the 1944 film see Gaslight.
| Gaslight | |
|---|---|
 VHS cover |
|
| Directed by | Thorold Dickinson |
| Produced by | John Corfield |
| Written by | Patrick Hamilton (play) A. R. Rawlinson Bridget Boland |
| Starring | Anton Walbrook Diana Wynyard Frank Pettingell |
| Music by | Richard Addinsell |
| Cinematography | Bernard Knowles |
| Editing by | Sidney Cole |
| Distributed by | Anglo-American Film Corporation |
| Release date(s) |  UK 25 June 1940 US 10 November 1952 |
| Running time | 84 min. |
| Country | UK |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Gaslight is a 1940 film based on Patrick Hamilton's play Gas Light (1938). It was released in the United States under the title Angel Street so that audiences would not confuse it with MGM's 1944 remake starring Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman, though both had essentially the same plot. The 1944 cinema Gaslight was released in England under the title The Murder in Thornton Square.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The plot focuses on a young woman haunted by the murder of her aunt in a London townhouse that has lain vacant since the crime. Years later she is persuaded by her new husband to return in order to overcome her anxieties. She soon finds herself misplacing small objects and hearing odd noises, and before long her spouse has her believing she's losing her sanity.
This screen version, directed by Thorold Dickinson and starring Diana Wynyard, Anton Walbrook, and Frank Pettingell, adheres closer to the original play than the 1944 remake, which early on revealed the husband's sinister intentions, and cast handsome leading man Joseph Cotten as the detective who solves the case, as opposed to the heavyset, rougher, and older Pettingell.
[edit] Reception
MGM reportedly tried to suppress release of the 1940 film in the United States, even to the point of trying to destroy the negative, so that it would not compete with their more publicized 1944 remake.
[edit] See also
- The Thorold Dickinson Archive is held at the University of the Arts London Archives and Special Collections Centre[1].
[edit] References
[edit] Notes
[edit] Bibliography
- The Great British Films, pp 52-54, Jerry Vermilye, 1978, Citadel Press, ISBN 080650661X
[edit] External links
- Gaslight at the Internet Movie Database
- Gaslight at the TCM Movie Database
- Gaslight at Rotten Tomatoes
