Gaslight

Ingrid Bergman stars in this classic thriller as a devoted bride whose groom is trying to make her insane as part of his plot to murder her.

In late 19th century Victorian England, young Paula Alquist (Bergman) has given up a promising singing career to marry Gregory Anton. The pair returns to London to take up residence in the house where her aunt was murdered ten years earlier. Deeply in love, she refuses to believe — then cannot convince anyone else — that her new husband is a thief who murdered her aunt, that everyone in her household is plotting to kill her ... and that something evil will happen every time she sees a dimming of the Gaslight.

Ingrid Bergman won the first of her three Academy Awards for her luminous performance in this riveting drama, but the entire cast deserves praise. Charles Boyer is expertly evil as a husband who attempts to drive his wife mad for his own nefarious purposes. Joseph Cotten brings trademark integrity to the role of the white knight who wants to save her, and a teenage Angela Lansbury makes her film debut as a pouty, sexy parlor maid. 

Warner Bros. Studios not only invested its best actors in this production, it also poured resources into lush Victorian sets, a long Italian honeymoon sequence, and the suppression of the original 1940 British film on which George Cukor's film was based. The result is a gorgeous, sensual, big-budget thriller and a terrific example of classic Hollywood melodrama.

Part of our "Midcentury Melodrama" series. Courtesy of Warner Bros. and Swank Motion Pictures.