Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

Evil husband tricks his wife into believing she is losing her mind. If you're ever heard the term "gaslighting," which was derived from this film's title, you already know that much about the plot. But that knowledge won't ruin the film, because the suspenseful question isn't whether the wife is really imagining things or not -- it's clear, early on, that the husband is up to no good -- but whether he will get away with it.

Made in 1944, directed by George Cukor, it stars Ingrid Bergman in an Oscar-winning role as the wife, Paula, and Charles Boyer as the husband, Gregory. It was based on a stage play, and requires a bit of a theater-goer's suspension of disbelief -- Paula is too trusting and Gregory too cold-blooded to be completely realistic -- but it's easy to accept on its own terms, and I found it consistently engrossing, and just the way I like my suspense films -- creepy and atmospheric without being terrifying.

Other pluses: The black-and-white photography that beautifully conveys a foggy, sinister 19th-century London. Gorgeous costumes -- the gown Paula wears, on one of the very few occasions that Gregory allows her to leave the house, is stunning. The upstairs/downstairs depiction of an upper-class Victorian household (I got startled whenever the maids talked about "Master"). A very young Angela Lansbury, in an Oscar-nominated role as a maid who "acts above her station" -- a role about as different from her "Murder She Wrote" persona as possible. Joseph Cotten as the hero, an earnest Scotland Yard detective. Dame May Whitty in a small comic role as the neighborhood busybody. Barbara Everest as the cook, who would like to help Paula but is afraid to cross Gregory.

Bergman conveys many moods -- she is luminous when Paula is in love, and convincing when she starts to fall apart, and at the end -- well, I won't tell you the ending. Boyer makes a good villain, with a commanding presence that makes the household's deference credible.

All in all, a class act, and good creepy fun.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: VHS