Anton Walbrook, while not as subtle as Charles Boyer, is terrifying and a huge part as to why the film is as atmospheric as it is. Performances are great here and hardly inferior to those in the later film, despite being less familiar. Tighter-paced and more theatrical somewhat, the story never creaks and is leaden with tension and suspense with nothing obvious that came over as unnecessary or clumsy. The script is thought-provoking and tense, everything feels relevant to what's going on and nothing seemed padded. It's intelligently and suspensefully directed by then-famous-and-well-regarded, now-almost-forgotten (undeservedly) Thorald Dickinson. It's shot beautifully and menacingly, is hauntingly lit and has sets that are picturesque yet give off a great amount of dread while over-stating it. However, while not as glossy as the later film 'Gaslight' (1940) regardless is incredibly well-made. The secondary characters could have been better fleshed out, and while Richard Adinsell's music score is suitably ominous Bonislau Kaper's score for the later version has more atmosphere, subtlety and tension. Like the 1944 film (the only real drawback to that film was the uneven performance of Joseph Cotton), there is very little wrong here. To me, both 'Gaslight' films are great in their own way, and this reviewer ranks them equally, yet with one or two things in things that are done better in the other. When Scotland Yard Police Constable Brian Cameron ( Joseph Cotten) sees Gregory and Alice in a place popular with tourists, he immediately he sees Paula, who reminds him of her aunt, but he does not know Gregory, and decides to investigate and find evidence to connect Gregory with the unsolved murder, while Paula is being driven insane and menaced by her husband.It is inevitable that this 1940 film and the 1944 "remake" with Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman are going to be compared, and people will have different opinions as to which is the better version. He psychologically begins to torture Paula, and she has a nervous breakdown, and also has insecurity and memory problems. When they arrive, Paula finds a letter from a mysterious and unknown Sergis Bauer, which makes Gregory upset. Ten years later, Paula ( Ingrid Bergman) decides to get married with an older pianist named Gregory Anton ( Charles Boyer), who convinces her to move back to the old address in London. Her young niece Paula Alquist ( Terry Moore) is sent to Italy to study music, and the house stays empty. In London, at 9 Thorton Square, prima donna Alice Alquist is strangled, and her famous jewels disappear. Those two are: Miss Thwaites ( May Whitty), an elderly busybody neighbor who loves a good mystery and Brian Cameron ( Joseph Cotten), a fan of Alice Alquist, and who, in his professional life, arguably knows the most about her murder besides the actual murderer. However, two people on the outside believe that funny things are happening behind the closed doors of 9 Thornton Square, where only the domestics, Elizabeth ( Barbara Everest) and Nancy, are allowed in, and only Gregory, who ever leaves by himself to take a walk every night. As such, she becomes isolated in the house, which only exacerbates her feeling that she indeed is going mad. Over time at the house, Paula begins to forget things, lose things, and imagine things - such as an animosity with the new Cockney housekeeper Nancy ( Angela Lansbury), who has a penchant for making "friends" with whatever Police Constable is patrolling the neighborhood - with Gregory quietly convincing her, without using the exact words, that she is ill. Not having thought about the house in a long time, Paula believes Anton's love can help her through whatever pain she may have felt about her aunt's murder now to live there with him. Before learning of her background, Gregory is able to convince her to live in London, then when she divulges to him that she owns a house there at 9 Thornton Square, it bequeathed to her by her famous maternal aunt, opera singer Alice Alquist, who raised Paula and whom Paula found murdered in the house, the murder never solved. Paula Alquist ( Ingrid Bergman), an aspiring opera singer, and Gregory Anton ( Charles Boyer), the accompanist at her singing lessons under the tutelage of Maestro Guardi ( Emil Rameau) in Italy, fall in love and get married.
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