There’s a bizarre story behind Gaslight. Orginally it started out as a play that opened in the West End (and gave Vincent Price his first villain role) and then it was made into a film in the UK in 1940. MGM bought the rights to the film and remade it in 1944 with Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten and Charles Boyer taking the main leads (and introducing the world to a young Angela “Murder, She Wrote” Lansbury in her debut). They then attempted to destroy every copy of the 1940 version although were unsuccessful. However, you still can’t get the original in the UK.

The story itself is a study of a woman who is being slowly and methodically driven out of her mind by her husband whose motives are unclear. Well, perhaps not that unclear to a modern audience but even so, the performances are so captivating that I found myself on the edge of my beanbag, even though I had a very good idea how it all turned out.

There are problems with this remake - namely that it’s too American. Although set in London, Joseph Cotten, a Scotland Yard inspector, retains a very apple-pie American accent but it’s never made clear whether the character is meant to be English or not (although it’s clear from the story that he’s been in London since he was a child). But considering the awful Dick Van Dyke accent of one of the minor characters, this is probably a good thing.

Actually, in retrospect, it’s very clever propaganda: Ingrid Bergman has a French (or western European) accent for most of the film, the villain has a German accent and the hero is an American working with the English. This film was released in 1944 - you do the maths. However, it is possible that I may have totally misinterpreted the accents.

Anyway, the film is involving and beautiful to watch. I don’t think it’s something that could really be moved out of it’s period setting (1800s) because it relies heavily on the wife being totally subservient to her husband, trusting him entirely and believing that he would never do anything to harm her. (That said, it could be an interesting challenge.) It would be interesting to compare it to the original version which, I gather, has far more understated and nuanced performances. Despite the very effective manner in which Charles Boyer’s Gregory Anton manipulates and oppresses Ingrid Bergman’s Paula, you’re never left in any doubt that he’s a nasty piece of work from the outset. But Bergman’s slow decline into paranoia and madness is a thing of beauty to watch.