“Gaslight” (1940)
The 1940 version of Gaslight, released in America under the title Angel Street, almost ceased to exist. When George Cukor remade it in 1946, MGM tried to have all copies of the earlier film destroyed. The remake, which starred Ingrid Bergman and Joseph Cotten, was good, but I think I like the original more. It’s less stylized, which adds to its aura of menace. The film starts with the murder of an old woman, then years later a newly married couple move in. The husband, Anton Walbrook, is exasperated by his wife, played with trembling exactitude by Diana Wynyard. She fears she’s going mad, yet it’s he who is manufacturing evidence for it, as well as flirting with a manipulating housemaid and disappearing each night. This is a well-crafted suspense film, worth seeing especially if you enjoyed the remake.