Gashlight - Pia Santaklaus on Gaslight

Last week I watched GASLIGHT (1944) and though I arrived at the Chauvel a few minutes late, I don’t think I missed much of the start and had a very engrossing movie experience. I should like to offer a few comments.

GASLIGHT, despite its ‘happy’ ending, provided a melange of classic gothic story elements including Edgar Allan Poe, Charlotte Bronte, Robert Louis Stevenson and also shades of the Jack The Ripper legend.

In GASLIGHT, a beautiful newlywed woman Paula (played by Ingrid Bergman) fears she is going mad as strange occurances happen in her manor-home. She is unawares that her own husband is deliberately causing the strange happenings in order to drive her mad.

Charles Boyer plays her two-faced pianist husband Gregory Anton. He is ultimately caught out by a friendly, noble investigator with Scotland Yard connections (played by Joseph Cotton). Angela Lansbury plays Nancy the servant of the manor.

GASLIGHT was perhaps inspired by some of the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Edgar Allan Poe used themes of physical and emotional decomposition and premature burial… In GASLIGHT, Paula becomes paler and sicker and feels trapped within her house.

POE often said that one of the most tragic themes was that of a dying beautiful young female; a device he used over and over again as might be seen in such works as The Raven, Annabel Lee, Ligeia, Berenice, Morella and The Fall Of The House Of Usher.

Poe also drew parallels between the souls of buildings and their occupants. One’s house reflected one’s disposition... A sick house could only carry a sick body, a sick soul.

In GASLIGHT, the house itself, already a place of terror (the site of an earlier murder) becomes very much Paula’s crypt. She was in a sense buried alive as the husband would not let her leave the building. Her many-roomed ‘coffin’ makes for a very grim ‘life’.

The male protagonist is a dark romantic figure. To the outside world, husband Gregory Anton portrays the dashing gentleman but we also see another darker side to him. He displays a Jekyll and Hyde split personality.

The STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE (1886) was written by Robert Louis Stevenson. The story set in London is about a lawyer investigating strange happenings between his friend Dr Henry Jekyll and horrible Edward Hyde. GASLIGHT has a very similar theme in that an investigator (Joseph Cotten) exposes someone with a psychopathological bent.

The way in which Gregory Anton slips out of the house each night to do his dark deeds is vampiric in a sense, but moreso, another aspect of GASLIGHT seems to reflect the JACK THE RIPPER story.
The unidentified London serial killer JACK THE RIPPER (around 1888) victimised women. With his non-English accent, Gregory Anton may represent one of the many immigrants pouring into England during the mid 1800s. This influx of humanity led to overcrowding, massive poverty and crime from a very low class. The infamous Jack The Ripper may have been a product of the social upheaval. The case was followed and unsuccessfully investigated by Scotland Yard. (Scotland Yard also featuring in GASLIGHT, was founded in 1829 and was the headquarters of the service which policed much of London )

A further influence on GASLIGHT may have been JANE EYRE. JANE EYRE (1847) by Charlotte Bronte is one of the most influential English novels of all time.

JANE EYRE was orphaned as a baby. In GASLIGHT, Paula was ‘orphaned’ after her aunt/guardian/opera singer (Alice Alquist) was strangled to death in their London home at No. 9 Thornton Square.

Paula’s husband Gregory has a romantic Byronic aura like Edward Rochester in JANE EYRE, but he also gradually reveals a cold, cruel, self-serving disposition like Mr Brocklehurst, a neglectful, dishonest man in JANE EYRE.

Like Rochester (in JANE EYRE), Gregory seems quite taken with Paula and repeatedly keeps her in his controlling presence.

JANE EYRE includes shallow socialites also featuring in GASLIGHT.

In JANE EYRE, Rochester blames a servant for various strange occurences. It perplexes and amazes Jane, but for love’s sake she ignores the issue. A very similar situation arises in GASLIGHT.

In JANE EYRE one character (Adèle) is the illegitimate daughter of a French opera singer. In GASLIGHT, Paula’s guardian was an opera singer.

JANE EYRE features a strange old gypsy woman who insists on telling everyone's fortunes, roughly echoed in GASLIGHT in the character of the eccentric old nosey neighbour who insists on finding the truth.

The idea of being locked up in a house features heavily in JANE EYRE. The young Jane was locked up in an unused red chamber room, in which she panics thinking she saw a ghost and she remained in there till she got ill and passed out.

In JANE EYRE Jane hears eerie laughter coming from inside the manor house. In GASLIGHT, Paula hears strange noises coming from the house as well.

In JANE EYRE, Rochester cannot marry Jane because it is revealed that he is already married to another woman. Rochester bitterly explains that his wife is a violent madwoman whom he keeps imprisoned in the attic, where a servant (Grace Poole) looks after her. In GASLIGHT Paula gradually becomes like a madwoman imprisoned upstairs and relying on servants.

In JANE EYRE, the manorhouse ‘Thornfield’ ultimately lies blackened and in ruins. Jane learns that Rochester's mad wife set fire to the house and committed suicide by jumping from the roof. Though this is not the grim end in GASLIGHT, the movie is powerful as one might imagine something like this happening if Paula isn’t rescued in time by her male friend (played by Joseph Cotten).

GASLIGHT is a cleverly woven tale of innocence versus experience, naivety versus ruthlessness. The power of suggestion in this movie leaves a hypnotic effect.

Great choice Brett. Thanks

Pia Santaklaus

I have a question: Was Jack the Ripper ‘Jumping Jack Flash’? Like the song says “It’s a GAS GAS GAS”