Gaslight (1940) on Netflix
Newlyweds Paul and Bella Mallen move into the Pimlico house where Alice Barlow was murdered. Bella mislays small objects, and a retired detective who worked the case grows suspicious of Paul.
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Trailer
Plot summary
In Pimlico, London, a man breaks into Alice Barlow's home, kills her and tears the place apart hunting for something. The house stands empty for years. Paul and Bella Mallen, newly married, take it and settle in. Bella then begins misplacing small items she is certain she left in their places. Paul tells her the lapses are her own failing, and she comes to doubt her memory. When the gas lamps dim, she is unsettled, since dimming means lamps have been lit elsewhere in the house, yet the servants insist that she is alone there. B. G. Rough, a former detective who had a hand in the Barlow inquiry, stays in the area, and Bella's husband puts him in mind of one of Alice Barlow's relatives.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Gaslight (1940)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- MGM bought the remake rights to the 1940 film with a clause insisting every existing print of Thorold Dickinson's version be destroyed, even trying to destroy the negative, so it would not compete with the studio's 1944 remake starring Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman and Joseph Cotten.
- The film's title turned into a verb: self-help and popular psychology authors use "gaslighting" to mean manipulating a person or a group in a way similar to the manipulation of the protagonist in the original play.
