He turns out to be Inspector Brian Cameron of Scotland Yard (Cotten), an admirer of Alice Alquist since his childhood. Paula is saved by a chance encounter with a stranger at the Tower of London. He does everything in his power to convince his wife she is going mad, so he can have her certified insane and institutionalized, after which he can search without impediment. He has been secretly rummaging through Alice's belongings in the attic to find the jewels he is certain is there, but so well hidden, he has been unable to find them. He sought out Paula in Italy, managed to win her heart, married her, and suggested they live in London, all so he could get back into the house to continue searching for Alice's jewels. Unknown to Paula, Gregory is in fact Sergius Bauer, her aunt's murderer. Whenever she shows up, her face betrays a feeling of disdain Paula becomes convinced that Nancy loathes her. The young maid, Nancy ( Angela Lansbury) does little to improve the situation. When he finds it in her handbag, she becomes hysterical, and Gregory takes her home. On the one occasion when he does take her out to a musical gathering at a friend's house, he shows Paula his watch chain, from which his watch has mysteriously disappeared. Gregory does everything in his power to isolate his wife from other people, allowing her neither to go out nor have visitors. Gregory insinuates that Paula is responsible, but she professes no recollection of doing such things.
Pictures disappear from the walls of the house, footsteps are heard in the sealed attic, and the gaslights dim and brighten for no apparent reason.
At the Tower of London, Paula loses a brooch that Gregory had given her, despite its having been stored safely in her handbag. Gregory's reaction is swift and violent, but he quickly composes himself, explaining his outburst as one of frustration at the bad memories his bride is experiencing.Īfter Alice's things are packed away in the attic and the door blocked, things take a turn for the bizarre. Before they do, Paula discovers a letter addressed to her aunt by a man named Sergius Bauer, dated only two days before the murder, tucked away in a music book. He persuades her they should live in the long-vacant London townhouse her aunt bequeathed her and, to help calm her anxieties, suggests they store all of Alice's furnishings away in the attic. She eventually ends her long tutelage to marry him.
Paula meets Gregory Anton (Boyer) and soon falls in love with him. She studies with him for years, all the while trying to forget that terrible night at Number 9 on Thornton Square in London. Paula is sent to Italy so that she can train to be an opera star, with the same teacher who once trained Alice. The perpetrator bolted, without the jewels he sought, after being interrupted by Paula (Bergman), Alice's niece, who was raised by her aunt following her mother's death. The film opens just after world-famous opera singer Alice Alquist has been murdered. This remake of a film made only four years earlier, has a larger scale and budget and lends a different feel to the material. This 1944 version of the story was directed by George Cukor and starred Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer, Joseph Cotten, and eighteen-year-old Angela Lansbury in her screen debut. It was the second version to be filmed the first, released in Great Britain, had been made a mere four years earlier. "Gaslight" is a 1944 mystery- thriller film adapted from Patrick Hamilton's play " Gas Light". For the 1940 release, see Gaslight." Infobox_Film :"This article is about the 1944 film Gaslight.