Gaslight (1944) Gather 'round class.....Professor BQ will now tell you how the Tubby Orang and his brainless GOP minions came up with the idea of denying reality, warping the truth and convincing you that you didn't see and hear what you saw and heard with your own eyes and ears.......
Yes, my Padewans, the phrase "gaslighting" came directly from this movie.....all about a psychotic con man who drives his vulnerable wife to the brink of insanity......by inundating her with lies, convincing her that truthful facts and situations she observed were delusions.......Why darling, you didn't see what you thought you saw.........
Ingrid Bergman plays the achingly sweet innocent victim here, a late 19th century British heiress whose famous opera star aunt was found strangled. Little does Ingrid know that the suave would-be composer who recently swept her off her feet is in fact her aunt's killer. Smoothly played by Charles Boyer, this lethal lothario now has Ingrid in his sights because the aunt was once gifted with actual crown jewels by a secret royal admirer. And to find where the jewels are hidden, , Boyer again needs entry into the sumptuous townhouse Ingrid and her aunt once shared....
And what better way to get back into the house than hoodwink and bamboozle Ingrid with a whirlwind romance and marriage......and then drive her crazy enough for a rubber room so hubby can claim the house for himself and tear it apart till it coughs up the gems......
80 per cent of the fun here comes from Boyer's slow but steady campaign of psychological abuse on Bergman......mostly tricking her into believing she's responsible for losing items that he himself hid.....or explaining she's hallucinating about hearing footsteps above her or gaslights that turn on and off......(all caused by the reptilian Boyer sneaking up to the attic and feverishly searching for the jewels.....)
I distinctly got the feeling that if Boyer's villain was alive and well today, he'd be running for office as an election denier, fully endorsed by Donald Trump,,,,,,,,,and telling potential voters that the fascist goons who invaded Congress on Jan. 6th were mere harmless tourists looking for photo opportunities,......("Pay no attention to those gallows we built for Mike Pence.....it's new exercise equipment to help him out with his stiff neck...")
But what a difference a few centuries make......In the quaint, genteel fogbound streets of uppercrust London, Charles Boyer purrs out his lies with such elegance and formality.......as opposed to Trump, his mind-slaves and Fox News spokesgoblins shrieking out one falsehood after another at the top of their lungs....and tweets. Even worse, Trumpanzees believe them.
You can enjoy "Gaslight" as a slick, smooth-as-silk 4 star (****) thriller.......or gasp at how a political party and the ludicrous dictator they worship turn 'gaslighting' into its own toxic belief system.
Just don't swallow the gas........you saw exactly what you saw......(And yes, that saucy, slightly sinister young housemaid is none other than 17 year old Angela Lansbury in her first film role.....)
No comments:
Post a Comment