Now in her mid-forties, Claudette Colbert was just off THE EGG AND I/’47 (that alarmingly successful city-folk-go-hayseed comedy that not only birthed Ma & Pa Kettle, but eventually GREEN ACRES), when she made this transparent ripoff of GASLIGHT/’44. (One of many, GASLIGHT itself a remake. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2010/05/gaslight-1944.html) ‘Presented’ by Mary Pickford, though husband Charles ’Buddy’ Rogers takes screen credit, it’s impeccably produced in all ways but the one that counts: the screenplay. Again, there’s a ‘caring’ husband (Don Ameche in the Charles Boyer role) ‘gaslighting’ wife Colbert to drive her nuts & grab an inheritance (Ingrid Bergman’s spot), while Robert Cummings takes on the Joseph Cotten role of guardian angel. Knowing the audience is going to be ahead of the action, this iteration reveals the villain by reel two, but has more than enough juice left from cast & crew to hold interest. (Supporting players include Raymond Burr, George Coulouris, Key Luke, Rita Johnson, Ralph Morgan and a stellar Hazel Brooks.) Plus director Douglas Sirk covering studio sets & exteriors like a curious crab.* (Influenced by George Cukor’s use of vertical tracking in the 1944 GASLIGHT?) A tricky shoot-out climax especially fine. Shot with noir trimmings by Joe Valentine, a Hitchcock regular at the time. All good. If only the script knew when to tighten the screws and when to loosen up. Poor Claudette has to go ON or OFF crazy more often than 'La Sonnambula’ in Bellini’s opera.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: *Sirk & Colbert had better luck with THUNDER ON THE HILL/’51. And Colbert got closer to GASLIGHT in THE SECRET FURY/’50. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2017/12/thunder-on-hill-1951.html https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-secret-fury-1950.html
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