Set in Pimlico, London, Alice Barlow is murdered by an unknown man, who then ransacks her house, looking for her valuable rubies. The house remains empty for many years, until newlyweds Paul and Bella Mallen move in. Bella soon finds herself misplacing small objects; and, before long, Paul has her believing she is losing her sanity. B. G. Rough, a former detective involved in the original murder investigation, immediately suspects him of Alice Barlow's murder. Paul lights the gas lamps to search the closed-off upper floors, which causes the rest of the lamps in the house to dim slightly. When Bella comments on the lights' dimming, he tells her that she is imagining things. Bella is persuaded that she is hearing noises, unaware that Paul enters the upper floors from the house next door. The sinister interpretation of the change in light levels is part of a larger pattern of deception to which Bella is subjected. It is revealed that Paul is a bigamist. He is the wanted Louis Bauer, who has returned to the house to search for the rubies he was unable to find after the murder.
tallied a 100% score, based on 6 professional reviews. Leonard Maltin gave the film 3 1/2 stars : "Electrifying atmosphere, delicious performances, and a succinctly conveyed sense of madness and evil lurking beneath the surface of the ordinary". The Time Out critic wrote, "Nothing like as lavish as the later MGM version ... But in its own small-scale way a superior film by far. Lurking menace hangs in the air like a fog, the atmosphere is electric, and Wynyard suffers exquisitely as she struggles to keep dementia at bay." Encouraged by the success of the play and film, MGM bought the remake rights, but with a clause insisting that all existing prints of Dickinson's version be destroyed, even to the point of trying to destroy the negative, so that it would not compete with their more highly publicised 1944 remake starring Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, and Joseph Cotten. "Fortunately they failed, and now the British film has been restored by the BFI and issued in the UK on Blu-ray in a pristine print."
Gaslight as expression
The psychological term gaslighting, which describes a form of psychological abuse in which the victim is gradually manipulated into doubting his or her own reality, originated from the play and its two film adaptations. Gaslighting means emotionally manipulating others by undermining their confidence and calling their credibility into question.
