American Cinematographer - January 1996 - 82

Another original major sequence depicts
the Antons' visit to the Tower of London, where

Right: Nancy
(Angela
Lansbury) flirts

Gregory's pathological love of gems is established as
he ogles the crown jewels and comments, "Jewels are
wonderful things. They have lives of their own."
The piano recital sequence was replicated al¬
most intact, but the room was expanded to a large
conservatory with a vaulted (matted-in) ceiling. The

with her
master,

Gregory Anton
(Charles

Boyer).
Below:
Cameron

Paula

also included more dress extras and the re¬
nowned pianist Jakob Gimpel at the keyboard playing
Beethoven's "Appassionata" sonata.

(Bergman) the
"missing"

Thwaites,

an

in the

first half-hour of the film, could have made

scene

(Joseph
Cotten) shows

An

entirely new character is the nosy Miss
elderly murder fan nicknamed "Blood¬
thirsty Bessie." Played wonderfully by Dame May
Whitty, she provides the comedy relief neither play¬
wright Hamilton nor BIP had thought necessary.
One might have expected MGM's approach
to end in disaster. Boyer's French pronunciations no
more
suggest Prague than Bergman's Swedish accents
conjure England or Italy, nor does Cotten seem at all
British. Boyer's popularity as a great lover, exploited

brooch.

new

it difficult for audiences to

accept him as a fiend. In
addition, the picture's greater length and Dame May's

comedy could have killed the

suspense.

None of these

she cut him off

Bergman's radiant appearance.
protracted Italian sequence
gave patrons the glamour they
sought from a Boyer-Bergman film,

The

in the Swedish manner, Cukor
bawled her out unmercifully and
demanded more bravura.
MGM's Gaslight borrows

and made Anton's evolution from
lover to louse seem more insidi¬
ous than ever. Even
Boyer's

embellishments first intro¬

some

duced

by the British International
again are super¬
imposed over a gaslight flame. The
villain again is a foreigner, Sergius
Bauer of Prague, alias Gregory
version. The titles

Anton, who still has

a

wife left be¬

hind there. The house and environs are very similar,
but art director William Ferrari provided a consider¬

mances

more stylish neighborhood, expanded and em¬
bellished via perfect matte paintings by Warren
Newcombe's artists. The interiors are less confining,
but German-born decorator Paul Huldschinsky
loaded them with enough Victorian detail to empha¬
size their oppressiveness. Several of BIP's other inno¬
vations
the piano concert, some of the street scenes,
and Paul's shadow as he frantically rips up the furni¬
ture
were also retained.

over

ably

-

-

Entirely new, however, is a 35-minute estab¬
lishing story showing Paula as a confused 14-year-old
(played by Judy Ford) being taken from the house
following the murder of her aunt, a famed opera
singer. Fifteen years later, while studying voice in
Italy, she falls in love with Gregory Anton (Boyer), a
pianist. After an idyllic honeymoon at Lake Como, he
talks her into

Here

returning to live in the murder house.
the romantic mood slowly turns ominous and

the action

80

American

depicted in the play begins.

Cinematographer

things mat¬

tered in the end. The anomalous
accents bothered no one, nor did

sharply with an
angry "I'm not stupid!" She
wanted to stay up nights to achieve
a
hollow-eyed look, but he insisted
that she remain strong and glamor¬
ous. When she tried to underplay

and

intrusions

heavy-lidded "bedroom eyes"
smolder equally well for romance
or menace, and some
insinuating
head-tilts emphasize his increasing
mental imbalance. The longer run¬
ning time - 30 minutes past its
predecessor's - actually proves an
asset, fully showcasing the perfor¬
production values, while Dame May's

are

well-timed to

ease

audience tension

the

longer haul.
Unexpectedly, 17-year-old Angela Lansbury
also proved a sensation as the Antons' maid, Nancy.
Fleeing the Nazi blitzkrieg, the performer had come
to Los Angeles from London with her mother, actress
Moyna MacGill, and two brothers. All were working
at Bullock's Wilshire Boulevard store during the
Christmas rush. For

some

weeks, Cukor had been test¬

ing actresses for the role when Van Druten brought
Lansbury to him for a screen test. She was at first
thought too young, too tall, too plump and not sexy
enough. A second look at her test a week later re¬
versed the director's opinion so strongly that he had
her take

a

second, and

even

only given the part, but a
week. Cukor

better, test. She

was

seven-year contract at

not

$500

was so delighted that he had the writ¬
enlarge her role. In the BIP film, Cathleen
Cordell had made Nancy a gleefully aggressive tart;
Lansbury's Nancy is a sullen, drooping, amoral Cocka

ers

January 1996
American Cinematographer - January 1996

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - January 1996
