Gaslight (1940)

Gaslight (1940), directed by Thorold Dickinson and starring Austrian actor Anton Walbrook and English actor Diana Wynyard, is the first film version of Patrick Hamilton's 1938 play Gas Light. This British version preceded the American film Gaslight, the more famous of the two, which was directed by George Cukor and stars Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer, released in 1944.

Watching the two Gaslight films back to back, it's impossible not to compare them. The one with Ingrid Bergman is better because it's a smoother-told story, and we get to know the characters at a deeper level as well as their relationships, plus the sets are richer and contribute more to the narrative. Its predecessor, however, does have its share of memorable scenes, such as the cancan dance towards the end, and the bits with the dog. There wasn't a dog in the American version, probably because they realized the presence of a dog makes the victim appear less isolated. In the British version, Bella Mallen (Wynyard) also gets outside more than her counterpart in the American film, and although she's manipulated in the same ways (often exactly the same), she's not as closed in as Bergman's character.

As for Anton Walbrook vs. Charles Boyer, I'd say they're about even on the evil and devious scales. Boyer's character comes across as more calculating, whereas Walbrook is creepily zany. I didn't think I'd like the 1940 adaptation as much as I did; it was well worth watching to see how the films were different and for it's singularities.

This Gun for Hire

After reading Graham Greene’s 1936 novel A Gun for Sale, I watched This Gun for Hire (1942), which is based on the book and stars Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd. Unfortunately, I can't get my hands on Short Cut to Hell (1957), also a black-and-white film noir, also based on Greene’s novel (and the only movie directed by James Cagney).

A Gun for Sale is set in San Francisco during the war and adopts the basic story line of Greene’s novel (set in London and Czechoslovakia): hired killer (Raven) kills, gets paid in stolen notes, the police believe him to be the thief, he’s hunted for this crime while going after the man who double-crossed him, he kind of teams up with a fairly sympathetic girl whose cop boyfriend is after him, and at the end the bullets fly.

One notable difference: Raven’s initial kill in the book is intended to provoke a European war, whereas in the film he takes down a blackmailer and recovers a chemical formula which is to be sold to America’s then-enemy Japan (to make bombs or, as Lake’s character puts it, “Japanese breakfast food for America”).

Reading A Gun for Sale was tough where the prose were choppy. Since it’s not as polished as Greene’s other novels, I figure he wrote it quicker, as a potboiler. But by the same token this gives it an unrefined feel and the intentionally hard-boiled narrative more of an edge. Watching This Gun for Hire was also tough at times, because of Veronica Lake! Her singular charm and looks had me losing focus on the plot. As for Alan Ladd, it was his first major screen appearance, and watching his ferocity and sharp performance, juxtaposed with Lake’s all-around softness, it’s not surprising the pair would be cast together in later noir.

The Prowler

This is one of the creepiest films noir I've seen. Webb Garwood (Van Heflin) is a sleazy cop dispatched to have a look around the home of Susan Gilvray (Evelyn Keyes), who has reported a peeping Tom. The prowler is gone, and Susan's husband (John), a late night radio personality, is at work. Garwood falls for Susan right away, especially her wealth, and he comes across John's life insurance policy. An affair lasts for a spell before Garwood gets a sinister idea and dumps Susan in order to carry out his plan. John is next to take on the part of "prowler" but not deliberately. The crime has been set up, and Garwood shoots the unsuspecting husband dead.

Susan at first accuses Garwood of murder, then she's seduced by his slick charm and is convinced the killing was an accident. She marries him, too, just weeks into widowhood. Their honeymoon goes south when they go north to a ghost town called Calico and Susan tells her new hubbie she's had their bun in the oven for four months. What? Four months! That means everyone will know they were sleeping together before John was murdered. They try to come up with a solution. My favorite: give the baby up for adoption and then adopt it so they'll have the papers to prove it's not really theirs. (Um, huh?)

The Prowler (1951), directed by Joseph Losey and produced by Sam Spiegel, was scripted by Dalton Trumbo, who was on the Hollywood blacklist that year so the film was credited to someone else, but interestingly it's Trumbo's voice we hear every time John speaks on the radio. It's John's signature sign-off "I'll be seeing you, Susan," off an old album, that spookily interrupts the newlyweds' baby planning, and Susan breaks down and goes into labor. Their new life falls apart quickly, and as Garwood's crumbles fastest he tries to escape the police (Halt! Halt! Halt!) by climbing up a gravelly hillside while displaced stones roll down behind him in an unsubtle shower of foreshadowing. Awesome.