American Thrillers Week 8

Gaslight 1944

This film was remarkably interesting to me because there were a lot of suspenseful moments. To start off, we see that a world-famous opera singer, Alice Alquist, was murdered in her London home. However, the perpetrator left without taking the valuable jewels that he killed her for, because Alices niece Paula interrupted him. After the murder of Alice, Paula left London to reside in Italy, where she trained to become an opera singer.

Many years go by, and Paula meets a man named Gregory. Gregory insists on moving back to London in Alices home, Paula is hesitant, but still follows and moves. Furthering, when Paula arrived back in London, she had a lot of anxiety because of her aunt's murder. Gregory decides that Alices belongings should be placed into the attic, in hopes to relieve some of Paulas anxiety, or so we thought. As time goes by, Paula is accused of stealing things, such as a photo and later Gregory's watch. She is described as a kleptomaniac, and Gregory isolates her from the outside world. Paula begins to believe she should not go out in public. Their young house cleaner, Nancy, worsens the situation, as Paula becomes convinced that Nancy loathes her. Gregory tells Paula that she is paranoid and is imagining the maid's disdain, while he secretly flirts with her.

Paula does not know that her husband is really Sergis Bauer, her aunt's murderer. He sought out Paula in Italy with the aim of getting Alice's jewels. He has been secretly rummaging through Alice's belongings in the attic to find the jewels which he is certain are still there. The footsteps Paula heard in the attic were his. The flickering gaslights which he claims she had imagined were caused by his turning on the attic lights, thus reducing the gas to the downstairs lights. The kleptomania exhibited by Paula is all sleight of hand by Gregory.

Next, Gregory, aka sergis, tries to have Paula institutionalized so that he can gain power of attorney over her, so that he can search for the jewels. His plan almost succeeded, but while Paula was out, she ran into an inspector named Brian Cameron. Seeing Paula, who looks very much like her aunt, rekindles Cameron's interest in the cold case murder of Alice and her jewels, a royal gift, that had never been found. With the aid of a police patrol officer, Cameron figures out that Gregory slips into a vacant house next door and enters his own attic via a skylight. Cameron eventually gets inside the house to see Paula and confirms that the gaslights are indeed flickering, and they discover the letter from Bauer that Gregory had told her was a figment of her imagination.

That same evening, Gregory at last discovers the jewels hidden in plain sight, disguised as costume jewelry. He returns home to find that Paula has been visited by another man. Though he knows that he has been discovered, he throws Paula into confusion again, telling her that everything is in her imagination. However, Cameron suddenly appears and confronts Gregory, chasing him to the attic and finally arresting him. Paula follows them and finally, convinced of her own sanity, indulges in a bit of revenge. Alone with him now bound to a chair, he tries to convince her to cut him free so that he can escape. She taunts Gregory, musing that the knife in her hand might not be real, before calling in Cameron to take him away.

Sorry, Wrong Number 1948

In this film, we see Leona Stevenson, a spoiled bedridden daughter of a very wealthy businessperson. She fretfully tries to reach her husband, Henry. The servants have the night off and she is alone in the apartment. She overhears two men planning a murder via a crossed telephone connection. The call cuts off without Leona learning very much other than it is scheduled for the night when a passing train hides any sounds. She calls the telephone company and the police, but with a few concrete details, they do nothing. Next, as she makes many phone calls trying to locate Henry, Leona inadvertently recalls her past in flashbacks. She learns that the secretary met Henry that day with an attractive woman named Sally Lord and did not return to the office. Leona realizes that Sally is the former Sally Hunt, a college friend, who used to be poor. Leona took Henry from Sally and married him against her father's wishes. Sally became the wife of Fred Lord, a lawyer in the district attorney's office. From overheard conversations, she learned that her husband was close to resolving an investigation that involves Henry somehow.

Leona then receives a message from Henry, stating that he is out of town and will be home on Sunday. She then meets up with her doctor, to consult about her lifelong heart troubles. To Leonas surprise, henry knew ten days earlier and had talked to her doctor. As their troubles become more severe, Leona's attacks become more frequent, until she is bedridden. However, Alexander has diagnosed Leona's problems as purely psychosomatic; nothing is wrong with her physically, but he thinks she needs psychiatric help.

Leona calls Evans. He reluctantly discloses that Henry recruited him to steal chemicals from the Cotterell drug company to sell to Morano. Later, Henry decided to bypass Morano when Waldo was transferred. However, Morano showed up with two thugs and intimidated Henry into signing an IOU for $200,000 for his lost profits in three months. When Henry protested that he did not have that much, Morano pointed out that Leona has a large insurance policy. With Morano in custody, Evans stresses that Henry no longer needs to raise the sum. He gives Leona a number to reach Henry, but when she calls, she discovers that it is for the morgue. Leona phones a hospital, asking to hire a nurse for the night. The frantic Henry rushes and calls the traumatized Leona from a train station. While giving Waldo's message for Henry and staying in the bedroom, Leona is ambushed and killed by the arrival of the intruder. Henry calls back and the killer picks up the phone. As a police officer moves in to arrest Henry, the killer tells him that he has the wrong number.

Gender

In both films we see two young woman who have gone through something very traumatic that causes their significant other to have control over them. According to The Last Detail, “as woman’s films, these movies are preoccupied with the ways in which men victimize women through psychological reinforcement of patriarchal rule. In these homes, the husbands make the rules and get to define reality.” We see this heavily throughout both films. In Gaslight, Paula was kept inside because of Gregory, and he later diagnosed her as a kleptomaniac. In Sorry, Wrong Number, we see Henry saying that Leona is a psychosomatic, and that there actually is not anything wrong with her. In this set time period, this was a very common occurrence, because men believed that they were superior to woman.

Historical Significance

In the mid-late nineteen hundred, woman were not viewed as a human beings, but instead someone that a man can control. According to The Classroom, Dee Schneiderman states “Working women were seen as taking scarce jobs away from men who were the rightful breadwinners. In the 1940s, patriotism kept women away from feminist meeting halls. (Schneiderman)” Within this quote that I have provided, we see that woman were a target of hate, because men were angry with the effects of World War II. Moving forward, we see this happening in both films, both men were extremely hateful to their woman and had no respect for them. As mentioned before, this unfortunately happened more than it should have, but as time has gone by woman have gained a lot of respect.

Genre

The films that we were presented in our final week, were both American thrillers. It was quite easy to find similarities between the two because of how similar films were back in the forties. The films worked as if they were in conversation with each other, and I have given evidence from above to support this statement. I find it remarkably interesting how we can take two completely different films, but still find common ground solely because of the category of the film. Overall, both films depicted great historical significance, gender roles in the forties, and how genre can make a film remarkably like the next.