MGM head Louis B. Mayer, determined to eliminate the competition for what was expected to be one of the studio's biggest hits of the year, ordered all prints of the 1939 British version purchased and destroyed. Prints, however, did survive, and the film turned up again in the 1950s, often under the title of the original 1938 stage production, Angel Street.

Jack Benny did a spoof of the movie on his TV show in the 1950s. Called "Autolight," Benny spoofed the Boyer character while Barbara Stanwyck performed a comic burlesque of the original Bergman part. MGM brought an infringement suit against Benny, but the comedian's lawyers argued the skit was in the realm of parody and therefore not a copyright violation. The suit was dropped.

The British play on which Gaslight was based, Angel Street, was produced on Broadway in 1941 starring Vincent Price and Judith Evans.

Screenwriter John Van Druten was also a successful playwright and many of his plays were made into movies: I Remember Mama (1948), Bell, Book and Candle (1958), and Cabaret (1972, based on his play I Am a Camera, which was made into a movie in 1955). His play Old Acquaintance became a Bette Davis movie in 1943 and was remade by George Cukor as Rich and Famous (1981), the director's last film.

Ingrid Bergman won her Oscar for Gaslight while filming The Bells of St. Mary's (1945) with previous Oscar winners Bing Crosby and director Leo McCarey. In her acceptance speech, she said, "I am particularly glad to get [the Oscar] this time because I'm working on a picture at the moment with Mr. Crosby and Mr. McCarey. And I'm afraid if I went on the set tomorrow without an award, neither of them would speak to me."

Bergman learned her lesson shooting the love scene with Boyer before any of the rest of the film had been shot. She hated doing passionate takes with a leading man she barely knew. Years later, making the movie Goodbye Again (1961), she co-starred with Anthony Perkins who played her younger lover. Before shooting began, Bergman invited Perkins into her dressing room and asked him to kiss her so she wouldn't blush and feel uncomfortable when the cameras rolled for their first love scene.

During the production of Gaslight, Boyer's wife, Pat, was pregnant after many years of trying to have a baby. Bergman said Boyer was always rushing to the phone to check on his wife as the expected birth date drew near. The couple thought the baby wouldn't arrive until after filming, but their only son, Michael, was weeks early. One day, Boyer rushed to the phone and came back with tears streaming down his face. Pat had delivered while he was on the set. The cast and crew immediately opened bottles of champagne.

In the big confrontation scene between the chambermaid and the lady of the house, Lansbury was required to light a cigarette in defiance of her mistress's orders. But because she was only 17, the social worker and teacher assigned to her would not allow her to smoke until she was a year older. When her 18th birthday arrived, Bergman and the cast threw her a party on the set, and the scene was done shortly after.

Boyer opened a French library in Los Angeles and formed a French society there.

Bergman placed number 30 on Empire magazine's list of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history in 1995.

Compiled by Rob Nixon