Pop Culture 101 - GASLIGHT

Some prints of the original 1939 British film version still exist, despite MGM's attempt in 1944 to destroy all existing copies to avoid competition and comparison. This version still turns up occasionally on Turner Classic Movies.

Gaslight was referenced in the TV movie A Slight Case of Murder (1999), in which William H. Macy plays a film critic who tries to cover up the accidental death of his lover.

"Gaslighting" has entered into the language as a term for deliberately trying to drive someone to insanity by manipulating their environment, the way Boyer does to Bergman.

A similar plot device was used in the movie Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), in which Olivia de Havilland and Joseph Cotten (one of the original cast members of Gaslight) attempt to drive Bette Davis mad in order to take possession of her home and money.

by Rob Nixon