“Gaslight,” set in the 1880s when lamps were fueled by gas, depicts a husband manipulating his wife into believing she’s crazy. Gaslighting, as Merriam-Webster defines it, is “the act or practice of grossly misleading someone especially for one’s own advantage.” Our friends at the dictionary choose every year’s word based solely on data: This year saw a 1,740% increase in lookups on Merriam-Webster’s site for the term gaslighting.īut the term sprung from a movie that came out in 1944. And, here’s the real rub, the ways we do it ourselves. Unpublished letters cannot be answered individually.We have to engage with issues like gaslighting, including all the ugliness of the ways it’s been done in the past and the ways it’s still happening today. Questions of popular interest are answered in the column. E-mail and (because of spam situation) write the name of your newspaper in subject heading. Readers are invited to write in English or Spanish: Ask Jerry, Post Office Box 42444, Washington DC 20015. Jerry Romansky is a syndicated columnist. In the movie industry, that is among the many minor myths. The MSNBC television guest who referenced “Hitchcock’s Gaslight” was not the first and probably not the last to do so. The riveting twists and turns certainly resemble the 1940s Hitchcock films. “Gaslight” (1944) is easily, though erroneously, considered an Alfred Hitchcock movie. In the United States, this play was repeated with such titles as “”Five Chelsea Lane” and Angel Street.” It evolved from the even earlier British stage play titled “Gaslight” (1938). It starred Anton Walbrook, Diana Wynyard, Frank Pettingell, and Cathleen Cordell. Should you be further curious, the less known original British version of the “Gaslight” film (1940) was significantly different in style while sharing the same basic plot. I recall his stating that on at least one television interview.įor those who are interested in this genre and have yet to enjoy “Gaslight,” you can purchase the movie through the usual online shopping Web sites (e.g., It is available on Blu-ray, DVD, and other formats. Parenthetically, I might add my own recollection that “Shadow of a Doubt” was Alfred Hitchcock’s favorite Alfred Hitchcock movie. Perhaps more accurately, it is viewed as a movie inspired by several Hitchcock movies preceding “Gaslight.” A few examples of these American mystery thrillers by Hitchcock are “Rebecca” (1940), “Suspicion” (1941), and “Shadow of a Doubt” (1943). Often, “Gaslight” is inaccurately mentioned as a Hitchcock movie. As for whether the 1944 movie “Gaslight” is an Alfred Hitchcock film, I can be definitive. As for whether you “gaslight” your wife, I have no idea. That would be whether “Gaslight” is actually an Alfred Hitchcock film. On another related matter, I also disagree with my wife. She occasionally claims that I “gaslight” her (i.e., try to drive her insane) as a tactic like Charles Boyer attempted with Ingrid Bergman. On several points, this resulted in a long conversation with my wife. He was obviously referring to the vintage 1944 movie “Gaslight” starring Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotton, and Angela Lansbury. We heard a guest use “Hitchcock’s Gaslight“ as a metaphor. Recently, my wife and I were watching a political interview on television (MSNBC).
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