The film Gaslight is a suspenseful, engaging, and quite puzzling film, directed by George Cukor in 1944, a top film director in Hollywood in the 20th century. He was known as the “woman director,” based on his ability to bring out the best performance from leading female actresses. Surprisingly, Cukor absolutely hated this label because he thinks “it’s stupid”. He feels that he is not giving the credit he deserves, because he does the same for male actors (Flint). Gaslight is about a diabolic, jewelry obsessed husband who systematically and methodically attempts to prime his fragile wife to make her go insane, in order to accomplish his mission. It may seem obsolete and unbeneficial, watching a “black and white” film in this day and age. However,…show more content… Cukor indentation is to show that no bad deed goes unpunished, obsession will lead to evil, and if you work for evil you will work in vein. After Gregory has been arrested, detective Cameron asked him “how does it feel to have planned, killed, and tortured for something and then to know it’s been for nothing” (Cukor). this statement summaries the whole outcome of been evil. Throughout the film, Gregory was winning. However, at the end he failed and failed wholly. The screenshot below shows when Gregory was begging for mercy at the end, but Paula told him, “If I were not mad, I could have helped you. Whatever you had done, I could have pitied and protected you. But because I am mad, I hate you. Because I am mad, I have betrayed you. And because I'm mad, I'm rejoicing in my heart, without a shred of pity, without a shred of regret, watching you go with glory in my heart!” (Cukor). She proved to him that she was truly mad, by making the right decision.
Overall, Gaslight is an amazing and educative film, and its way better that the sex driven films in cinemas today. To state this explicitly, Cukor has made clear that he who laugh last will laugh best, and it is obvious who laughed last in Gaslight. Before you live this earth, make sure you binge watch Cukor’s film collection. He will not disappoint