As far as gaslighting stories go, this is pretty standard. There's high levels of melodrama and noir-ish psychological dramatics thrown about and the dastardly George Sanders pulls off a rather fun ex-Nazi villain. Barbara Stanwyck's character caught between her sanity and the increasing pressure of those around her is entertaining but not the best performance and Gary Merrill largely coasts through the film. Much of the beats are really rote and by-the-numbers, which I didn't really mind as I'm a fan of these type of gaslight stories but it also means I was left without a real hook to what I was watching. The ending, though, is absolutely ludicrous and made for a bizarre note to end on with its full speed hysterics and baffling decisions.
As far as gaslighting stories go, this is pretty standard. There's high levels of melodrama and noir-ish psychological dramatics thrown about and the dastardly George Sanders pulls off a rather fun ex-Nazi villain. Barbara Stanwyck's character caught between her sanity and the increasing pressure of those around her is entertaining but not the best performance and Gary Merrill largely coasts through the film. Much of the beats are really rote and by-the-numbers, which I didn't really mind as I'm a fan of these type of gaslight stories but it also means I was left without a real hook to what I was watching. The ending, though, is absolutely ludicrous and made for a bizarre note to end on with its full speed hysterics and baffling decisions.
