Ingrid Bergman won her first Oscar for her portrayal of Paula Alquist, a naive and love stricken girl who marries a man she meets two weeks after their introductions. Orphaned as a young girl, she lived with her mother's sister until one day she came across the strangled corpse of her aunt. No killer nor any motive were determined. After ten years of living in Italy, she is seduced by a charming Frenchman and convinced to return to her home in London where her guardian was strangled. The killer, of course, is the Frenchman, but that is only a spoiler if you're incurably dense.
What I believed was going to happen in this film after learning his identity was that the audience would know that Paula's new husband was the murderer with a strange fixation on her family. Slowly but surely the pieces would fall into place for her or one of Paula's two maids, and then it would become something of a cat and mouse chase as he finally tried to kill her as well. Oh how my powers of perception failed me. To be sure, that is indeed how the story began, but it took a sinister, and much more chilling, path than what I might have guessed.
Instead it becomes a gothic tale of mystery and madness as her husband, Gregory (Charles Boyer), instead tries to confine her in the house, and systematically attempts to drive her out of her mind. The house they move into is perfect for such a endeavor. It is full of deep shadows and squeaky doors. Everything was preserved just as it was after the death of Paula's aunt, and entering the house the old sights bring forth memories. She tells Charles of the death of her opera-singing aunt, how she found her before the great fireplace with the life choked out of her, underneath the giant portrait of her as Empress Theodora (she died operatically as well, didn't she?).
The early bliss of their marriage turns sour when Charles begins to point out Paula's forgetfulness. She begins to lose things and can't recall conversations. Eventually he begins to convince her to remain at home; she really isn't well. But things begin to turn from mere forgetfulness to lunacy when, during the nights when Charles is at work, she begins hearing noises--bumps above her bed, creaking, and the gaslights in her room dim as though there were somebody else in the house that she is never able to find. The maids neither see nor hear anything, but it's just as well, they need their jobs and wouldn't contradict the master of the house who tells her it is her illness.
Self-induced psychosis is fun and scary to watch. This is labeled as a thriller, or a mystery, but I rather thought of it as a horror story. It was almost Victor Hugo-esque in its concept, and it sent chills down my spine. Perhaps I would not have looked at it that way had it not been for the stellar performance given by Bergman. There is a reason that she is always placed with Kate Hepburn and Bette Davis as one of the three greatest actresses of all time, and it is because an audience can know the absolute truth about Paula--that her husband is trying to break her mind--and yet at the same time she can still convince us that she is going insane, and that what she sees and hears is all in her head. It gave me goosebumps every time the lights dimmed in her room simply because the look of dread and hopelessness in her eyes was real.
The cinematography and art direction in this film are fantastic. The old Victorian town home is exactly what it needed to be for the purposes of this film. It was spooky, and dusty, there was a constant fog out front, and the winding staircase brought the audience from the safety of the maids' room and the den to the nightmare of the next landing which seems a world away from any help.
My trouble with the film was the motive of the husband. I kept asking myself what they were over and over again. Was he simply a sadist? Did he move beyond killing to a new level of evil? Was there something else that I wasn't seeing? What was to be gained by getting rid of her? She had nothing to offer. When I found out his motive I was confused, and frankly I wasn't buying it. Too much time had elapsed in the film for him not to get what it was he wanted. Watch it and tell me if I'm wrong.
The slightly disappointing ending was forgivable to a really unnerving beginning and middle. Any fan of Bergman's beauty and talent, or anyone who just wants a good campfire ghost story should check this one out.
3.5/4
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