PLEASE sir, can I have some more film noir?
Like Oliver Twist, we are asking the question, only we will not be turned away with a clip across the ear.
Today we will go to the land of Charles Dickens to continue our feast of noir.
As we now know, classic noir refers to Hollywood films from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. But that is just an easy definition to cover many noirs because Gaslight is a British film made in 1940.
If Hollywood had had its way, we would not be watching Gaslight later today.
Gaslight started life as the 1938 play Gas Light by Patrick Hamilton. Theatre buffs can imagine how astounding the play would have been with the central gaslight icon and the glorious role-reversal scene towards the end.
The play made it to Broadway with a strange name change to Angel Street. If anyone knows the story behind the name change I would love to hear it.
Anyway, the British movie and the Broadway play, both called Angel Street were successful and the Hollywood studio MGM paid its respects. It bought the remake rights. But - and some like big buts in Hollywood – MGM demanded all existing prints of the British version be destroyed. The studio further demanded the negatives be obliterated as well. Luckily this outrageous caveat was not met.
