Daily Dialogue — April 23, 2017

GREGORY: You remember our first days. You remember Italy?
PAULA: There have been times when I thought I only dreamed those days.
GREGORY: Come closer, Paula. Closer. Look into my eyes. If I ever meant anything to you, and I believe I did… then help me, Paula. Give me another chance. Look, in the drawer of that cupboard there is a knife. Get it and cut me free. Be quick, Paula. Get me the knife. Cut me free. Would you get it, Paula? Would you get it for me?
PAULA: Yes, I’ll get it. I’ll get it for you.
GREGORY: Hurry, Paula.
PAULA: There’s no knife here.
GREGORY: Yes. I put it there.
PAULA: I don’t see any knife.
GREGORY: I put it there tonight.
PAULA: No, it isn’t here. You must have dreamed you put it there. Are you suggesting that this is a knife I hold in my hand? Have you gone mad, my husband? Or is it I who am mad? Yes, of course. That’s it. I am mad.

— Gaslight (1944), written by John Van Deuten & Walter Reisch and John L. Balderston, based on the play by Patrick Hamilton

The Daily Dialogue theme for this week: Lying. Today’s suggestion by Gisela Wehrl.

Trivia: In MGM’s script, Charles Boyer was supposed to have told Ingrid Bergman at the end that he had loved her all along. This was an addition to the play made by the screenwriter. David O Selznick, when reading over the script, was horrified and promptly sent MGM one of his famous long and involved memos, this one ordering the studio to omit the line, which it did.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by Gisela: “Gregory lies to Paula all the time to drive her crazy. This form of manipulation ‘that seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or members of a group, hoping to make targets question their own memory, perception, and sanity’ (Wikipedia) is called gaslighting — based on the movie’s title. When Gregory finally got caught, he still hopes to have power over Paula. And she tells him, she will help him. But she copies his lies. He insists two times, that he put the knife there as he cannot imagine, that Paula would lie to him. Just as Paula couldn’t imagine before, that her husband would lie to her. Seeing her with a knife in her hand and lying about holding it, makes obvious how malicious this manipulations operates.”