'' is a
1944 Melodrama /
Film Noir set at the turn of the century. The film is based on a novel by Margaret Carpenter and directed by
Jacques Tourneur . The film is reminiscent of many movie melodramas, in particular ''Gaslight'', made in England in
1939 and remade in the U.S. in
1944 . The film was nominated for one
Academy Award for ''Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White''.
Hedy Lamarr 's singing voice was dubbed by
Paula Raymond .
In 1903, Doctor Huntington Bailey (Brent) meets a friendly older lady in train. She tells him that she is going to visit her brother Nick and his lovely young wife Allida. In New York Bailey hears that his train companion suddenly died. Shortly afterward, he meets the strange couple and gets suspicious of Nick's treatment of his wife. Nick keeps Allida, who he is trying to pass off as crazy, a virtual prisoner in their London town house, cutting off all contact with the outside world. The kindly psychiatrist Baily takes it upon himself to attempt to free his new love Allida from the control of the insanely jealous Nick.
A frenzied gun battle in an aquarium, replete with shattered glass, gushing water and floundering fish may be the most memorable (and often imitated) scene in the film.
