I tried watching Gaslight last weekend. The Cardinals were making a lot of errors against the Giants, and I wasn't in the mood to watch that. But I apparently wasn't in the mood to watch a guy try to drive his wife insane so he could steal a fortune without her realizing it. Watching Charles Boyer (as Gregory) hide her things and then claim she'd lost them, or bar her from seeing anyone, but then present it to outsiders as being her choice was just maddening. I kept muttering at Paula (Ingrid Bergman) to shove him into the fireplace. Or stab him. I wanted her to stab him a lot.
It's probably related to that unease I mentioned with regard to Terminator 2. It's not entirely the same, since Gregory is trying to make her crazy, but there's still that sense where someone else has made a determination on the character's mental health, and the character has no way to fight this. Dr. Silberman and Gregory hold the cards, they can move the goal posts however they like. If Paula confronts Gregory about his past behavior, he can just claim she's confused, not remembering correctly, and then do something to reinforce his argument. And Paula, not realizing what kind of man she's dealing with, trusts him and his intentions.
Which did make the ending, when it came, highly satisfying. Playing up all the doubts and absent-mindedness he'd tried to attribute to her, but twisting it around, confronting him with his actions. She dangles the carrot in front of him, then pulls it away beautifully.
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