As the term “gaslighting” has taken off in the culture, the film has gained newfound relevance as a psychological thriller about the withering long-term impact of lies and manipulation. She adds to the air of hostility that keeps the heroine penned inside the house, increasingly convinced that she’s losing a grip on her sanity. As Charles Boyer drives his bride (Ingrid Bergman) to madness in an effort to secure some lost jewels, Lansbury serves as an accomplice of sorts by flirting with him and stoking her paranoia. In her screen debut, Lansbury needed only a few scenes to earn an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress, which speaks to the suggestive potency of her performance as a young maid of dubious intent. Over a half-century stretch of her durable career, Lansbury cycled through Disney and Agatha Christie, but also played down-to-earth character roles and could hold her own romping through splashy musical numbers, as these 15 movies and her biggest television hit demonstrate. An all-purpose performer with a golden voice and extraordinary versatility, Angela Lansbury, who died Tuesday at 96, could be affectionate and menacing - and sometimes both at once - in films as varied as “The Manchurian Candidate” and “Beauty and the Beast.” Her accent could travel from the Cockney of “Gaslight” to the Mississippi twang of “The Long, Hot Summer” and many destinations in between.
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