Comments on: Gloria the Obscure

By: morlockjeff

morlockjeff — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 19:09:18 +0000

Yes, it’s quite amazing isn’t it that Gloria made The Bad and the Beautiful and The Glass Wall back to back? Ironically, The Glass Wall proves what a convincing dramatic actress she could be while, as you pointed out in your piece, her Oscar for The Bad and the Beautiful seems unearned (more the fault of a superficial, shallow screenplay than the performance).

By: moirafinnie

moirafinnie — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:53:45 +0000

Hi Jeff- I just saw The Glass Wall, which, as you mentioned had an uneven, well-intentioned neo-realist feel to it. The highlight of the film for me was seeing G.G. explain her life to the fugitive. As she described the deadening effect of her life on her desperate soul as she mimed putting the tips on shoelaces for Vittorio Gassman's refugee, her anger and exhaustion brought the scene to vivid life. I find it ironic and a remarkable testament to her skill that within one year, Grahame could go from the stylish humor and Helen Rose gowns worn by her character in The Bad and the Beautiful to her down-on-her-luck character in The Glass Wall, just hanging on to life on the fringes of life in NYC, playing a person so desperate she'd steal two dimes from two street urchins. Frankly, I'm glad she played this role opposite Gassman rather than Shelley Winters. Gloria Grahame almost never whined, but could play a plucky role with a thin veneer of toughness better than anyone at times.

By: morlockjeff

morlockjeff — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 01:19:50 +0000

Steve, the “obscure” label I used is in reference to aspects of her acting abilities rarely noted by critics or film scholars – her comedic talents, her dramatic chops. I didn’t mean Gloria the actress was obscure. My post was intented to spotlight roles and films that offer another side of her beside the popular stereotype. Check out MERTON OF THE MOVIES or ROUGHSHOD for a different Gloria.

By: Molo

Molo — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:33:03 +0000

The 13th of August just happens to be my birthday and I can’t think of a finer present than a day of Gloria Grahame on TCM. I scheduled the day off as soon as it was announced.

Some of us over on the message boards have been keeping a tribute thread to Grahame going for well over a year now. I’m so glad TCM chose to give her a nod for the Summer Under the Stars theme this year.

I have written on several occasions that I thought Gloria had a flair for comedy that was never fully explored. Merton of the Movies being a great example. Now that I have read your thoughts on Blonde Fever, I’m really looking forward to finally getting a chance to see it. I’m also looking forward to seeing Roughshod and The Glass Wall for the first time.

Thanks for the nice write up on Grahame and giving her comedic abilities a mention. It’s great to see the Morlocks talking about Grahame this week.

By: Steve Kilcullen

Steve Kilcullen — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:08:56 +0000

Gloria Grahame has been one of my favorite actresses for a long time. I was shocked to discover she’s considered “obscure”! Nonetheless, “In A Lonely Place” is one of my favorite films, due in large part to Gloria.

By: Richard Harland Smith

Richard Harland Smith — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 05:52:52 +0000

she only has one scene with the title character, played by Warren Oates

For which she was paid the princely sum of $500.

By: morlockjeff

morlockjeff — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 00:33:04 +0000

Then you’ll really enjoy seeing Paris in THE GLASS WALL as a aspiring jazz musician with a stage mother girlfriend (that’s another story and not this film). He slowly develops a conscience and some personal moral scruples – should he help his desperate friend (just some guy that saved his life) or go to a live club audition that could make his career and life? So I guess he’s the indirect hero by the end. But you have to see it to see him racing through the halls of the United Nations at the climax. Shot on real locations. I’ve never been inside the U.N. Now I have….circa 1953. I’m sure it doesn’t look that way now. What is the United Nations anyway?

By: Suzi Doll

Suzi Doll — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 23:16:50 +0000

Nice overview of obscure Gloria roles. A non-Gloria fact jumped out at me, though. Jerry Paris was in The Glass Wall? Interesting. I met him while I was at Northwestern because he and Garry Marshall used to come in once a year and work with the TV students. He directed Marshall’s 1970s TV shows, like Laverne and Shirley and Happy Days. Paris and Marshall were quite a pair when they were speaking informally to the students. I saw Paris in The Wild One after I had met him, and I couldn’t reconcile the Jerry I met with the biker he played in the film.