The Glass Menagerie *** (1950, Jane Wyman, Kirk Douglas, Gertrude Lawrence, Arthur Kennedy) – Classic Movie Review 7563

Unfortunately, director Irving Rapper’s 1950 The Glass Menagerie is not an ideal version of one of Tennessee Williams’s most intriguing plays about life in St Louis, thanks to its plodding pace, uncinematic filming and the heavy hand of director Rapper.

However, it has its charms. Gertrude Lawrence’s lighthearted comedy performance as the nagging Southern mother Amanda Wingfield (although in the wrong spirit entirely – the film is supposed to be a touching tearjerker) is very beguiling and does lend considerable entertainment value.

Also Jane Wyman achieves true pathos as her shy, crippled daughter, Laura Wingfield. An uncharacteristic performance from Kirk Douglas as the gentleman caller Jim O’Connor and Arthur Kennedy as the reminiscing poetic son, merchant marine officer Tom Wingfield, also exactly hit the spot.

The play did not need opening up and additional characters added, though, but it was kind of inevitable with this kind of big Warner Bros production.

Also in the cast are Ralph Sanford, Ann Tyrrell, John Compton, Gertrude Graber, Chris Alcaide, Sarah Edwards, Sean McClory, Marshall Romer, Louise Lorimer, James Horne and Perdita Chandler.

It was filmed again by Anthony Harvey (with Katharine Hepburn) as The Glass Menagerie in 1973 and by Paul Newman as The Glass Menagerie in 1987 (with Joanne Woodward).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7563

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