Gloria Grahame, Bad Girl of Film Noir

A marvelous actress, Gloria Grahame (1923–1981) was also an iconic figure of film noir. Her talents are showcased in several classic motion pictures of the 1940s and 1950s, including It’s a Wonderful Life, Crossfire, In a Lonely Place, The Greatest Show on Earth, The Big Heat, Oklahoma!, and The Bad and the Beautiful, for which she earned an Academy Award. This comprehensive overview of Gloria Grahame’s life and work examines each of her feature films in detail, as well as her made-for-television productions, her television-series appearances and her stage career. Also discussed are the varied ways in which Grahame’s acting performances were affected by her tumultuous personal life—which included four marriages, the second to director Nicholas Ray and the fourth to Ray’s stepson Anthony.

Robert J. Lentz works in the fields of movie distribution and theater management, and also reviews films for print and radio media. His website is filmbobbery.com. He lives in Randolph, New Jersey.

Robert J. Lentz

Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 366
Bibliographic Info: 105 photos, appendices, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2011
pISBN: 978-0-7864-3483-1
eISBN: 978-0-7864-8722-6
Imprint: McFarland

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS      1
INTRODUCTION      3

Short Films: Soundies (1943–1944)      13
Feature Films      17
Blonde Fever (1944)      17
Without Love (1945)      22
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)      26
It Happened in Brooklyn (1947)      39
Crossfire (1947)      43
Song of the Thin Man (1947)      51
Merton of the Movies (1947)      58
A Woman’s Secret (1949)      64
Roughshod (1949)      69
In a Lonely Place (1950)      74
The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)      84
Macao (1952)      96
Sudden Fear (1952)      103
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)      110
The Glass Wall (1953)      121
Man on a Tightrope (1953)      127
The Big Heat (1953)      134
Prisoners of the Casbah (1953)      143
The Good Die Young (1954)      147
Human Desire (1954)      152
Naked Alibi (1954)      158
The Cobweb (1955)      163
Not as a Stranger (1955)      172
Oklahoma! (1955)      178
The Man Who Never Was (1956)      195
Ride Out for Revenge (1957)      201
Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)      206
Ride Beyond Vengeance (1966)      212
Blood and Lace (1971)      218
The Todd Killings (1971)      223
Chandler (1971)      230
The Loners (1972)      234
Tarot (1973)      238
Mama’s Dirty Girls (1974)      243
Mansion of the Doomed (1976)      247
A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square (1979)      252
Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979/1982)      256
Melvin and Howard (1980)      263
The Nesting (1981)      271

Feature-Length Made-for-Television Movies, Miniseries and Specials      277
Escape (1971 Movie)      277
Black Noon (1971 Movie)      280
The Girl on the Late, Late Show (1974 Movie)      284
Rich Man, Poor Man (1976 Miniseries) 289
Seventh Avenue (1977 Miniseries) 298
The Dancing Princesses (1979 Filmed
Stage Production)      304
The Merry Wives of Windsor (1979 Filmed Stage Production)      307
Mr. Griffin and Me (1981 Special)      312

Television Series Appearances      319

APPENDIX A—THE FILMS LISTED BY STUDIO AND DISTRIBUTOR      329
APPENDIX B—THE STAGE PLAYS      331
APPENDIX C—JOY HALLWARD: THE OLDER SISTER’S FILM APPEARANCES      334
NOTES ON SOURCES      335
BIBLIOGRAPHY      349
INDEX      351

• “this reference documents the film and television work of Academy Award-winning actress Gloria Grahame from the 1940s through her death in 1981”—Reference & Research Book News
• “unquestionably important in terms of research…appropriately chosen film stills that perfectly capture the nature of the roles which Grahame played…successfully contemplates the changes in Hollywood and its audience”—O Filmu Noir V Cestine