The statuary Gloria Grahame is often featured in film noir pictures as a tarnished beauty with an irresistible sexual allure. During this time, she made films for several Hollywood studios. She received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Crossfire in 1947.
I love movies more than I can properly articulate. I love watching them on tv, because they have been present in every moment of my life I can remember. They were literally my best friends when I was a kid and a good companion after a long working day today. I can always rely on a good film when I am sad and tired. One of the few things that I learned in drama school is the simple trick of taking a step back to view something you already know through a new, academic lens. I learned how to view, deconstruct, and understand something as seemingly innate as genre. And it was in that very moment during a class that I found out that two film genres were at first place in my favorite list: one is the Italian Neorealism which I talked about in one of my previous post (you can read the post here) and the other one is Film Noir, for which I will dedicate a full post in the near future.
Gloria Grahame is by far considered one of the most iconic actress of film noir, a suicide blonde and Academy Award-winning actress who achieved enormous success in Hollywood between 1940s and 1950s, the years noir genre achieved its peak.
With her lisping voice and sleepy eyes, Grahame was in a number of the finest examples of this dark cycle. She gave femme fatality a raw but touchingly vulnerable sensuality, ensuring she was always much more than just good at being bad. But although she won the Oscar for best supporting actress for her part in Vincente Minnelli’s Hollywood melodrama The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), Grahame never became a front-rank star. Off-screen scandals and a turbulent private life damaged her reputation, and her later career is spotted with such debacles as Mansion of the Doomed (1976).
Crossfire (1947)
A man is murdered, apparently by one of a group of demobilized soldiers he met in a bar. But which one? And why?
A Woman’s Secret (1949)
Failed singer Marian Washburn confesses she shot her friend, successful singer Susan Caldwell, but her manager Luke Jordan and Detective Fowler doubt her story and cannot establish a reasonable motive.
In a Lonely Place (1950)
A potentially violent screenwriter is a murder suspect until his lovely neighbor clears him. However, she soon starts to have her doubts.
Sudden Fear (1952)
After an ambitious actor insinuates himself into the life of a wealthy middle-aged playwright and marries her, he plots with his mistress to murder her.
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
An unscrupulous movie producer uses an actress, a director and a writer to achieve success.
The Glass Wall (1953)
Peter is a refugee who wants to make a better life for himself in America, but he doesn't have the proper papers. Desperate for entry, he jumps ship and flees to New York to search for a World War II veteran whom he helped during the war.
The Big Heat (1953)
Tough cop Dave Bannion takes on a politically powerful crime syndicate.
Human Desire (1954)
A Korean War vet returns to his job as a railroad engineer and becomes involved in an affair with a co-worker's wife following a murder on a train where they meet.
Naked Alibi (1954)
A chief of police detectives fired for brutality, tries to get evidence on a man suspected of killing 3 of his officers.
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