The screen output of Gertrude Lawrence was sadly brief and in fact this was her last film role and first since Rembrandt which was 14 years earlier. She never quite registered on screen as she did on stage. Lawrence was terribly disappointed that she did not get to the film version of Lady In The Dark. And a bigger loss was the fact that she did not live to be considered to play Anna in The King And I on screen.
According to Sheridan Morley's biography of Gertrude Lawrence the reviews for her performance were not the best. Sadly she suffered under the same handicap that Joan Crawford did when she did the film version of Rain. People remembered what Jeanne Eagels did on Broadway and Joan just suffered with the comparison.
Critics and theatergoers remembered Laurette Taylor as Amanda Wingfield on the stage and Lawrence just came off second best. Tennessee Williams was totally enthralled by what she did in The Glass Menagerie, maybe his most autobiographical work. I couldn't find what Williams thought of Lawrence, but I did find references to her reviews in Morley's biography of Lawrence.
I found nothing wrong with her. I along with many others had a lot of problems with the forced happy ending that was given the play. Briefly Lawrence lives with her two adult children and she's a stifling and controlling influence. Son Arthur Kennedy rebels, he wants to get out and see and do things and he's succeeded because the play is done in flashback where you see Kennedy working as a seaman. The sea for this Williams's character is a symbol of freedom the way it is with any number of Eugene O'Neill characters.
We know already what has happened to Kennedy. His sister is beautifully played by Jane Wyman, it's a strong echo of her performance in Johnny Belinda where she plays another fragile character. Wyman is totally dominated by Lawrence who has good reason to be worried that Kennedy is going to leave, she gets Wyman to take some typing class where she can gain secretarial skills and support her in her old age. Wyman can't leave the nest though. Her whole world revolves about a series of glass figurines that she treats as living pets, her Glass Menagerie. Part of her problem is that she is slightly lame, not mentioned, but more than likely from childhood infantile paralysis for which there was no cure yet.
Lawrence is forever taking about all the beaus she had as a young southern belle, not unlike Blanche Dubois from that other Tennessee Williams classic, A Streetcar Name Desire. If Wyman won't be a career woman than we have to get her married off.
After a lot of pressure Kennedy brings home one of his co-workers, Kirk Douglas. Douglas who has great screen charm and sometimes it is used with some of the biggest heels he's played on screen is a genuinely nice person here who even remembers the shy and diffident Wyman from high school. Sad to say he has to let her down even in a gentle way.
It's what happens after that is the difference. In the play both Lawrence and Wyman's character are doomed as Kennedy just reaches for his freedom. There is some indication that Wyman may wind up in some asylum. In this film the indications are that Wyman will now have developed some self assurance, something Williams never meant for his character.
I think Gertrude Lawrence's performance can stand up to others in her character. But the play itself was unforgivably compromised.
According to Sheridan Morley's biography of Gertrude Lawrence the reviews for her performance were not the best. Sadly she suffered under the same handicap that Joan Crawford did when she did the film version of Rain. People remembered what Jeanne Eagels did on Broadway and Joan just suffered with the comparison.
Critics and theatergoers remembered Laurette Taylor as Amanda Wingfield on the stage and Lawrence just came off second best. Tennessee Williams was totally enthralled by what she did in The Glass Menagerie, maybe his most autobiographical work. I couldn't find what Williams thought of Lawrence, but I did find references to her reviews in Morley's biography of Lawrence.
I found nothing wrong with her. I along with many others had a lot of problems with the forced happy ending that was given the play. Briefly Lawrence lives with her two adult children and she's a stifling and controlling influence. Son Arthur Kennedy rebels, he wants to get out and see and do things and he's succeeded because the play is done in flashback where you see Kennedy working as a seaman. The sea for this Williams's character is a symbol of freedom the way it is with any number of Eugene O'Neill characters.
We know already what has happened to Kennedy. His sister is beautifully played by Jane Wyman, it's a strong echo of her performance in Johnny Belinda where she plays another fragile character. Wyman is totally dominated by Lawrence who has good reason to be worried that Kennedy is going to leave, she gets Wyman to take some typing class where she can gain secretarial skills and support her in her old age. Wyman can't leave the nest though. Her whole world revolves about a series of glass figurines that she treats as living pets, her Glass Menagerie. Part of her problem is that she is slightly lame, not mentioned, but more than likely from childhood infantile paralysis for which there was no cure yet.
Lawrence is forever taking about all the beaus she had as a young southern belle, not unlike Blanche Dubois from that other Tennessee Williams classic, A Streetcar Name Desire. If Wyman won't be a career woman than we have to get her married off.
After a lot of pressure Kennedy brings home one of his co-workers, Kirk Douglas. Douglas who has great screen charm and sometimes it is used with some of the biggest heels he's played on screen is a genuinely nice person here who even remembers the shy and diffident Wyman from high school. Sad to say he has to let her down even in a gentle way.
It's what happens after that is the difference. In the play both Lawrence and Wyman's character are doomed as Kennedy just reaches for his freedom. There is some indication that Wyman may wind up in some asylum. In this film the indications are that Wyman will now have developed some self assurance, something Williams never meant for his character.
I think Gertrude Lawrence's performance can stand up to others in her character. But the play itself was unforgivably compromised.