TV and Movies

[Oznell]

Just was reading about this.  There's no doubt there's compelling material for this, since Gloria Grahame's real life was no less lurid and melodramatic than the film noir outings that made her famous.

I loved her and Bogart in "In a Lonely Place", and she was fabulous in a triangle with Joan Crawford and Jack Palance in "Sudden Fear".  And what about her memorable and poignant turn in "The Big Heat", in which Lee Marvin famously threw scalding coffee in her face.  But there were so many others-- it seems that every film noir fan has his favorite Gloria Grahame movie.

Not many fans knew she was so insecure about her changing beauty over the years that she stuffed tissue paper under her upper lip and embarked on countless plastic surgeries on that feature which she thought was undermining her looks.  It was heartbreaking. 

But I have never been able to look at her the same way since learning she abused her 13 year old stepson Tony while married to husband/director Nicholas Ray.  Many accounts of it refer to her "affair" with Tony (which later, creepily turned into a marriage) which to me is a way of minimizing her culpability in the act of abusing a minor in her charge.

Shades of Woody Allen, Roman Polanski, etc.  I'm sure a wonderful actress like Annette Bening will bring off the portrayal magnificently, but the film for me will be tainted. 

[I am still oxox]

She was also in Its a Wonderful Life and Oklahoma

[golding76]

I was just about to write that she was the heavily flirtatious girl interested in George in It's a Wonderful Life.  And in the Pottersville nightmare sequence, she is a floozy.  Boy am I floored about her personal life.  For some reason, I never read anything about the smarmy side of Gloria Grahame.

[golding76]

From Wikipedia - about Gloria's upper lip:

Over the course of her career, Grahame became increasingly concerned with her physical appearance. She was particularly concerned with the appearance of her upper lip which she felt was too thin and had ridges that were too deep. To remedy this, Grahame began stuffing cotton or wads of tissues between her lip and teeth to give the appearance of fullness which she felt gave her a sexier look. Several co-stars discovered this after filming kissing scenes with Grahame as the tissue or cotton would often transfer to their mouths.[6] In the mid-1940s, Grahame began undergoing small cosmetic procedures on her lips and face. According to her niece, Vicky Mitchum, Grahame's obsession with her looks led her to undergo more cosmetic procedures that rendered her upper lip largely immobile because of nerve damage. Mitchum said, "Over the years, she [Grahame] carved herself up, trying to make herself into an image of beauty she felt should exist but didn't. Others saw her as a beautiful person but she never did, and crazy things spread from that."[7]

[golding76]

Photo of Nicholas Ray's son, Anthony (Tony) Ray.

[BeckiWV]

Isn't Bening too old for the role generally or is she playing Grahame when she is older?  I like Bening and I love Grahame in Oklahoma.  

[Judaline]

What is the name of this movie? Is it for the big screen or tv (I hope not!)

I read about her stuffing cotton under her upper lip many years ago. I guess that's what gave her that kind of odd way of speaking, but it was becoming. Different to say the least. Reminds of Ms. Monroe thinking her nose looked big when she smiled (profile) so she had it bobbed. It was fine before if you ask me. There was a Thin Man movie, forget which one but it had Don Taylor in it (loved him) and Gloria Grahame was a big band singer. She sang the prettiest song and I tried to find it but failed and I tried to find out if she was singing or lip sync-ing (sp) but never did. I have since found it recently and she wasn't singing, lol. The song was You're not that Easy to Forget. 

[Oznell]

@BeckiWV, I think the movie is based on a memoir by Grahame's last lover, an English actor many years her junior.  By this time she was older, struggling with illnesses, and living and working in England, playing with provincial acting companies.  So Bening will probably be not out of the ballpark, age-wise, I imagine.

[Oznell]

@Judaline, I just found more on it in the Daily Mail.  It's based on the memoir by English actor and writer Peter Turner, and called "Film Stars Don't Die In Liverpool".  They show Annette Bening as Grahame-- I'm surprised they don't have her in Grahame's trademark "bottle blonde", but maybe by then she had reverted 'au naturel'.

Sorry I can't link to it, but there may be problematic sidebar articles.  Just google annette bening to play gloria grahame and it should pop up...

[just bee]

There's a resemblance.