The Glass Web | |
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Directed by | Jack Arnold |
Screenplay by | Robert Blees Leonard Lee |
Based on | Spin the Glass Web by Max Simon Ehrlich |
Produced by | Albert J. Cohen |
Starring | Edward G. Robinson John Forsythe Marcia Henderson Kathleen Hughes |
Cinematography | Maury Gertsman |
Edited by | Ted J. Kent |
Color process | Black and white |
Production company | Universal Pictures |
Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 81 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
The Glass Web is a 1953 American 3-D film noir crime film directed by Jack Arnold and starring Edward G. Robinson, John Forsythe, Marcia Henderson and Kathleen Hughes. [1] It is based on Max Simon Ehrlich's 1952 novel Spin the Glass Web.
Henry Hayes is a well-respected crime researcher known for, and sometimes kidded, about his relentless perfectionism. Little is known of his social life. When he discovers he is being led on by gold-digger Paula Rainer, he kills her in accidental anger. He decides the best way to divert suspicion from himself is to immediately re-create the crime on his television show.
But producer Don Newell, who had been outside the dead woman's corridor at the time of the murder, notices that Hayes' perfectionism has him including items that only the murderer could have known; including which record was playing on her record player (Bing Crosby singing "Temptation").
Newell is able to trap Hayes into a confession, and Hayes is arrested.
When the film was first released, The New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther gave the film a negative review, writing, "Aside from the price of silence, which seems a most original one, there is little else that is original or even startling in this film. Katherine Hughes, who plays the blonde number, makes a dainty dish of poison, it is true, but the rest, including the performances of the two gentlemen, is pretty routine. As for suspense, it is evident who did the murder all the time. And it is plain that Mr. Forsythe will not be butchered. So what goes with this sort of show? Pardon a slightly pointed comment, but it's the kind of film you might see on TV." [2]
Music rights issues kept the film off the home video market for many years until the 3D Film Archive announced they would restore the film for a 2023 release on the Blu-ray 3D format. It is the last feature filmed in Universal 3D to arrive on the market in any format.
I Want to Live! is a 1958 American biographical film noir drama film directed by Robert Wise, and starring Susan Hayward, Simon Oakland, Virginia Vincent, and Theodore Bikel. It follows the life of Barbara Graham, a prostitute and habitual criminal, who is convicted of murder and faces capital punishment. The screenplay, written by Nelson Gidding and Don Mankiewicz, was adapted from personal letters written by Graham, in addition to newspaper articles written by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ed Montgomery in the San Francisco Examiner. The film presents a highly fictionalized version of the case, indicating the possibility that Graham may have been innocent.
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Kathleen Hughes is a retired American actress.
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Marcia Anne Prestlien was an American actress. She made her Broadway debut as Wendy in the musical Peter Pan (1950), for which she won a Theatre World Award. Henderson also appeared in films such as All I Desire (1953), The Glass Web (1953), Canyon River (1956), and The Wayward Girl (1957).