Until the last third of the film, when screenwriter Ivan Tors and director Maxwell Shane decide to drink the Stanley Kramer kool aid, it's a damn good ride with some of the best night time NYC stuff the other side of "Sweet Smell Of Success" courtesy of cinematographer Joseph Biroc and sensitive low key performances from Gloria Grahame and Vittorio Gassman (at least, in Gassman's case, until that soapbox stuff at the empty UN). I also liked the character of Tanya, the Hungarian stripper with a heart of goulasch/gold, and the actress who plays her, Robin Raymond. She's introduced in the middle of act two, just when the movie's pace needs an interesting twist, and Raymond certainly provides it. And speaking of good supporting characters I also liked Douglas Spencer as the professorial looking, cigar smoking, by the book, but not overly so, immigration official. Give it a B minus.
Review of The Glass Wall
