The Green Glove (1952)

An ex-soldier and his new girlfriend comb France for a valuable relic...which others are willing to kill for.

Director:

Rudolph Maté

Writers:

Charles Bennett (story), Charles Bennett (screenplay)

Stars:

Glenn Ford, Geraldine Brooks, Cedric Hardwicke

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Glenn Ford	...	Michael 'Mike' Blake
Geraldine Brooks	...	Christine 'Chris' Kenneth
Cedric Hardwicke	...	Father Goron
George Macready	...	Count Paul Rona
Gaby André	...	Gaby Saunders
Jany Holt	...	The Countess
Roger Tréville	...	Police Insp. Faubert
Juliette Gréco	...	Singer (scenes deleted)
Georges Tabet	...	Jacques Piotet
Meg Lemonnier	...	Madame Piotet
Paul Bonifas	...	Inspector
Jean Bretonnière	...	Singer

Storyline

In World War II France, American soldier Michael Blake captures, then loses Nazi-collaborator art thief Paul Rona, who leaves behind a gem studded gauntlet (a stolen religious relic). Years later, financial reverses lead Mike to return in search of the object. In Paris, he must dodge mysterious followers and a corpse that's hard to explain; so he and attractive tour guide Christine decamp on a cross-country pursuit that becomes love on the run...then takes yet another turn.

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Plot Keywords:

euro noir | frame up | subway chase | subway | bourbon whiskey | 

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Taglines:

In This Deadly Game... He Could Lose Only Once!

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Romance

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

France USA

Language:

French English

Release Date:

28 February 1952 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Gauntlet

Filming Locations:

Gourdon, Alpes-Maritimes, France

Company Credits

Production Co:

Benagoss Productions, Union Générale Cinématographique (UGC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

89 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

George Macready, who plays Count Rona, is also an art collector in real life, just like his onscreen character in this film.

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Goofs

Jany Holt (The Countess") refers to her manservant as Pierre; however, there is no such name entered in the list of characters.

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Quotes

Michael Blake: All right, look, I haven't robbed a bank, I haven't killed anybody, and I'm not an international spy. Do you believe that?
Chris Kenneth: I'll try.

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Crazy Credits

Opening credits are shown over what appears to be a gauntlet, "the famous green glove" described by the narrator immediately following the credits.

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Connections

Referenced in Colony: Tamam Shud (2017)

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Soundtracks

L'Amour est Parti
Music by Joseph Kosma
Lyrics by Henri Bassis
Sung by Juliette Gréco

User Reviews

Romance and adventure! In small amounts....

Occasionally charming foreign adventure/romance with Glenn Ford as a down-on-his-luck American returning to post-war France to retrieve the title treasure he found during the war and becoming entangled with cops, bad guys, and tour guide Geraldine Brooks. Lovely Brooks has a wonderful girl-next-door quality, but the 50s priggishness makes the romance tiresome at times.

The whole affair has a nice Hitchcockian feel, altho Hitch would never have been so priggish--with either with the sex or the violence. Director Rudolph Mate was the cinematographer for Hitch on Foreign Correspondent and other A-list directors in the 40s but had already directed several films himself by the time he did The Green Glove, including the classic DOA in 1950, with Edmund O'Brien.

Still, something is missing. Ford remains a cipher thruout; we don't get the feel of desperation that Hitch (or his leading men) was so good at conveying. Ford was a battle-hardened lieutenant in the war, yet it doesn't seem to help him much against the bad guys. Brooks is clingy, yet coy. A European dame, sexier and more independent, might have been a more interesting choice. (This is one of those stories where the leads have to pretend to be married at one point, thereby forcing them to be titillatingly intimate, right? Wrong: Mate blows it by having them demand separate rooms anyway!) The climax is good, if a bit predictable. But the exciting mountain chase down a goat trail feels a bit like a setting in search of a story, since we know from the opening scene that the story doesn't end there. Overall, it's a good A-picture adventure that could have benefited from a bit of B-picture sex and violence.