The Glass Web (1953) User Reviews

Set in early television, "3-D" thriller seems like early television

[bmacv · 6/10 · 10 August 2002]

Though much less stylish to look and (and listen to), The Glass Web owes a debt to Michael Curtiz' The Unsuspected of six years earlier. Both movies take as their principal setting a live true-crime show – the earlier in the waning days of radio, the latter in the dawning of the television era. And both make use of the technology of their respective mediums to help unravel their plots.

Head writer of the crime show John Forsythe and researcher Edward G. Robinson are at loggerheads; Robinson finds Forsythe callow and slapdash while Forsythe dismisses Robinson, a former police reporter, as an old fussbudget. Both men, however, are carrying on with the same woman, a Los Angeles television actress ( Kathleen Hughes) whose interest in them is entirely mercenary – apart from the professional advancement she schemes for, she's always got a hand out for `loans,' which then escalate into blackmail.

When she turns up strangled in her apartment, there's little weeping or gnashing of teeth. Robinson proposes turning the solving of her murder into their season-ending cliffhanger, sure to cinch a skittish sponsor. Both he and Forsythe turn in competing scripts; one of them, however, contains details which could have been known only to the killer....

Set in the world of early television, The Glass Web looks and feels like early television. But upon its release it was part of the early-1950s Hollywood panic over the upstart rival medium, and featured one of the desperate gimmicks calculated to lure viewers back into theaters: 3-D. Fortunately, the projectiles that got early spectators ducking in their seats are confined to a few intense spates and today look rather quaint (even in 3-D, they'd look quaint). Director Jack Arnold went on to make at least two movies that have been enshrined as camp classics: The Incredible Shrinking Man and High School Confidential. The Glass Web is nowhere near so memorable, but it's diverting enough in a don't-expect-much kind of way.

Dated But Effective Thriller..

[bsmith5552 · 6/10 · 17 September 2001]

"The Glass Web" was originally filmed in 3-D in 1953. To director Jack Arnold's credit, he doesn't litter the movie with 3-D effects but limits them to scenes that do little to interfere with the plot.

Edward G. Robinson, John Forsythe and Richard Denning are involved in the weekly production of realism crime TV show called "Crime of the Week". Kathleen Hughes plays an actress who "uses" men to achieve her goals. Both Forsythe and Robinson, unbeknownst to each other are involved with her. When she turns up murdered it is decided to make her demise the subject of the season ending show in order to encourage the sponser to pick up the show for the following season. But who really killed her?

"The Glass Web" is interesting not only for its intricate plot and 3-D effects, but for a look inside 1950s TV production. It was a time in television when shows were produced live on a weekly basis. So you can appreciate the pressure upon the production team to come up with a new and interesting show every week. This is the basis behind the plot of this picture.

Robinson is cool and sinister in his role and Forsythe is very good as the harried writer. Kathleen Hughes is also quite good as the femme fatale. Trivia buffs may remember that she was known as "the 3-D girl" during the 3-D craze, due to her many appearances in 3-D films.

"The Glass Web" is a dated but effective thriller representative of the period.

Temptation

[tomreynolds2004 · 7/10 · 5 April 2004]

Breezy programmer pits "Crime of the Week" star John Forsythe in a battle of wits against technical consultant Edward G. Robinson. The backdrop is the murder of a calculating and blackmailing beautiful siren, well-played by the radiant Kathleen Hughes. Meanwhile, the record "Temptation" plays over and over and over again. A solid "B" movie supporting cast and inventive direction moves this one along quickly with the debonair Forsythe disarmed for quite a while by the bulldoggishly cynical Edward G. Robinson. The crime eventually gets reenacted on the TV show in the show's climactic scene. The trap is set, and somebody bites. I enjoyed the resolution, and hope you will also. Warning, Temptation is played so many times that it will probably run through your head for quite some time after seeing this one.

A textbook of 3D gimmicks.

[youroldpaljim · 28 April 2001]

When I first saw this film back in seventies I suspected right from the opening credits that this film was shot originally in 3D. The credits open with a shot of a piece of glass shattering and the fragments flying into the camera. The most obvious scene is when John Forsythe wanders around in a daze after discovering the body of the slain actress/former mistress. He goes through various narrow escapes where just about everything is thrown at him/the camera. A truck driver throws out a stack of newspapers, a fire escape ladder comes down and narrowly misses him, he almost gets run over by a taxi, a truck unloads a load of crushed rock and more. I would not have been surprised if someone threw a kitchen sink from one of the buildings Forsythe walks by. SPOILER! On the mystery side, the gimmick is having the killer (Edward G.), a T.V. writer working on a "Crime Of The Week" T.V. show. He writes a script based on the murder and gives himself away when he includes details only the killer would know.

Those Telltale Details

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 1 May 2010]

Edward G. Robinson plays a research assistant and former police reporter who now works on a true crime television series. He's got aspirations to write the show, but John Forsythe stands in his way in The Glass Web.

Forsythe is married to Marcia Henderson with two kids, but he made a bad mistake in straying from the fold into the arms of actress Kathleen Hughes. In fact that's how Kathleen's been rising in the profession. As Robinson says and he's another of her trophies, she had talents other than acting.

When Hughes winds up strangled, the police at first zero in on her poor hapless estranged husband John Verros who made the incriminating mistake of not canceling an insurance policy of $10,000.00. But Forsythe comes under scrutiny and Robinson finds out and proceeds to blackmail him.

The Glass Web was an interesting Hitchcock like thriller which bears some resemblance to the Ray Milland/Charles Laughton classic, The Big Clock. But even in 3-D, The Glass Web was operating on a much tighter budget.

How does it all end, let me say that Edward G. Robinson who is such a stickler for the minutest of details to give shows their realism is quite done in with that obsession. In fact the ironic thing is that if he didn't try to blackmail Forsythe he might have got away with it.

Kathleen Hughes is the real star of this film, one of the baddest of bad girls ever to grace the silver screen. She could have been a really big star with a few more roles as juicy as this one in The Glass Web.

The Glass Web packs a lot in its 81 minute running time, it's fast paced and entertaining. And as Robinson learns, the devil really can be in the details.

Murder in 3-D

[kapelusznik18 · 6/10 · 5 September 2014]

****SPOILERS**** Under presser to come up with a hit show or else lose it's top sponsor and be thrown off the air the crime show "Crime of the Week's" top writer Don Newell, John Forsythe, gets himself involved in a murder who's victim is the show's actress Paula Ranier, Kathleen Hughes, who just happened to be blackmailing him. It was Paula who was having an affair with Newell for some six months who threatens to tell his wife Louise, Marcia Henderson, unless he coughs up $2,5000.00 to have her keep her mouth shut.

As things turned out after having it out with Paula in her apartment Newell leaves in a hush only to later find out, by coming back, that she was murdered! Not only that it's the show's research editor Henry Hayes, Edward G. Robinson, who was also having a affair with the late or murdered Paula Ranier who seems to have an idea for the show's breakout episode that in fact involves Paula's murder! Knowing that he's the #1 suspect in Paula's murder Newell gives the job of script writing the episode to Hayes who, as we soon see, knows a lot more about Paula's murder and who murdered her then he lets out.

***SPOILERS*** Filmed in 3-D the movie doesn't comes across that well on the flat screen with the now 2-D not 3-D effects that are put into it. Besides that major flaw it's still a top notch murder mystery with a really solid surprise ending. With Paul's killer trying everything to cover his tracks in getting Newell framed in the end it's modern TV technology that does him in. Not knowing that he's on TV the killer admits his crime, a crime of passion and revenge, that everyone in the TV studio sees and hears in living black & white including the cop in charge plainclothesman Bob Nelson. It was by the killer in feeling confident and at the same time shooting off his big mouth that ended up with him getting shot instead!

Robinson Adds Class and Verve to Otherwise Mundane Thriller!!

[kidboots · 7/10 · 7 August 2016]

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!! - maybe that's what Universal was thinking when they gave this crime thriller a television studio setting. Another novelty that was tried was 3D (although the film was finally released in the normal flat format), which in 1953 was supposedly going to be filmdom's secret weapon to lure people away from their TV sets (it didn't work). Edward G. Robinson lent his considerable talents (and this film needed all the help it could get) - he played Henry Hayes, a frustrated researcher on a weekly crime show. He yearns for attention to detail and the finer points but in the slipshod world of churn 'em out crime shows of early television, near enough is good enough.

Behind the scenes there is just as much intrigue as in front of the camera. Henry's "it's all in the detail" has it's origins in trying to give voluptuous leading lady Paula, a bigger part. Kathleen Hughes was a budding 1950s Universal-International starlet known more for her looks and stunning figure than her acting ability. But Wow - she plays the part of the merciless tramp with a heart of steel to the hilt. She treats Henry with contempt while only too eagerly grabbing whatever money he throws at her. But she has bigger fish to fry, she is also conducting an affair with Don Newell (a young John Forsythe), the show's director. He is happily married and realises it has been a ghastly mistake but Paula has an ace up her sleeve in the pair of Don's pyjama bottoms that she has deftly swiped from his suitcase - she wants $2500 as a first instalment.

Hughes has a few big scenes - especially of note, one with Robinson where she almost spits out her dialogue, putting him down, bringing out all the venom she can muster. It's hard to understand what happened to Hughes, not only was she drop dead gorgeous, she was a terrific actress as well. As if Paula doesn't have enough on her plate, she also has a husband fresh out of prison but that doesn't stop her telling him exactly what he can do with his crude manners and loud clothes!! So when she is found dead there are suspects a plenty!!

Having been shot in 3D, there had to be a few gimmicky shots - in the scene where Newell walks dazedly along the street there are swerving trucks, falling lumps of coal that seem to be heading straight into the camera, all designed to thrill 3D viewers!! Robinson added solid professionalism to the movie but when he wasn't involved in the scene, the film proved just a mundane who done it - Forsyth just didn't have the charisma to carry it off. Richard Denning's character could have been expanded upon - he plays a shallow network executive and in his effort to keep everyone happy, every idea is a great idea!!

Really thrilling!

[HotToastyRag · 8/10 · 18 January 2024]

In The Glass Web, Kathleen Hughes stars as an ambitious actress willing to sleep her way to the top. She's very attractive and is clad to the nines in gowns by Bill Thomas, and she has that "Marilyn Monroe" cunning aspect which serves her purpose very well. Robert Blees and Leonard Lee's screenplay is quite good, with fun quips and interesting twists around every corner. It's no wonder the characters are all very smart, since the story revolves around a true-crime television program that pays attention to the slightest detail. Richard Denning is the producer, Edward G. Robinson is the casting and technical director, and Richard Forsythe is the writer. Each week, their program reenacts a murder and explains how it was done, the motivation, and how the killer got caught.

At first glance, The Glass Web might seem like just a typical thriller, but there are so many surprises throughout the plot - starting with the opening scene! I'd definitely recommend this movie, especially if you like your movies soapy and dramatic. I could make my review longer with more compliments, but I don't want to give a single thing away. It's so exciting when you watch it with absolutely no idea of what's going to happen next! I found myself talking to the television and trying to advise the characters - and since I've seen so many movies, it's a real tribute to The Glass Web that I was so engrossed.

Sometimes the spider gets caught in its own trap.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 22 May 2013]

Any film that opens with a vixen being shot in the back to death then simply tossed into an open pit like yesterday's garbage is sure to get your attention from the get-go, even if it is only dramatizing the filming of a TV show. This is "Crime of the Week", a 1950's version of a TV reality show where real-life crimes are dramatized, even if they remain unsolved. Even without the narration of Robert Stack, these solved mysteries are thrilling, and once you meet the actress (Kathleen Hughes) dumped into the pit, you know it's only a matter of time before she becomes a victim herself. She's the typical film noir villainess, not as savvy or deadly as Barbara Stanwyck, Lizabeth Scott or Jane Greer, but determined to use men to get ahead in her business, then toss them aside once she's gotten from them what she desires. Two of the show's staff members (Edward G. Robinson and John Forsythe) become engulfed in her web with Robinson tossed out like a potato peel and Forsythe a victim of blackmail. Throw in an estranged husband of dubious moral demeanor, and it is obvious that the pit awaits her.

But amoral or not, a victim of murder deserves their death to be solved, and through writing the crime onto the TV series, that's exactly the revelation expectable, yet how the denouncements are made makes it gripping throughout. Forsythe adds much dimension to his brooding character, loving with wife and son (even if he is cheating on them), yet threatening when he goes to end the brief affair. Robinson stays in character at all times, smooth and confidante, yet touching and vulnerable as he warns the actress not to hurt him. Satisfactory in practically every way, it won't confound the most novice of noir viewers, but is intriguing and fun to watch develop.

Drab, inept little story

[rhoda-9 · 2/10 · 26 October 2019]

This movie must be the least suspenseful murder "mystery" of all time. From the moment the blonde tramp is murdered, it is obvious that Edward G. Robinson must have done it, since she had led him on and then humiliated him, plus he was on the scene. The other boyfriend, John Forsythe (handy if you need a tailor's dummy, but not for much else), was not in her apartment at the time. You might think that suspense will be created by whether Robinson is caught, or whether he will try to entrap Forsythe. Nope. The script and direction are limp, and the characters are as well. The story following the murder is ridiculous, as no network and no defense lawyer would permit the televising of a play in which the man who has been indicted is shown committing the murder. There is probably also a law forbidding such blatantly prejudicial pre-trial publicity.

In its blandness, the movie exemplifies the worst of the Fifties. My favorite detail of this puritanical period was Forsythe, spending a weekend with the blonde, and not only wearing pajamas but pajamas into which his wife had sewn his name tag.

Excellent little gem

[searchanddestroy-1 · 25 March 2024]

This crime thriller is the best proof that Jack Arnold was not only a terrific science fiction film or western maker - remember TARANTULA, INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN, CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON for sci-ci; and NO NAME ON THE BULLET, MAN FROM BITTER RIDGE, concerning westerns. This plot looks so like a Richard Levinson and William Link's story - COLUMBO screenwriters. The perfect crime improvised by a well known TV man. Only a Columbo like detective is missing. I definitely love this fifties thriller, bringing a typical atmosphere of this period. But the 3 D special effects are not that adequate in this kind of story.