Acteurist Oeuvre-view – Gloria Grahame – Part 6: MACAO (1952) and SUDDEN FEAR (1952)

In this episode of our Gloria Grahame Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode, our protagonist is rudely shoved into the background of the movies, barely appearing in Josef von Sternberg's Macao (1950) (she would have liked to have appeared in it even less) and playing a rote schemer in David Miller's Sudden Fear (1952). The movies themselves don't make up for her under-use, despite the amiable pairing of Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell in the former and the great Joan Crawford sobbing her way to an Oscar nomination in the latter. We do our best to articulate what went wrong for us, before turning our attention to James Gunn's Superman (2025) in our Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto segment. Gunn's approach triggers Dave's superhero comics nostalgia, but Elise is skeptical.

Time Codes:

0h 00m 25s: MACAO (1952) [dir. Josef von Sternberg]

0h 22m 52s: SUDDEN FEAR (1953) [dir. David Miller]

0h 42m 15s: Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – James Gunn’s Superman (2025) at the Scotiabank Theatre on Richmond Street

Excerpt on Macao from Josef von Sternberg’s Fun in a Chinese Laundry

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* Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of Late Spring

* Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s

* Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive)

* Read Elise’s piece on Gangs of New York – “Making America Strange Again”

* Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!

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