The Glass Menagerie (1950) on Netflix
Abandoned by her husband, Amanda Wingfield sells magazine subscriptions and frets over her shy daughter Laura, who collects glass animals. She asks her son Tom to invite a friend for Laura.
- Watch on NetflixThis title is not on Netflix right now. Please check back later for updates.
- Watch on NordVPN
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb7.0/101,392 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Plot summary
Tom Wingfield, serving in the Merchant Marine, recalls the St. Louis apartment where he lived with his mother Amanda and his younger sister Laura. Amanda's husband left the family, and she gets by selling magazine subscriptions while regarding herself as above the working class families around them. Laura is timid and keeps to herself; she is being trained as a secretary, but what she cares about is the glass animals she collects. Amanda urges Tom to find someone who might court Laura. Tom holds out for a while and then invites Jim O'Connor to the apartment for dinner. Amanda prepares the meal with great care, hoping Laura will make a good impression.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Glass Menagerie (1950)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Tennessee Williams helped bring his own play to the screen, but he was unhappy with the result, calling the casting of Gertrude Lawrence as Amanda "a dismal error" and the film a "dishonest" adaptation. The first script had been written by Norman Corwin, who went uncredited.
- Tallulah Bankhead was Irving Rapper's first choice, and he called her screen test the greatest he had ever made or seen. Jack Warner decided not to sign her because he had suffered through Errol Flynn's bouts of alcohol abuse and feared the same problems from her.
- The Gershwin song "Someone to Watch Over Me", which Gertrude Lawrence introduced in Oh, Kay! in 1926, is used as the underscore in the scene in which Laura helps Tom get into bed.
- Producer Charles K. Feldman originally wanted Jeanne Crain and Ethel Barrymore as Laura and Amanda, while Gene Tierney, Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando, Tallulah Bankhead, Miriam Hopkins and Ralph Meeker were also considered for the film.
