Gloria Grahame's face - The Man Who Never Was (1956) Discussion

[–] Miss-M 17 years ago

My dad made a similar comment when we watched the film tonight. It's a shame because the poor makeup really detracted our attention from Gloria's fine performance. Her makeup looked particularly bad in that scene.

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[–] pappazeuss 17 years ago

i noticed this too,it made her look quite ugly

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[–] rditewig801 8 years ago

All of the major cast had Pond's cold cream smeared on their faces. A big mistake due to the fact that strong light on it will make it look even worse than it
would with moderate light.

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[–] Adler-99 15 years ago

It wasn't just her; Stephen Boyd's face often looked "plastic-y" in the film. I think it was just sweat but it was very distracting.

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[–] markrob-3 15 years ago

Her makeup was awful. Was it made of lard. No one else had that greasy look.

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[–] rwsmith29456 13 years ago

Was that SUPPOSED to be ATTRACTIVE, somehow??? It's a big flaw in a movie if you have to stop and try to figure out why her face is so greasy. Other than that, it was great.

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[–] lisajohn-4 13 years ago

I agree! I saw this movie on TV years ago and later found a copy on VHS tape; one of my favorites. But I was always puzzled by Grahame's shiney / greasy face! Other actors in the film had a less exaggerated version of this makeup, while some others looked completely normal. Was Grahame supposed to look sweaty? Or was this a "cool look" in 1955? I've never noticed this makeup effect in any other film. It's very distracting! It would be interesting to learn the story behind this!

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[–] fanaticita 13 years ago

I think you are right. . .there was a reason for this makeup, it wasn't an accident. Can you imagine that a director or producer would overlook this? I don't think so.

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[–] aliencat 13 years ago

From the moment I first saw her I thought she looked awful. While it didn't distract from the story, I did keep wondering why her face looked as it did. Don't know if this is the reason or not, but I thought perhaps Lucy was a bit of a lush (drinking to drown her sorrows) and thus had a bloated face.

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[–] Jason_Radley 12 years ago

Two things: I think she was pregnant during the filming of this this movie - her daughter was born in 1956. In the scene where she gets the telephone call telling her that her fiancee has been killed, we see her walking away from camera, and her figure looks defnitely rounded around the hips. Then there's this from Wikipedia which might explain the heavy lipstick she wears:

Grahame's career began to wane after her performance in the musical film Oklahoma! (1955). Grahame, whom audiences were used to seeing as a film noir siren, was viewed by some critics to be miscast as an ignorant country lass in a wholesome musical, and the paralysis of her upper lip from plastic surgery altered her speech and appearance.

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[–] sunshinesoda 12 years ago

It really did look paralyzed. Her mouth couldn't move an iota. I was wondering. I'm curious if that's true.

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[–] Bill-16 10 years ago

Wasn't she the one that put rolled up cotton under her lip? Guess I could look it up, but why? Just chatting here.

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[–] tremas-1 10 years ago

I have always thought that her unnatural upper lip and the oddly stretched facial skin were caused by a botched plastic surgery. These were the days before Botox injections, you know. Perhaps Grahame was trying to achieve the sultry look of Lizabeth Scott, who also had what seemed an anesthetized upper lip, who knows.
On a related note, stretch marks from badly done surgery can be seen in Joe Pesci's face, extending from his ears to his eye sockets.

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[–] rditewig801 8 years ago

Grahame lisped on certain sounds and this was particularly noticeable
in her role as Irene Neves in "Sudden Fear" (1952). I didn't notice the lisp
in her role in "The Big Heat" (1953).

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[–] phogan007 12 years ago

I think I might have the answer. Make up departments were often given strange requests. Like star's short hair cuts be cut longer.
As a kid I was told that womens (then) constant recourse to their powder compacts (pre foundation makeups) for application to noses and cheeks was 'to stop them shining'.
As I understand the Gloria Grahame character; she is distressed about the death or possible death of her real boyfriend. Consequently her eyes are swollen from crying and she is careless of her makeup.
Could it be that the task of trying to show this effect, while using a level of makeup essential under studio lighting, without having colourless lips (which they certainly were not) and achieving it subtly, was just a step too far?

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[–] 12 years ago

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[–] richard_ditewig801 11 years ago

Almost all of the faces in this film have a heavy layer of something like cold cream smeared on them.

Take a close look at Stephen Boyd's face. Smeared with grease -- so is his hair.

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[–] mam13143 10 years ago

Richard you are right. Her face is so obvious but all their faces are shiny. Watching it now and it is very noticeable. Poor makeup artist I would say.

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[–] Victover 11 years ago

While your comment is quite pertinent I didn't make a diff to me because this actress face was never an asset for her. IMO

If every animal had wings the sh*t of this world would be evenly spread

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[–] Ethereal-Cloud 10 years ago

I'm glad I wasn't the only one bothered by this, her face looked like is was dunked in a vat of Vaseline. The area around her right eye was frequently the brightest image on the screen. Any moderately competent makeup artist, or even a lighting director would have fixed this, unless there was some unknown problem.

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[–] Hyman_Flomax 9 years ago

She's wasted in the film with a throwaway part that exists only to give the picture some phony feminine appeal, but the makeup department fncked her face so badly she looks she just had plastic surgery.

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[–] DorianGray502 9 years ago

I find it hard to believe this was not intentionally done. This had to get past too many people, not the least Graham herself. It did look like Vaseline. Female stars virtually slept in Vaseline back then, maybe still do, to offset aging. But, it looks like she forgot to wash her face, and it did make her look strange. The other actresses did not look this way. Despite all this Graham pretty much kept her looks well into her 50's, such as they were. I always thought she looked like a Simpson's cartoon character come to life.

"When the legend becomes fact, print the legend!"

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[–] spidermarlowe 8 years ago

She looks ill and cushionoid, as if she were on a dose of corticosteroids.

These medications, precursors to today's drug: prednisone, were one type of 'miracle drug' of the 1950s, especially effective for treating symptoms of asthma and other inflammatory disease. They were overused, and caused many negative side effects.

But looking closely it seems that almost everyone in the cast had shiny faces at one point or another during the film. Perhaps it was an incompetent makeup man? Yet, hard to believe that this effect is accidental when the director is Ronald Neame!

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