The Green Glove

The Green Glove (aka The White Road) is a 1952 French/American international co-production film noir directed by Rudolph Maté and starring Glenn Ford, Geraldine Brooks, Sir Cedric Hardwicke and George Macready.

The green glove 1951 crime drama mystery

Plot

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Mike Blake (Glenn Ford) is an American paratrooper who travels to France after the end of World War II to try to recover a jewel-encrusted glove that had been stolen from a country church during the war. His quest leads him to a beautiful young tour guide (Geraldine Brooks), and a Nazi collaborator (George Macready) whom he had fought during the war.

Cast

Glenn Ford as Michael 'Mike' Blake

Geraldine Brooks as Christine 'Chris' Kenneth

Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Father Goron

George Macready as Count Paul Rona

Gaby André as Gaby Saunders

Jany Holt as The Countess

Roger Tréville as Police Insp. Faubert

Georges Tabet as Jacques Piotet

Meg Lemonnier as Madame Piotet

Paul Bonifas as Inspector

Jean Bretonnière as Singer

Background

The movie was shot mostly on location in southern France and Monaco. It was based on actions that took place during Operation Dragoon.

Soundtrack

L'Amour est parti
Written by Joseph Kosma
Lyrics by Henri Bassis
Sung by Juliette Gréco

Romance
Written by Joseph Kosma
Lyrics by Henri Bassis
Sung by Juliette Gréco

Critical response

When the film was first released in 1952, film critic Bosley Crowther expected a first-rate production given that, the screenplay writer, Charles Bennett, had written films "of a high order" such as The 39 Steps. However, he found The Green Glove "is not in that echelon, but is merely a standard chase after a medieval, bejewelled gauntlet filched from a rural French church." He continued, "... but the tale spun is minor-league melodrama. Glenn Ford is largely listless as the paratrooper who clashed with a collaborator-art dealer during the war ..."

Film critic Dennis Schwartz was disappointed in the film, yet praised the work of Glenn Ford. He wrote, "Rudolph Maté (D.O.A./Union Station/Miracle in the Rain) directs this standard thriller, that has a few twists but bogs down over too many hysterical melodramatic moments and the unbelievability of the characters and story line. It's weakly scripted by Charles Bennett and is based on his novel ... There's a good story here, but too bad it wasn't told convincingly and the featured sudden romance came about so quickly that it was not possible for me to believe it; nor was I able to find the suspense story even close to the way a top-notch director like Hitchcock would have built up the suspense and made things more exciting (If not convinced then perhaps check out The 39 Steps, directed by Hitchcock and also written by Bennett!). The former cinematographer Maté can't keep things real and all the plot points seem nothing short of schematic. But Glenn Ford is in it, and he's so good in these type of adventure roles that he at least keeps the flawed pic entertaining."