classicsoncall Part mystery adventure and part romance, "The Green Glove" is a sometimes uneven tale of an ex-GI returning to France on a suitably dubious mission - to retrieve a jewel encrusted glove that might take the edge off a run of seven years bad luck. Almost sounds like Glenn Ford broke a mirror, or something like that. Ford's character, Michael Blake, is joined mid-way in his mission by an attractive tour guide (Geraldine Brooks), who's immediately caught up in a tale of dead men, Nazi spies and stolen treasure. It always makes me curious why characters in movies are drawn into completely untenable situations, but I guess if they weren't, you wouldn't have a story.Like most of the other posters for this film, I was struck by the the Hitchcockian elements of the picture, and caught myself thinking of the jeweled glove as that fabled Bogart Falcon. The film suitably keeps one on the fence as to Blake's real intentions regarding the gauntlet, even as he tries to stay a step ahead of his cunning adversary, Nazi collaborator turned fine art dealer, Count Paul Rona (George Macready).What was unbelievable to me was the chase scene down a virtually sheer rock face known as the goat trail (for good reason), and then back up again for a couple of middle aged guys (Ford,36 and Macready,53) who didn't look like they were in the best of shape to begin with. With all that, Blake still had the stamina to climb up the church tower and make with the bells to set up the mystery that book-ends the story.

GManfred Was pleasantly surprised by this one. More exciting than I had expected, it holds your interest throughout save for one instance. The normally bland Glenn Ford was effective and compelling as the returning WWII soldier trying to find the valuable icon in question and George Macready was a convincing 'bad guy'.The instance in question, during which the picture throws out its anchor, wastes about 15 minutes of screen time as Ford and Geraldine Brooks do a 39 Steps-like turn as a pretend-married couple. Donat and Carroll did it better, but in "The Green Glove" it gave a comedic touch to a film which did not need it.I thought the scenery and the location shots were spectacular, particularly a chase over a goat path high in the mountains. Director Mate was in his oeuvre here as he was an excellent photographer but an average director. But the scenery and several other shots made me wish I could have seen this one on the big screen.

fagin-3 Just saw this on CTN's Hatten narrated classics.The previous comments all seem to complain about the writing, the pacing, the lack of chemistry...I thought the movie was excellent--better Hitchcock than most Hitchcock's I've seen. The locations were beautiful, I thought Ford and Brooks were very likable and nuanced. The plot was no thinner than many adventure flicks I've seen, and if one accepts that the glove really *is* touched by God, the movie takes on a really interesting dimension.Excellent film. Riveting throughout.8 out of 10

bmacv Plenty of points of interest went into The Green Glove – a seasoned cast, locations in France (Paris, the Midi), a dangerous quest for a fabulous artifact. But not much energy was expended on making them interesting. It's easy to lose track of who wants what and who killed whom in this lackluster thriller, and hard to care.Good cinematographer turned so-so director Rudoph Maté cast one of his favorite subjects, Glenn Ford, as a soldier caught up in the liberation of France. There Ford captures but loses George Macready (his old adversary from Gilda, which Maté photographed). Of vague nationality and dubious loyalties, Macready was trying to abscond with the story's Maltese Falcon – a priceless gauntlet which has reposed in a village church for centuries. Ford takes custody of it but, injured, leaves it behind with the family who rescued him.When post-war prosperity stateside doesn't catch up with Ford, he returns to France in hopes of retrieving the gauntlet and with it his fortune. From the moment his feet hit French soil (having apparently been under close surveillance for years), Macready's men start following him around; the police grow interested when one of them is found dead in Ford's hotel room. With the effervescent Geraldine Brooks in tow, he sets out by the Blue Train to the Riviera, dodging both the law and Macready's mob. There's an early scene set high up in the Eiffel Tower, and, for the resolution, Maté keeps his camera high, taking us to the sheer precipices of a goat trail and to the bell tower of the burgled church (wanly anticipating Hitchcock in both North by Northwest and Vertigo).But the film jumps from one thing to another like those mountain goats leaping from crag to crag (fatally losing its footing in one coy, comic scene at a country inn where Ford and Brooks feign being newlyweds with bridal-night jitters). More crucially, the characters stay blandly generic, with no feel for their quirks or insight into their motives (and Sir Cedric Hardwicke is thrown away as a country priest). The Green Glove of the quest is the real McCoy, unlike the Maltese Falcon, which was a fake; in this case, the paste is worth far more than the diamonds.