The Glass Wall

The Glass Wall is a 1953 American drama film noir directed by Maxwell Shane and starring Vittorio Gassman and Gloria Grahame. The black-and-white film was produced and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The title refers to a design feature of the United Nations headquarters in New York City. It tied with two other films for the 1953 Golden Leopard, the top prize at the Locarno International Film Festival. Plot Peter Kuban is a Hungarian displaced person and survivor of World War II Nazi concentration camps. He stows away in Trieste (at the time of the film's release a city divided between Italy and Yugoslavia) on a ship bound for New York City. However, he is spotted by ship officials and held for American authorities. When the ship arrives in New York City, he claims that he qualifies for entry under an exception for those who helped Allied soldiers during the war, but all he knows about the paratrooper he hid from the enemy is that his name is Tom and he plays clarinet in a jazz band in New York City's Times Square. The immigration authorities, led by Inspector Bailey, say that without better documentation he must be sent back to communist Hungary on the same ship, which departs the next morning. Kuban escapes by leaping off the ship to the dock below, but breaks some ribs, then begins his search for Tom in Times Square nightclubs. Peter’s picture and a caption of him being wanted as a stowaway who jumped ship is plastered over the entire front page of the city’s tabloids.