Introducing... Gloria Stuart as Rose in "Titanic"
Wednesday, July 27, 2022 at 7:53PM The Smackdown of '97 is in just 5 days. Here's how to vote.
We first see Gloria Stuart 11 minutes into Titanic (1997). Rose (age 100) is the first and only one of the film's main characters we meet in Titanic's twenty-one minute prologue which takes place in 1996. The television is on in the other room when we first see her in long shot. A news report about a discovery involving the RMS Titanic is playing, piquing her interest...
Turn that up dear.
She joins her grandmother by the TV and she can scarcely believe what she sees there. A nude drawing of herself as a young woman.
Well, I'll be goddamned.
Gloria Stuart was not yet 2 years old when the actual RMS Titanic sunk in 1912 and was 87 at the time of the blockbuster film's release.
The excitement around her Oscar nomination for the phenomenally successful film at the time was, in part, due to Stuart's "comeback". She had been a (minor) star in Hollywood's Golden Age. She had burst onto the scene in 1932 with five films in release and was named one of 15 "most likely to succeed actresses" in a promotional campaign for the movie industry. Like so many careers in Hollywood, then and now, her success was shortlived. By the mid 40s her acting career was over (though she would resurface in the 1980s as a senior actress for intermittent film work beginning with the Peter O' Toole picture My Favourite Year).
Gloria Stuart with Boris Karloff in "The Old Dark House"
Because she had so many films released in 1932 it's impossible to know which felt the most like an introduction to audiences of the time. She cites the Kay Francis romantic drama Street of Women (1932) as her first film but it seems more likely that it was an Irene Dunne picture Back Street, since it's her only "uncredited" role that year. Her first movie to actually hit theaters was The Cohens and Kellys in Hollywood, an inside showbiz comedy in which she played... herself? Later in the year she was in the sports drama The All-American. Her most enduring 1932 film, though, is easier to ascertain. That's inarguably the James Whale's horror picture The Old Dark House. She played Margaret Waverton one of five strangers who all seek shelter in a spooky house during a storm. It's fun and just 72 minutes long. Have you ever seen it?
The Supporting Actress Smackdown of '97 hits Monday night so watch and vote before then.
1997, Gloria Stuart, Introducing..., The Old Dark House, Titanic, james whale
Reader Comments (5)
I was so mad at this nomination in 1997, because it was a strong year, and she's the weakest in a good lineup. I was praying for Sarah Polley, as any true Canadian would.
But nowadays, I kind of like this sentimental nomination for this sentimental movie - although she's still in 5th place.
For the role of present day Rose, Katharine Hepburn and Olivia deHavilland were considered. But James Cameron wanted someone unknown.
The old dark house has some interesting shadow play cinematography, but the costuming is puzzling. Gloria Stuart comes into the house to get out of the rain and the cold, but then changes into a backless evening gown.
I’ll never forget showing this movie to my grandma and she recognized Gloria Stuart. She got me on my path towards movie love, so it was great seeing her recognize someone from her youth.
Mike, was it really a strong year? I think Frances Fisher would have been more deserving for a nomination instead of Stuart but hardly a year filled with memorable supporting performances apart from Julianne Moore...
Elazul, I mean a strong year in general.
Allison Elliot and Sigourney Weaver have been discussed at TFE, and Bridget Fonda, Christina Ricci and Anne Heche were all kind of in the conversation too (along with Polley). I wouldn't throw out Basinger/Cusack/Driver/Moore, but it bothered me at the time that Stuart made it through instead of all those others.
@TomG: I love that your Grandma recognized Gloria Stuart. That’s part of the fun of watching movies with elderly relatives, you don’t have to explain to them who Greta Garbo was, etc. And you get a kind of fascinating window into the times these actors worked in, and how their work was received.