We attended a production of The Glass Menagerie this afternoon. The actors who portrayed Laura, Amanda and Tom were all excellent. But I have a question about the actor who played Jim (the “gentleman caller.”)
In this case, Jim was portrayed as a loud, egotistical blowhard. Most online descriptions of the character say he is “an ordinary guy.” But this Jim was very full of himself. We theorized that perhaps they were trying to play up the aspect that he was studying public speaking, which I guess would explain his waving his arms around and talking non-stop and very loudly. To the point where it became quite annoying and you couldn’t wait for Tom and Amanda to come back on stage.
So was this guy just a lousy actor? Or am I missing something?
Maybe that was it (and the director wasn’t able to control him). Because it makes no sense for Jim to be annoying and unlikeable. Dramatically, it’s important that he be a “hope spot” for Laura.
(Otherwise, how could she be crushed when she finds out he’s already in a relationship with someone else?)
Yeah. He should be a confident guy who has prospects for a good future, but not a jerk - he’s someone who Tom thinks will be good for Laura, and is certainly nice to her.
(P.S. Is he already in a relationship, for real? I got the impression that he accepted a dinner date with Tom, and was a bit disappointed that it was a setup with Laura, and not a dinner date with Tom. So he made up a fake fiance’ to get out of the situation.)
I agree that Jim has to be somewhat likable; otherwise Tom wouldn’t have invited him to the house and Laura wouldn’t have been disappointed that he was involved with another girl.
The reviews of the film versions do emphasize Jim’s negative points. In the 1950 film, “Kirk Douglas is appropriately shallow as the young man who comes to call”. In the 1987 adaptation, “James Naughton, makes the gentleman caller a fine mixture of hucksterism and real feeling.”
I can see where someone might get the the “egotistical blowhard” interpretation, in that the script establishes that Jim was one of the popular kids in high school, and he’s also the sort of person who sincerely believes cliched self-help advice. But yeah, he has to also be genuinely likeable (and specifically likeable to Laura, who is far less likely than Amanda to be taken in by that sort of thing).