What is it about Gladys that just doesn’t feel right?  When first meeting her, she comes across so well.  She is attractive and a good conversationalist.  She is outgoing and friendly and has a winning smile.  But it is not so much how she relates to you when with her as much as a realization that comes to you over a period of time knowing her.  Her judgments are poor and her decision making is downright disastrous.  She sounds friendly when speaking with her, but you come to understand that she is just playing a role.  She really doesn’t care about you or anyone else besides herself.  In time you come to realize that she seems to have frozen at about age 13 and has not matured beyond that point.  She was like the character in the J.M. Barrie play, “Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up.”  It’s as if Gladys refused to become an adult woman, preferring the undisciplined and carefree life of a teenager.One oddity of Gladys’ personality was perhaps a result of her inability or unwillingness to grow up.  She loved the movies.  Of course, many adults love going to the movie theater, but for Gladys it was like psychotherapy.  She seemed so impressed by the movies, perhaps “impressionable” is more accurate.  If she saw a movie she particularly liked, she would often emulate her favorite character or situation in the movie.  Bette Davis and Ingrid Bergman were her idols, but she had a whole list of femme fatale actresses that she admired.  Perhaps it had something to do with the war being fought at such great cost to American lives, but the movies released in the 1940’s were heavy on drama and suspense.

One movie that had a powerful impact on Gladys was “Leave Her to Heaven,” starring Gene Tierney as Ellen Berent who meets the novelist Richard Harlan, played by Cornel Wilde, on a train.  The stunningly beautiful but psychotically jealous Ellen ultimately proposes marriage to Richard.  As her jealousy causes the marriage to disintegrate, Ellen turns to murder and finally creates the ultimate revenge scenario.

At one point, Ellen is reading over Richard’s shoulder as he writes his novel, as he types, “’Will you marry me?’ he said.”

Ellen reacts, “Oh, no!”

Richard: “No what?”

Ellen: “Good grief!  ‘Will you marry me?’  In the first place, men never propose.  They think they do, but it’s really the woman.”

Richard: “Who told you that, Ripley?”

Ellen: “And when men do propose, they never say, ‘Will you marry me?’”

After some more discussion, Ellen asks, “How did you propose to me?”

Richard: “Uh. . . . . .”

Ellen: “You didn’t, I proposed to you.” (Then she grabs his face and pulls it to her and gives him a huge kiss) …. “Remember?”