A remarkable, if sadly overlooked, gem from 1950s Columbia, The Glass Wall features Vittorio Gassman in one of his few American roles as Peter Kuban, a Holocaust survivor seeking asylum in the United States—only to discover that America is a place where even its own citizens have things to escape from. An equally troubled Maggie (beautifully played by Gloria Grahame) joins Peter in his desperate flight through New York City, as they search for a jazz musician who, as a GI, had met Peter during the liberation of Auschwitz. Only he can verify Peter’s story and support his asylum claim. The film builds to a powerful finale set in the newly-opened United Nations building—hence the “The Glass Wall”—where Peter’s plea gains a moving resonance in light of a world increasingly shaped by displacement. Directed with care and conviction by Maxwell Shane—best known for his work on five postwar film noirs—and produced by Ivan Tors (himself a Hungarian Jew), the film was shot with a semi-documentary realism by cinematographer Joseph F. Biroc.