Baseshment
I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.
Myron Clemons
A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.
Cheryl
A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.
jpstewart-02578
I recently watched This Gun For Hire, also featuring Alan Ladd (great performance in that) and Veronica Lake. The Glass Key has little of the fabulous lighting of Gun for Hire, a more convoluted and in some of its essences unbelievable plot, and the performance of Ladd is overall fair, with little variation, though we do get from him an overall sense of a particular character. Take into account that Ladd's character is one who is essentially acting a part most of the time, and I'll let him away with it. The plot unbelievability element, like that of the movie Laura, hinges for me on the fact that people close to an apparent murder victim don't believably express grief.
moonspinner55
On the heels of their hit pairing in the 1942 noir "This Gun For Hire", Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake were re-teamed for this adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's popular crime novel (previously filmed in 1935 with George Raft), cementing their box-office status while giving the gritty genre a heavy dose of star appeal. Brian Donlevy is excellent as a jovial, two-fisted politician who shows no hesitation squashing underworld types and playing dirty pool with gangsters; Ladd is his henchman and babysitter to Donlevy's sister, whose murdered boyfriend was mixed up with racketeers about to bring down a major newspaper publisher; Lake is a politician's daughter romantically linked with Donlevy but now eyeballing Ladd. Complicated yet drolly confident, with lust and power seething under the stoic surface. All it needed was a bit more heart. ** from ****
InjunNose
"The Glass Key" should have served as the model for all subsequent films based on hardboiled crime fiction. Brian Donlevy, Alan Ladd, William Bendix and tiny, delectable Veronica Lake all seem born to play their parts: Ladd, in particular, is perfect as the snappy, no-nonsense Ed Beaumont. Director Stuart Heisler gets the bleak atmosphere down pat. And, most important of all, the script is true to the morally ambiguous vision of Dashiell Hammett (except for that minor but cringe-inducing change to the ending, of course). There are no "good guys" in this tale: some of the characters behave much more reprehensibly than others, but there are only degrees of bad. This is what made Hammett's writing special, and it's why "The Glass Key" stands head and shoulders above many other, better-known examples of film noir like Howard Hawks' wildly inconsistent adaptation of Raymond Chandler's "The Big Sleep". (In the scene during which Ladd is held captive and roughed up by Bendix, Akira Kurosawa fans will immediately recognize the inspiration for a pivotal scene in the Japanese master filmmaker's "Yojimbo".)
dougdoepke
Good chance to catch Hollywood's greatest blond couple together in one of their best movies. My only question remains which of the two is prettier. Still, Lake wins out in the hair department, maybe for all time. The plot's pretty darn complicated but holds interest to the end, thanks to the expert casting.Those of us who remember Bill Bendix as the lovable Riley in radio & TV's Life of Riley boggle at his role here. As the sadistic thug Jeff, he's about as mean as they come. Actually, I'm surprised that the one particularly brutal beating passed the censors. In my book, it's the movie's most memorable scene. At the same time, it's good to know that Bendix and Ladd were such good friends off screen. Still, it's a rather shocking scene for the time.Sure, neither of the blonds was too good in the acting department. Yet each projected a strong, rather icy, presence that's hard to duplicate. Catch Ladd's mirthless grin more like a mask for his Beaumont character than an actual emotion. He's really very effective as a somewhat ruthless political operative. Then there's Lake who strikes effortlessly sultry poses, but with a cold heart underneath. The two are indeed a perfect match. The story's pretty convoluted, something about political influence entering into a murder mystery. Actually, it's a "buddy" picture as much as anything else, and one that sort of sneaks up on you. However, it's the characters, not the narrative that shines, including a dynamic Donlevy as the political boss and an oily Calleia as a mob kingpin. Together, they make life difficult for headliner Ladd. All in all, Paramount Pictures knew they had a winning two-some on screen, however difficult the screenplay.
