Watch The Glass Key For Free

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

In truth, any opportunity to see the film on the big screen is welcome.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Saw The Glass Key this weekend, a movie I've always been curious about. Here's my rather skewed analysis. (Lots of spoilers)I thought this would be a typical atmospheric and moody noir (it was up to a point) with a bit of a convoluted plot (it did have that) but no one warned me that it was going to be so subtly weird, kinky and delightfully perverse.Let's start with the familiar trope of the "beautiful object." This is the Hollywood lovely who is given lingering close-ups, usually in soft focus, and we then know that this is the object that we are supposed to gaze upon and delight our eyes with. It does not matter if one is a straight woman (like me) because the object is not necessarily a sexual thing. She is lovely eye candy...something to adore and emulate. We go into this movie expecting our object to be Lake. She does have a few soft lingering close-ups and there is a moment when the nurse opens Ladd's hospital room door and she stands there PERFECTLY FRAMED in her Edith Head ensemble, but overall Lake seems to be an afterthought in this movie. But who the camera seriously and continuously slobbers over is Alan Ladd. In fact, I've never seen a movie in which the MALE lead was pawed at so much by the camera (and thus, us) and by the other characters in our little play. Everybody is all over this guy. There's Lake who throws herself at him to very little avail. He flirts with her a bit in an early party scene (and here we get some of those lingering, soft-focus close-ups of Ladd as he flashes his wicked smile) but he also gives her a kind of kiss-off at the door when she sees him out and she gets left standing there with her panties in a bunch.Then there's poor William Bendix who - quite literally - CANNOT keep his hands off of Ladd. Sure, it's mostly to beat the crap out of him, but he's usually calling him sweetheart and baby while doing so. Bendix seems to light up from within every time Ladd steps into his view.Throughout this movie Ladd is always entering somebody's room or office or chambers, draping himself easily onto some piece of furniture and saying "look at me." And look they do. Mob boss Nick Varna positively beams every time he's in Ladd's presence. There's a scene after Ladd's Ed Beaumont has broken ties with his bro-friend Madvig and goes to see Varna to talk terms on a possible defection. Varna mentions a sort- of witness affidavit he has, and instead of sensibly leaving it in the safe he practically SKIPS over to the safe to get it out and show to Beaumont. One "aren't you a clever boy" from Ladd and this guy would swoon.In fact, it seems the only person in this movie who doesn't get giddy in Ladd's presence is boss/cohort/bestie Paul Madvig...and absolutely every machination of Beaumont's is in the service of Paul. You can see where I'm going with this. This has got to be the gayest movie of this era I have ever seen. But I'm not putting it down for that. I think the whole thing is wonderfully subversive and entertaining as hell.Now let's talk Lake. It is painfully obvious that Beaumont doesn't care two ticks for her. Most telling in this vein is a scene near the end of the movie in the Henry household when Henry finally confesses. Ladd says "I thought we'd have to send the girl to the gas chamber before the old man confessed." The girl??! It's like he's forgotten what her name is. Oh sure, he likes to flirt around with her but doesn't stick at making kissy face with the hospital nurse or flat out get busy with Mrs. Newspaper Owner.And let's talk about that whopper of a scene! It is in this scene that we see the stunning amorality of Beaumont come to light. Beaumont goes out to the country house of Mr. Newspaper Owner in order to confront...I dunno, a whole mess of people. First off he comes in and stands there for a good 30 seconds, giving off his sly smile, so everyone can get a load of him. Mrs. Newspaper Owner then gives him the "well hel-LO!" and "come sit by me Mr. Beaumont" routine. She finds out that her husband is under Varna's thumb. Big surprise...not, and uses her (fake) indignation as an excuse to throw herself all over Beaumont. Everyone goes to bed while Beaumont and Mrs. NO start getting' busy right on Mr. NO's own couch! The doughy Mr. NO comes downstairs occasionally to ask his wife if she's coming upstairs or what. Mrs. NO just goes back to sticking her tongue down Ladd's throat. Eventually Mr. NO just goes upstairs and puts a bullet in his own head.This scene is stunning in its amorality. What kind of dude gets his face all in another guys's wife's cleavage right on that guy's own couch in that guy's own house and just gives a bored, blank look when the guy dares to protest? Was it Beaumont's intention that Mr. NO go upstairs to off himself? This is never explained and Beaumont shows zero concern for what's happened. The guy is one piece of work.Finally, the "Lake and Ladd run off together" ending seems a bit tacked on. I mean, I can see that they sort of dig each other. There was a fair bit of chemistry but in the long run I don't think he's going to stay interested in her. They're both a couple of evil, twisted ice cubes, and therefore made for each other, but he'll "not keep her long" to quote Shakespeare, and in this world she's just not the object of adoration. He is.

Talk about plot twists, this picture has got it all and then some.Crooked politician endorsing a reform candidate and he loves the latter's daughter. (Veronica Lake) His partner (Alan Ladd) also loves the girl. The reformer (Moroni Olsen) has a son with a gambling problem. (Richard Denning). Before long, the son is found dead and suspicion shifts to our politician (Brian Donlevy) since the dead son was fond of his sister, a very mature Bonita Granville. Talk about Peyton Place, this picture may have it beat.In addition, we have William Bendix as an enforcer to always evil Joseph Calleia, looking to frame Donlevy for the murder.Wait until you see how Ladd smokes out the real killer by accusing someone else in the end.Bendix is excellent in his role and steals every scene that he is in.

Dashiell Hammett's writing style is by and large acknowledged as being exceedingly beneficial to movie interpretations. It's handsomely evocative of atmosphere and situation and the angle is practically always that of a neutral onlooker, a stand-in for the audience. The Glass Key and Miller's Crossing signify two distinguishing readings of Hammett. The former is a straightforward conversion, the latter takes basics from Red Harvest and then sets them afloat in a plot which reverberates with a virtual mirror image of The Glass Key but also wanders gamely into original ideas.This second and better known adaptation of the classic Hammett novel, released just seven years after the first, focuses more on the political stratagem and one particular murder which functions to throw a dainty milieu of suspicion and caginess into disarray, flaunting a murder mystery accompanied by a backdrop of politics, gambling kingpins, flirtation and almost farcically eager brutality. A vital part of Stuart Heisler's almost Hawksian version is the casting of Ladd as Ed. Hammett wrote about commanding but aloof guys, who demonstrate a stiff and closely controlled style of code and who seldom show feeling or vulnerability. His hard cases were pessimistic, solidly committed to their work, unscrupulous, plucky, and apparently not influenced to feelings. Ladd wears some of these characteristics with his physical look, taut and severe, keeps his actions in check to look cool and unruffled. He punches only one character, though it's just a calculated move instead of a ceremony of bluster. The only actual aggression that Ed makes use of is an unsurprisingly brusque and snappy reply to the aggravation of Richard Denning.The physical stiffness and steadfast temperament of this character is a bit diluted by Ladd's compromises in playing Ed as good-humored and affable. His recuperation from a savage pounding becomes a spell where he, like 007, flirts with nurses. The pressure of Ladd's assumed role, an up-and-coming matinée icon and celebrity, appears to have permeated the portrayal of Ed and modified the Hammett protagonist into something resembling a Hollywood negotiation. On the other hand, Brian Donlevy takes advantage of his character being the political organizer who wrestled his way up from bottom, while Ladd is just his henchman and sounding board. Veronica Lake is the fickle daughter of the gubernatorial nominee who initially makes a play for Donlevy but dithers between him and Ladd, while Joseph Calleia has the gambling house franchise throughout the metropolis. Merged skillfully, the effect is an amusing thriller.The most thrilling, as well as the funniest, and most loaded scene is definitely the epic battering incurred by Ladd in a spell of amusingly forward sado-masochism as William Bendix bashfully pleads for his "little rubber ball" to spring back for more. Filmed and performed with misleading airiness, the scene is key to the film, parading a sensual riptide that plants ongoing suspicions throughout. Tinkering with his customary pokerface as he twists cagily through a labyrinth of political intrigues and underworld traps in the name of his superior, Ladd stays just as ice-covered whether conveying his passion for Lake or his allegiance to Donlevy. The effect is a taunting sexual vagueness, significantly augmented, at least until the excuse finale, by the fact that Hammett's protagonist, here thick-skinned enough to confess a readiness to throw Lake under the bus if required in furtherance of his intentions, has been case-hardened by being abridged into a star mouthpiece for movie-going audiences. But man, love that William Bendix. His entire role is comprised of wanting nothing more than to beat Ladd into a pulp, and is insatiably enjoyable at being a big lug with nothing more on his mind.

Vice, corruption, betrayal, murder, and a skeleton in every closet: it's business as usual in big city politics. What many consider to be the definitive screen adaptation of a Dashiell Hammett crime thriller is more or less typical of its kind, with hard-boiled heroes in anonymous trench coats and tough, beautiful blondes squeezing terse, cynical dialogue at each other out of the side of their mouths. As usual the convoluted plot tends to frustrate any attempt at a quick description; suffice to say the heroes and villains run true to form, with the weakest link, oddly enough, being the two stars: Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake, a pair of the squarest jaws in Hollywood at the time. Their minimal emoting in the lead roles is completely overshadowed by the livelier performances in the supporting cast, notably Brian Donleavy as Ladd's earthy political kingpin boss, and William Bendix as his rival's cheerfully sadistic henchman.