The Glass Key (1942) - film review

Former crook Paul Madvig offers his services as the electoral agent for the scrupulously honest Ralph Henry in the coming mayoral elections - partly to show he is a reformed character, but also so that he can win the girl he loves, Henry’s daughter Janet.  Unfortunately, Janet has no real interest in him and her eyes have already started to wander – in the direction of his best friend, Ed Beaumont.  When Henry’s wayward son is found dead in the street, suspicion immediately points in the direction of Madvig.  As he tries to get to the truth and clear his friend’s name, Ed finds himself up against Henry’s ambitious, and very dangerous, political opponents...

Hot on the heels of their successful partnership in This Gun for Hire (1942), Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake were reunited in another noir thriller, The Glass Key, with Ladd again playing the phlegmatic anti-hero and Lake his sultry femme fatale.  This film was the second adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s novel, the first being a pretty lacklustre 1935 film of the same name, directed by Frank Tuttle and starring George Raft and Claire Dodd.

The Glass Key was released a year after another celebrated Hammett adaptation – John Huston’s The Maltese Falcon (1941).  The influence of the latter film is evident through director Stuart Heisler’s use of the same film noir techniques which Huston had introduced.  Although its noir cinematography is just as effective as in Huston’s film at conveying atmosphere and tension, The Glass Key is a much cosier film and lacks the hard, cynical edge of The Maltese Falcon.  Its impact is undermined somewhat by its soft ending, which is of the traditional Hollywood variety.  

The Glass Key still has its share of darker moments, though.  Most disturbing are the scenes depicting a developing sado-masochistic relationship between Ed (Alan Ladd) and a sadistic henchman (William Bendix), which has some very noticeable homoerotic undertones.  The six foot Bendix gave the five foot five Ladd quite a pummelling, knocking him unconscious in one scene (which is retained in the final print).  Ladd’s performance is every bit as restrained and darkly introspective as it was This Gun for Hire, something which adds greatly to his character’s moral and sexual ambiguity.   It may look slight when compared with The Maltese Falcon, but, judged on its own merits, The Glass Key is a compelling and stylish noir thriller.

© James Travers 2008

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