Product Description

Great Britain released, PAL/Region 2.4 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Mono ), English ( Subtitles ), SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu, SYNOPSIS: Dashiel Hammett's The Glass Key, a tale of big-city political corruption, was first filmed in 1935, with Edward Arnold as a duplicitous political boss and George Raft as his loyal lieutenant. This 1942 remake improves on the original, especially in replacing the stolid Raft with the charismatic Alan Ladd. Brian Donlevy essays the role of the boss, who is determined to back reform candidate Moroni Olsen, despite Ladd's gut feeling that this move is a mistake. Ladd knows that Donlevy is doing a political about-face merely to get in solid with Olsen's pretty daughter Veronica Lake. It is Ladd who is left to clean up the mess when crime lord Joseph Calleila murders Olsen's wastrel son Richard Denning and pins the rap on Donlevy. As Ladd struggles to clear Donlevy's name, he falls in love with Lake--when he's not being pummeled about by Calleila's psychopathic henchman William Bendix. Far less complex than the Dashiel Hammett original (and far less damning of the American political system), The Glass Key further increased the box-office pull of Paramount's new team of Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #142775 in DVD
• Formats: Import, PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 81 minutes

Features

• THIS DVD WILL NOT WORK ON STANDARD US DVD PLAYER

Customer Reviews

A fine Forties noir with Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake and Brian Donlevy, and a startling performance by William Bendix
Maybe not a great noir, but The Glass Key, based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett, is one of the most satisfying crime movies to come out of the Forties. I've watched it several times and undoubtedly will again. Why does it work so well? First, there's a death tied to a whodunit and the solution is well disguised until the very end. Second, there's the milieu...big city crime and politics, corruption and violence. Third, a startlingly unhinged performance by William Bendix. And fourth, and most importantly, there is the relationship between two strong men, both slightly amoral but which is based on friendship and trust.

We're talking about Paul Madvig (Brian Donlevy), a big-time gambler and enforcer who has moved into big-time politics, and Ed Beaumont (Alan Ladd), his right-hand man. This bond of trust and friendship between the two is one of the movie's major themes. It's the engine that drives the movie. Madvig is a tough, cheerful guy who can use his fists or a threat or use a pay-off to get his way. Surprisingly, he's backing a reform candidate for governor. He's gone so far as to shut down illegal gambling operations, which has made a dangerous enemy of gambler Nick Varna (Joseph Calliea). Even more surprisingly, Madvig has fallen for his candidate's daughter, Janet Henry (Veronica Lake).

Beaumont, on the other hand, is a taciturn hard case. He's no one's fool. He's smarter, or at least shrewder, than Madvig. His loyalty to Madvig is complete but he never hesitates to try to talk sense to Madvig. At one point Madvig is bragging about his entry into high society and respectable politics with his association with the candidate he's backing. "I'm going to society, " he says to Beaumont. "He's practically given me the key to his house." Says Beaumont, "Yeah, a glass key. Be sure it doesn't break in your hand." Beaumont sees Janet Henry and her family as wealthy, condescending snobs. Why do you stay with Madvig, she asks him with a coy little condescending smile. "I get along very well with Paul because he's on the dead up-and-up. Why don't you try it sometime?" he says and walks out.

Before long Janet's brother, the wastrel son of Madvig's candidate, is found dead and Madvig is the prime suspect. Beaumont doesn't believe this for a minute. He's sure Nick Varna had something to do with it. Soon Beaumont is being used as a punching bag by Jeff (William Bendix), one of Varna's goons. It doesn't take much time, either, for Beaumont and Janet Henry, who has said she'd marry Madvig, to realize there's a strong attraction between them that's starting to show. Beaumont, however, is determined to respect Madvig's feelings. By the time we reach the end of the movie, there have been plenty of beatings, deaths and corruption. The person responsible for the brother's death has been discovered. It's a clever surprise. Of course, in an Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake movie, there's also a happy ending.

William Bendix was a big, beefy actor who more often than not played good guys. When he played a bad guy, he was something to see. Jeff is just this short of a psycho, but short on the other side of the line. "Meet the swellest guy I ever skinned a knuckle on," he says, draping an arm across Beaumont's shoulder. He enjoys dishing out beatings. The most startling scenes in the movie center on Jeff. In the first, Ed Beaumont is being held captive. He's going to be beaten until he gives the low-down on all of Madvig's less savory activities. He won't talk, so Jeff beats him within an inch of his life. It's an almost sadomasochistic scene. Ladd's face, with some realistic make-up, looks like hamburger...and Jeff isn't through. The other scene has Jeff losing control when a major character gives him one too many orders. "Now you see what we gotta do," Jeff says, "we gotta give him the works." As Beaumont leans against the door in the background and watches, we see the sweating, shaking face of Jeff as he strangles the guy. We don't see the victim, only the victim's kicking legs. Which is worse, Jeff killing the man or Beaumont watching with a slight smile?

This was Alan Ladd's follow-up film to This Gun for Hire. He was never a great actor; he said so himself. But he had whatever it takes to be a star and this movie secured his star status. Veronica Lake leaves me with mixed feelings. In The Glass Key she is so carefully coifed, dressed and made-up that, with her tiny stature, she looks like a kind of odd porcelain doll. Although Ladd and Lake never much cared for each other, they made an intriguing couple on the screen. And what of Brian Donlevy? Sure, he was a stolid actor, very straight forward. Yet, for me, he always combined a kind of honest, nice-guy quality with a streak of solid bad-guy potential. "Reliable," I guess is what people would call him, yet I can't think of anyone who could have done a better job as Sergeant Markoff in Beau Geste. Donlevy had top billing for The Glass Key.

For those who like old songs as well as old movies, there's a nice instrumental version of "I Remember You," music by Victor Schertzinger and lyrics by Johnny Mercer, used as background in a scene. "I Don't Want to Walk Without You, Baby," with music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Frank Loesser, is sung by an uncredited Lillian Randolph in a dive while Jeff glowers and downs a couple of scotches.

Who knows why this fine film isn't out on a worthy Region 1 DVD edition; perhaps one of these days.

IN THE TIME OF THE 'FIXER'
Dashiel Hammett, along with Raymond Chandler, reinvented the detective genre in the 1930's and 1940's. They moved the genre away from the amateurish and simple parlor detectives that had previously dominated the genre to hard-boiled action characters who knew what was what and didn't mind taking a beating to get the bad guys. And along the way they produced some very memorable literary characters as well. Nick Charles, Sam Spade and Phillip Marlowe are well known exemplars of the action detective.

In The Glass Key Hammett takes a little different run at that same idea. The protagonist this time is not the usual detective but an old fashioned political `fixer'. No, not the `spin doctor' or `flak' of modern media-driven politics but the older handler of the retail politics that counted in local urban scene with the added factor of a little off hand, old fashioned mob influence. Nevertheless, the `fixer' Ned Beaumont has all the resourcefulness, toughness, loyalty, and hard-boiled common sense that we have come to expect of Hammett's real detectives.

The plot revolves around the familiar problem of electoral politics-getting elected. In this case getting a Senator with a beautiful daughter, Janet, and an errant son, Taylor, reelected. Add in some political factions, also mob-dominated, a fair share of corrupt officials, an off hand murder and other crimes and misdemeanors and you would hardly know we are not dealing with a `normal' Hammett novel. Further add in a slowly evolving romance between Ned and the afore-mentioned Senator's daughter who is also the object of his boss's affections and you have quite a mix. Frankly, I prefer Hammett's detectives but any time you can get your hands on one of his books do so.

In the film version of the novel that follows the script of the book pretty closely the part of Ned is played by a young Alan Ladd. The Senator's daughter, Janet, is played by Veronica Lake. Naturally in the film the romantic tension is given more play than in the book. Some of the scenes between them, especially that classic Lake look when she is being coy, are worth the price of admission. Brian Donlevy as Ned's boss also has his moments.