The Glass Key

The Company Line

This is an "intricate murder mystery." Alan Ladd plays Ed Beaumont, the friend of Paul Madvig, a "slightly corrupt politician" who is implicated in a murder. Beaumont, in his search for the real killers must "endure a brutal beating from gangsters, the annoying hindrance of the police and the beguiling advances of his boss's fiancee, socialite Janet Henry." Janet is played by Veronica Lake, whom the box describes as a "frosty, enigmatic presence [that] was never more engaging."

1942, 85 minutes, VHS

The Review

Pint-sized film noir icon, Alan Ladd returns to familiar territory in this adaptation of a novel by Dashiell Hammett, a dude who churned out something like a total of five novels in his career and around 80 short stories dealing with roscoes and dames including something called The Maltese Falcon. Ladd plays a guy named Ed Beaumont, apparently no relation to Leave It To Beaver star Hugh Beaumont, nor should Ed be confused with Raven, whom Ladd played in This Gun For Hire or with Johnny whom Ladd played in The Blue Dahlia. Ed is one of these little tough right-hand men that corrupt politicians seemed to rely on in olden times. The corrupt politician is probably familiar to some of us as everyone's least favorite professor Quatermass, Brian Donlevy. Donlevy essays the role of Paul Madvig, the big boss of things in what I believe is an unnamed city somewhere in an unnamed state. Paul's in the middle of a big governor's race and is backing the candidate from the "I'm Backed By Crooks" party. I've always kind of thought that people like that were wusses. You know, those guys that like to lurk around in the shadows and pull the strings of the puppets they bought, refusing to ever run for public office themselves because the are either too worthless (or more likely, too ugly) to get even us dumb Americans to vote for him or because you don't have to be out there in public taking responsibility for the decisions you made. Of course, most people like this are only concerned with decisions that benefit themselves so I guess it would make sense not to actually be in public office, but behind the curtain. Still, I think there's a great deal of cowardice involved with a person like that. I say that, because it makes you wonder why Ed is so loyal to Paul, but we'll address all that in due time. We've still got our femme fatale to introduce. If you haven't already guessed by the fact that Alan Ladd is in this, I will tell you that your starlet of the moment is the legendary and impossibly blonde Veronica Lake. This is one of four pictures (I think) that she and Ladd were in together. The others are the film noirs mentioned above with Ladd and the fourth is a post-war melodrama named Saigon, which is not available on video.

Things get off to a roaring start when Paul is shooting his mouth off at some political gathering about the candidate for the Reform Party. As soon as I heard him babbling about the Reform Party, I quickly wiped off the half-melted chunks of three-week old Reese's Peanut Butter Cups that I had purchased on a rare excursion out of doors for a viewing of Morgan Freeman's Along Came A Spider (Okay, but where were the giant Morgan-eating spiders?) and picked up the video box scanning the credits to see if this one also starred Jesse "The Body" Ventura. Not seeing his name in the credits, I surmised that this must be a different Reform Party Paul was babbling about. Sure enough, Paul takes a potshot at a guy named Ralph Henry and not "The Body." This earns him a slap across his face from Veronica Lake who probably had to be lifted up to slap his face instead of his belly button. I think the whole "little people" connection that Lake and Ladd have has been well explored prior to this review and it's safe to say that there are some scenes in this movie that really let on how small those two were. Admittedly, they do a good job of staging things so it's not too obvious such as when Ladd has a verbal confrontation with gangster Nick Varner with Ladd standing on some stairs while Varner has to look up at him from floor level, but when Ladd (or Lake for that matter) stands next to people like Ralph Henry or Varner's hired goon Jeff (played by William Bendix) their smallness really becomes apparent, but as Ladd would probably tell you, it's not the size of the boat, it's the motion in the ocean. So, this dame slaps Paul and he's all like, "why is this dame slapping me?" and she's sneering at him and let's on that she's Janet Henry, the daughter of Ralph Henry. So Paul, being like most men and attracted to women that mistreat him, immediately declares that he's fallen in love, must marry her, and will switch his support to the Reform ticket in an effort to win her heart. I suppose people have supported candidates for stupider reasons. I'm still trying to figure out what anyone proved by voting for Ralph Nader. I mean, was he handing out cigs and donuts to the homeless in Wisconsin? I didn't think so.

Paul's sudden change in his support for the candidates for governor causes him some problems with some less than reputable types, such as Nick Varner. Nick seems to be a mobster who runs various illegal activities in town such as gambling joints. He and Paul had been both supporting the same candidate before Paul went and got hisself bitch-slapped into a relationship. Now Nick is somewhat dismayed that Paul is using his new-found morals to get his casinos closed down. I guess Paul is content with losing both the Mafia and the Native American vote in exchange for the Veronica Lake vote. Maybe she's all that and maybe she ain't, but is she really worth losing the ability to drop a sawbuck on college basketball team (like Northwestern) that you just know is going to lose? What's really sweet about all this is that Janet Henry is blatantly with Paul up until daddy can move into the governor's mansion and then it's buh-bye Quatermass and hello Benjamin Bratt (those who don't really care for Mr. Bratt's brand of smarmy hunkiness would do well to rent the recent Mars fiasco, Red Planet , wherein he trips or something and falls of a Martian cliff, bouncing off of rocks like Raggady Ann. I must have hit the rewind and slow motion button, like three or four times. They also tried to sneak him by me in the otherwise great movie, Traffic, but it was a brief enough cameo and I could simply take a leak while he was stinking up the joint.) Now, there are further complications with Paul, Janet, and Ed. You see, Janet has a brother who likes to think that all he needs is one big win to get ahead and then he could pay off his gambling debt to Nick Varner. To further muddy the waters, Paul has a sister improbably named Opal. Guess who Opal is in love with? Yep, the brother of Janet, Taylor. For some reason Janet is good enough for Paul, but Paul isn't too keen on Opal dating Jimmy the Greek. Ed plays babysitter and tracks her down to a room with Taylor and hauls her back to Paul's. Taylor is a pretty big guy and tries to "bring it" with Ed, but Ed barely changes expression and kicks him hard in the shin, incapacitating the big dope. It was a great scene that really demonstrates what made Alan Ladd such an effective tough guy. He's not very big, but he has this economy of action that makes every movement he takes seem that much more important. He stands there, his face betraying no emotion, his body betraying no concern and suddenly lets loose with this contained ferocity that is devastating, final, and without conscience. He's not so much a human being as he is a wraith, biding his time, picking his spots, never doubting his course of action. There is something pure about the lack of baggage he carries around compared to the rest of the human race. It's also probably why the ending of the movie rings so false.

It's against this backdrop of political intrigue and personal passions that the defining event of the movie is played out. Somehow or other, Ed stumbles onto the recently deceased Taylor laying in gutter. Naturally, his pal Paul is implicated (chiefly by a bunch of anonymous letters). Paul denies he had anything to do with it and doesn't seem too concerned about being charged with murder, figuring that he's too powerful for anyone to do anything about and goes about his business. Ed, who has no illusions about the nature of people and their ability to desert a "friend" in need faster than Heath Ledger distanced himself from his awful summer movie, A Knight's Tale, tries to tell Paul to go get everything cleared up. Eventually, they have a falling out, and Ed supposedly goes to see Nick Varner about a job. Ed, though, has this fierce, almost religious, loyalty to his friend, another example of how he represents something more than human, maybe something we would all aspire to in our lives. He has this meeting where Nick tries to recruit him, but Ed is only there to ascertain what, if anything, he's got on Paul and this murder. Nick makes Ed a great offer of money and his own gambling business (we'll start you out at assistant manager and see how you do after six months). When he sneers at Varner, throws his money back at him, and tears up an affidavit that implicates Paul, you can't help but feel something approaching elation that there are people in the world (even if only in the movies) that would do whatever is necessary to protect a friend in distress, that would look into the face of the devil himself and spit in it. I don't think that that's laying it too thick. Varner is of course the devil in this movie. Paul isn't a bad guy, deep down. He's capable of feeling something approaching love and you can see that in spite of their disputes he loves his friend as much as he is loved by him. Varner has these psychotic thugs and attack dogs do all his dirty work, has no one he cares about above what would be best for whatever scummy business dealing he's cooked up. And I know I complained about Paul being a cowardly lion at the beginning for being a player behind the scenes, but you know what? He met this woman and she gave him the courage to go against Nick Varner, when he had to know on some level that that might be at some great personal cost. He was willing to close Nick's gambling dens down in an effort to further impress this woman. Ah, the love of a good woman (even if she is only playing you). Well, it's all well and good to play the steely-eyed, screw'em hero like Ed, but if you're going to do that , you've got to expect a good old-fashioned beat down every now and again. Varner sics his boys on Ed and one of them, Jeff (Bendix) takes a great deal of pleasure (umm, probably a little too much pleasure) in administering one of the more brutal beatings you're likely to see. Eventually, Ed manages to escape and tells Paul that Varner is fixing things so that they can hang this murder beef on Paul.

Later, Ed learns that Varner also has a super-duper secret plan to have a newspaper publish a bunch of lies to get Paul busted for this killing. Ed, apparently either one of the toughest, bravest guys or one of the dullest-witted guys again confronts Varner and his thugs at the country retreat of the newspaper publisher and pretty much makes out with the newspaper publisher's wife in front of him until the guy goes upstairs and shoots himself! Whoa! Ed sure is turning things up a notch. Later Ed goes out looking for Jeff and Varner and gets Jeff in a room and starts drinking with him. Jeff is one of those dudes that you might politely say is "conflicted." He seems to be alternately threatening and hitting on Ed, touching him and calling him friendly names. Varner shows up and Ed goads Jeff into strangling Varner. At this point, Ed has pretty much become a conscienceless entity, holding a gun on the two as they struggle, content to watch Jeff squeeze the life out of his boss. Then he turns Jeff over to the cops and convinces the DA to swear out a murder warrant on Veronica Lake for the murder of her brother. He's figured out that it was her that was sending the anonymous letters implicating Paul even as she was making goo-goo eyes at him. He and the DA go over to the Henry house and arrest her. Before they can haul her away, her father admits that he was the one that killed his own son accidently. Ed kind of goes, "whew, I was starting to wonder whether the old man was going to crack." Ed had known all along that she hadn't down it, but was willing to risk her riding the lightning to get the real killer and clear his good buddy Paul. I can't say that I felt too sorry for Janet though. The whole movie she was punking Paul just so her daddy could get elected and then tried to set Paul up for a murder he didn't commit. Ed knew all this from the very beginning. When Paul said he had been invited to the Henry house for a backyard BBQ or a pool party or something and that they had practically given him a key to their house, Ed responded with a comment about how Paul better make sure it wasn't a glass key that would break off in his hand. Bitty, bitty, bang, bang! Somehow or other Ed and Janet end up going off together, finding time to fall in love in between her trying to hang Paul and Ed trying to fry her. Paul finds out and wishes them luck. Huh? All the crap that has happened and everyone is suddenly best pals and let's be friends all that junk? Not buying it, folks. I understand the book's ending is different, but my copy went missing after a rash of burglaries in my trailer park last year.

Reviews © 2004 MonsterHunter