The Alan Ladd-Veronica Lake film The Glass Key was released on Oct. 1, 1942, the second pairing of the famous film noir pair. Distributed by Paramount and directed by Stuart Heisler, the first film starring Ladd/Lake had been released only a few months earlier: This Gun for Hire. The Glass Key is based on a novel by Dashiell Hammett, who was a very popular writer in Hollywood in the early Forties.
Hammett’s classic novel The Maltese Falcon had been adapted by John Huston and turned into a classic film released in October of 1941 to great acclaim. The Maltese Falcon is about a worldly but ultimately honorable private detective named Sam Spade. It is a detective novel. This Gun for Hire is about a cold-blooded killer who involuntarily becomes involved in a traitorous plot involving a poison gas formula and World War II traitors. The Glass Key has neither detectives nor anti-American operatives. It is a political novel about dishonest politicians. The “biggest crook of all” is played by Brian Donlevy, a political boss named Paul Madvig.
All three films occur in the shadow of corruption, whether it be moral or political, and all three fit the definition of film noir “marked by a mood of pessimism, fatalism, and menace.”
The “glass key” of the title is a metaphor for the decisions we make in life. Once we have unlocked a door, we must recognize the fragility of the key and how difficult it is to re-lock that door.
The Glass Key is also a murder mystery. The son of an aspiring politician has a gambling problem. Daddy is running for governor, assisted by political boss Paul Madvig. Problems arise since sonny boy owes a lot of money to a sleazy night club owner. The son winds up dead. Who killed him? Suspects include:
–Paul Madvig, political boss, who has clashed with the victim earlier. Paul doesn’t like him since he – the victim – has been dating Paul’s sister Opal, trying to squeeze money from her to pay off his gambling debts. The victim is also the brother of Madvig’s fiancé, Veronica Lake, who is the daughter of our aspiring politician. She’s not really in love with Madvig, but she is trying to enable her dad’s political ambitions.
–Nick Varna, sleazy nightclub owner, who has a history with Madvig. He has threatened the victim multiple times. He has threatened Madvig multiple times. He pretty much threatens everyone else in the movie as well.
–Jeff (played by a terrific William Bendix of “The Life of Reilly”), who is the hired, drunken muscle for Varna, sleazy nightclub owner. Jeff likes to hurt people almost as much as he likes to spit on the floor.
–Janet Henry (Veronica Lake’s character). She is pinpointed as a suspect late in the movie after Madvig has belatedly confessed that he killed the victim in a suspected attempt to protect someone else. Confused?
Without giving too much away, the ultimate answer to “who killed” the gambling-obsessed brother is none of the above. Who ultimately figures it all out? Alan Ladd, of course, playing the role of Ed Beaumont. What does Alan Ladd do? He assists Paul Madvig. He is his friend/adviser and, when needed, his cooler head. Paul tends to act on impulse rather than logic. Ladd’s character is loyal to an unbelievable degree. He doesn’t want to be around the beautiful Veronica Lake – Paul’s fiancé, after-all – since he is afraid “I might make a pass at ‘ya.”
If all of this sounds like something you may have heard or seen before, the movie offers up something very different midway through. Ladd, trying to assist his pal Paul, is captured by the sleazy nightclub owner’s minions. He is tortured: his face beaten so badly that, when finally revealed in a mirror shot, Ladd is unrecognizable. The beating apparently occurs over several days since Ladd is locked in a room with Jeff and another thug. Their goal is to have him implicate his pal Paul in the murder of the politician’s son.
Beatings in film noir movies are a dime a dozen. This one is different since Bendix – an admitted fat, drunken slob – seems to enjoy it so much. He even implies that Ladd is enjoying it. “Sweetheart,” he calls Ladd. “I told you … he likes this. Don’t you baby?,” before Ladd is dumped into a bath tub of water and more pounding occurs. Ladd manages to escape and is hospitalized. He later confronts Bendix, who remarks: “The rubber ball is back. I told you he liked the way we bounced him around.” Lake asks Ladd why he took such a beating. His answer is loyalty to Paul.
The movie wraps up with romance all around. Lake and Ladd get to kiss, a pretty big deal since their first movie included
only a peck on the cheek. “We’re still from different sides of the tracks,” he tells Lake. “Let’s dynamite those tracks,” she replies. Alan Ladd died in 1964 at age 50. The autopsy report concluded that he died from cerebral edema caused by an overdose of alcohol and drugs. Veronica Lake died in 1973, also at age 50. Cause of death was acute hepatitis complicated by kidney damage linked to alcohol consumption.
At the time there was a Hollywood joke that attempted to explain the successful pairing of Lake/Ladd. They went together so well because Veronica Lake was the only actress on the lot shorter (5 ft. 2 inches) than Alan Ladd (5 ft. 6 inches). Cruelty wasn’t limited to movie scripts.