The Glass Key: Kicking off "Noir November" with a hard-boiled masterpiece

The Glass Key - Stuart Heisler - 1942 

★★★★★-Starting Noir November off like a rocket with this masterpiece. The second screen adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's novel of the same name, a peak, twisted, hard-boiled tale.

Read the book over the summer. Loved it. Back then, I knew I was going to start off the month with this flick. I’ve probably watched 300 noir/neo-noir in the last five years, minimum. It’s been quite a while since I was this excited about a noir flick. 

Directed by Stuart Heisler. Mostly remembered for this and the 1944 propaganda film The Negro Soldier, a documentary-style recruitment piece aimed at African Americans to get them to enlist in the military during World War II. Also, the Humphrey Bogart film Tokyo Joe, and the 1949 film Tulsa, starring Susan Hayward, for which he was nominated for an Oscar. Found success with another Hayward movie in 1947 for Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman. 

Veronica Lake is the female lead but not the femme fatale. She was never more beautiful. She’s not great but is obviously a star. Stars Alan Ladd as the hardboiled detective. Mostly think of him as Johnny Morrison from The Blue Dahlia and Shane from Shane. Brian Donlevy plays Paul Madvig, the rich, corrupt politician at the center of the murder who can’t control his daughter. William Bendix plays the thug, as is his way. He’s always great. Complete psychopath in this flick. Kicks a photographer in the face as he’s getting taken out of the police station kind of guy. Perfectly cast.

Film thrusts you in the murky waters of political intrigue, corruption, and romance, with a side order of murder. Crooked politician Paul Madvig (played by Donlevy) is a political boss who's decided to swap his shady dealings for a shot at redemption. He's throwing his weight behind the reform candidate for governor, a move that's unpopular with the criminal underworld. He's also got his eye on the governor's daughter, Janet (played by Lake, who's damn cool). Enter Ed Beaumont (Ladd), Madvig's right-hand man and fixer. He's got to navigate this labyrinth of lies and deceit to clear his boss's name. It's a tale as old as time, guy meets dame, falls for dame, gets framed for murder by gangsters. 

Drew me in immediately. Madvig immediately makes his entrance by throwing a guy out of the window into the pool for giving him shit for talking to a candidate from the opposition party. This guy gets it, and doesn’t give a flying fuck. Donlevy sort of stole the show with his performance. 

Film flies by way faster than an hour and 25 minutes. Still manages to hit all the main beats of the novel. That’s what I love about the genre. You get right into it with an economy of engaging plot with dubious characters, snappy dialogue, and brutality. Plus, beautiful cinematography and women that are to die for.  

The Blue Dahlia - George Marshall - 1946

★★★★★- Very pretty ladies in this one with Veronica Lake and Doris Dowling (who plays the awful wife). Coming in hot, this movie. The first 20 minutes are like seven different movies. 

Starts with casual racism, however, I’m not really sure if the guy that gets called a “monkey” is not actually a swarthy white guy. Then we say that the guy who dropped the “slur” had a traumatic brain injury and has a plate in his skull. He also seems to have some PTSD and major memory issues. Turns out to be sort of a gentleman though.

He comes home to a bunch of drunks and his wife making out with some dude. Then they have this exchange after he slaps the guy shooting his wife. 

Ladies and gentlemen, I think you had better leave. My husband would like to be alone with me... He probably wants to beat me up. Perhaps you wouldn’t want me to apologize. “Apologize, darling? But you don’t have to; you’re a hero. A hero can get away with anything.”

I think this sort of thing happens a lot. Soldiers get married young before they go off to war. Come back to find their wives or husbands who they probably don’t know that well with someone else. I had a great aunt that Had some other guy besides her husband’s kid and he was basically just like, “well, get rid of the kid but I guess we will stay together and I’ll just treat you like shit for the rest of our lives.” That was before people got divorced and what have you as is this film. It looks like it’s going to be a wonderful life there, soldier. 

Before he and his wife get everybody out of the house pretty much his buddies call. They said they would whenever they found an apartment. I thought this would be like a month from then or something, but they’ve already got one, moved all their shit in, and everything like 10 minutes after tying one off at the bar/causing minor property damage.

The neighborhood has a house detective, what the fuck is that? Tell him to keep it down and pull the shades down if he’s going to push his wife around. The tone, I thought, was definitely, “don’t fucking touch her.”

This movie is just one thing after another. Find out that they had a child that is now dead. Dude starts grilling his wife about it and she went to one of her parties got wasted and then has a “car smash.” This appears to be fine legally back then. Sort of just frowned upon, killing your child while drunk driving.

Then the real action starts. Great film. Highly recommend. But be ready, this movie is a pretty demanding watch.