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.  

Lifeboat - Alfred Hitchcock - 1944

★★★★★ - Not the usual Hitchcock fair. I still absolutely loved it. Overall, it has a parable or allegory feel. Hitchcock obviously hates himself some Nazis. The only good ones are dead ones. This is a lesson that plays out throughout the film and is still applicable today.

Made during WWII. Written by John Steinbeck. The film follows a group of Merchant Marines on a lifeboat after their ship is sunk by a Nazi U-boat. One of the survivors pulled out of the water, however, ends up being a Nazi that they struggle to keep in check. This guy is a gaslighting mother fucker you want to see get his almost immediately.

The best stretch of the film comes early when the group has to deal with a survivor suffering from gangrene. They realize that they are going to have to amputate his injured leg. He's a real trooper, but it's obvious that this is really going to suck. They use the little bit of rum they have to get him drunk and knock him out so they can perform the procedure. The nurse among them, who has never done anything like this, has to rely on the German who claims to have been a surgeon in civilian life. No one likes this but it has to be done. The scene goes on forever, building up over minutes. It's excruciating.

Some real trigger warning in this film, though there isn't any cannibalism. Just a dead baby, some suicide, and beating a guy to death.

The film stars a bunch of familiar faces. Among them Mary Anderson (whom I recognize from Gone with the Wind), Heather Angel, Tallulah Bankhead, who is awesome, William Bendix (whom is basically the same guy he played in The Blue Dahlia), Hume Cronyn (always great, he was married to Jessica Tandy and was introduced to me as one of the old guys in Cocoon), John Hodiak (mostly know him from Somewhere in the Night), Henry Hull (who steals the show), Canada Lee (the black guy on the ship, his character isn't too offensive for the time), and Walter Slezak as the Nazi. This film also has one of my favorite Hitchcock cameos. With so few people in the movie, he shows up in an advertisement in the only newspaper they have on the boat. Pretty slick.

Gonna wrap it up with a little bit on Tallulah Bankhead's awesomeness. Known for her sexual exploits, she is the one who gave the world “dahling”. She was only in around a dozen movies but looms large. Born into a political family, her grandfather and uncle were U.S. Senators and her dad (William B. Bankhead) was Speaker of the House from 1937-1940. While they were considered liberal in their day, Tallulah was way left of the fam. She hung out with Zelda Fitzgerald and was Tennessee Williams inspiration for Blanche DuBois for A Streetcar Named Desire. She employed gay men to care for her when she was in the throws of addiction, calling them her “caddies”. She was a fan of Alfred Kinnsey and found his research to confirm her already advanced views on sexuality. She did interviews in the 1930s where she talked about wanting to get fucked and had many affairs with both men and women. Some of the women included Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Hattie McDaniel, and Billie Holiday. She referred to herself as “ambisextrous”. She was also an extremely heavy drinker and drug user that smoked 120 cigarettes a day (hence the husky voice). Her last words were “codeine... bourbon.” My kind of chick.