The Glass Key

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Stuart Heisler directs. Theodor Sparkuhl behind the camera. Victor Young scores. Archie Marshek cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 185 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
• 284 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
• 3Directed by Stuart Heisler, shot by Theodor Sparkuhl. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 4Original score by Victor Young. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 5Editor Archie Marshek shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 6Brian Donlevy and Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd carry the top of the cast.
• 7Marketing tagline: "The Tougher They Are—The Harder They Fall".
• 8IMDB entry: tt0034798 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography

Theodor Sparkuhl

Original score

Victor Young

Editing

Archie Marshek

Costume design

Edith Head

Makeup / hair

Wally Westmore

Runtime

85 min · 1h 25m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

NR

IMDB

The Glass Key (1942) ↗

Rotten Tomatoes

88% 🍅 Fresh

IMDB rating

7/10 · 7,964 votes

MPAA

Approved

Also by

Stuart Heisler

• 
  This Is My Love

  1954 · ★ 8.8
• 
  The Islanders

  1960 · ★ 8.0
• 
  The Remarkable Andrew

  1942 · ★ 7.4
• 
  Rawhide

  1959 · ★ 7.3
• 
  The Star

  1952 · ★ 7.2
• 
  77 Sunset Strip

  1958 · ★ 7.2

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  The Glass Key trailer

  Trailer

Community reviews

What people are saying

• John Chard2019-07-01
  ★ 7/10

  Hey, Rusty, Little Rubber Ball is back. I told you he liked the way we bounced him around. The Glass Key is directed by Stuart Heisler and adapted by Jonathan Latimer from a story written by Dashiell Hammett. It stars Brian Donlevy, Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Joseph Calleia, William Bendix & Bonita Granville. It's re-election time and tough guy politician Paul Madvig (Donlevy) falls for reform candidate Ralph Henry's (Moroni Olsen) daughter, Janet (Lake). Subsequently he throws his weighty support behind Ralph Henry's campaign and irks the underworld gangsters, notably Nick Varna (Calleia). When Ralph's son, Taylor Henry (Richard Denning), is murdered, it opens up a world of corruption, violence, romantic passions and shifty shenanigans. A world that puts Madvig's right hand man, Ed Beaumont (Ladd) firmly in the middle. Hammett's tale had already been filmed in 1935 with Frank Tuttle in the director's chair and featuring George Raft, Edward Arnold & Claire Dodd as the principal players. Few can argue that, now, knowing how film noir became a force in the 40s, a remake was more than appropriate. Heisler's movie boasts a bigger budget, a better cast and crucially a better screenplay. However, the film in truth has problems, even though it rightly crops up as an example of early film noir on account of the thematics at work, where corruption and wealth blends seedily with sexual ambiguity and amoral deadpanning. One of the key reasons for why The Glass Key has proved so popular over the years, is because of some dynamite scenes and that Ladd's character is so wonderfully hard to read. Ticking away is a mystery to be solved in the middle of the plot, which is driven by a mysterious protagonist - with Ladd excellently playing it up. That Ladd and Lake would make four films together is testament to their chemistry, yet although the knowing looks and ease with how they share the same frame is telling here, the film as a whole is actually the weakest of the three film noirs that they made. Casting aside the flat visuals (oh for an Alton, Ballard or Musuraca) - and that much of the political corruptness is put in the background of the whodunit structure - the film also falls flat due to the cop-out ending. Now it's true that many film noirs, and other devilish off shoots of such, have favoured a more "hopeful" ending, and have got away with it to a degree. Yet here it's practically unforgivable, given the tone and all round uneasiness of the previous narrative bents, a tone that's driven by Beaumont's amoral ambiguity lest we forget. Why the hard edge ending from the novel is not used I'm not too sure, but ultimately it's the wrong decision. Still, there's enough to enjoy here while it runs. The cast do great work, notably William Bendix as a pathetic hard man dealing out sado-masochistic beatings to poor Edward, and Donlevy who blends his "Great McGinty" character with old time mobster traits. While of course solving the whodunit is fun and thankfully no easy task. It's said that The Glass Key influenced the likes of "Yojimbo" and "The Big Sleep", which if true? is high praise all told. But as entertaining as the film is, and it is, this really should (and could) have been much better, and its reputation in noir circles to my mind is a little flattering. 7/10

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  Paramount Pictures

  US

Key crew

• NovelDashiell Hammett
• Executive ProducerBuddy G. DeSylva
• Art DirectionHans Dreier
• EditorArchie Marshek
• Makeup ArtistWally Westmore
• Art DirectionHaldane Douglas
• Costume DesignEdith Head
• Sound RecordistDon Johnson
• Sound RecordistHugo Grenzbach
• Assistant DirectorArthur S. Black Jr.
• OrchestratorGeorge Parrish
• Associate ProducerFred Kohlmar
• OrchestratorLeo Shuken

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• film noir

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical (limited)1942-10-14NR· New York City, New York
• Theatrical (limited)1942-10-02NR· Detroit, Michigan
• Theatrical1942-10-23NR

Also known as

International titles

• La Clé de verreFR