Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Jemima It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

SnoopyStyle In the heat of an election, big politician Paul Madvig (Brian Donlevy) decides to refuse gangster Nick Varna to clean up his image. His right hand man Ed Beaumont (Alan Ladd) doesn't support it or his wish to support reform candidate Ralph Henry. Madvig expects to have the key to Henry but Beaumont warns him that it might turn out to be a glass key. Madvig is enchanted with the fiery Henry daughter Janet (Veronica Lake). Henry's son Taylor is a degenerate gambler and the boyfriend to Paul's sister Opal 'Snip' Madvig. Taylor is murdered and Ed finds the body. Madvig is non-chalant. Nick starts spreading rumors that Paul Madvig might have been the killer.Veronica Lake is the personification of that noir style damsel. She's got that cool demeanor and that swooping hair style. Alan Ladd is the male equivalent in this movie which comes off more stiff than compelling. It would be better if he has a bigger presence or more animated. I do like that everybody has murky motivations and the murder mystery is interesting. I don't like the stiff Alan Ladd performance. He just has that one facial expression.

dougdoepke Good chance to catch Hollywood's greatest blond couple together in one of their best movies. My only question remains which of the two is prettier. Still, Lake wins out in the hair department, maybe for all time. The plot's pretty darn complicated but holds interest to the end, thanks to the expert casting.Those of us who remember Bill Bendix as the lovable Riley in radio & TV's Life of Riley boggle at his role here. As the sadistic thug Jeff, he's about as mean as they come. Actually, I'm surprised that the one particularly brutal beating passed the censors. In my book, it's the movie's most memorable scene. At the same time, it's good to know that Bendix and Ladd were such good friends off screen. Still, it's a rather shocking scene for the time.Sure, neither of the blonds was too good in the acting department. Yet each projected a strong, rather icy, presence that's hard to duplicate. Catch Ladd's mirthless grin more like a mask for his Beaumont character than an actual emotion. He's really very effective as a somewhat ruthless political operative. Then there's Lake who strikes effortlessly sultry poses, but with a cold heart underneath. The two are indeed a perfect match. The story's pretty convoluted, something about political influence entering into a murder mystery. Actually, it's a "buddy" picture as much as anything else, and one that sort of sneaks up on you. However, it's the characters, not the narrative that shines, including a dynamic Donlevy as the political boss and an oily Calleia as a mob kingpin. Together, they make life difficult for headliner Ladd. All in all, Paramount Pictures knew they had a winning two-some on screen, however difficult the screenplay.

st-shot The Glass Key is a rather convoluted, tepid film made on the heels of successful teaming of Veronica Lake and Allan Ladd in This Gun for Hire. While both films are amply dark and sadistic noirs, Key is the more muted and unimaginative, blunting its ambiguity with the lead on the road to reform in the first reel. One time crooked pol Paul Madvig (Brian Donlevey) is making things hot for the criminal element in the town. Once in the mob's pocket he now busts up the gambling joints he used to protect.Falling for a reformer's daughter Janet Henry ( Lake) he throws in with him. Janet though has taken a shine to his right hand man Ed Beaumont (Ladd) which severs his relationship with Paul. When reformer Henry's n'er do well son who is dating and exploiting Paul's sister is murdered the mob hopes to implicate Paul, whether he did it or not. Confusing it is, suspenseful it's not.Lake and Ladd once again match up well but their situation pales in comparison to Hire and implausible moments abound. There are dark enough moments to qualify it as such as William Bendix's cruel thug who enjoys his work displaying an almost homo erotic delight in pummeling Beaumont while Beaumont in turn finds pleasure in watching a hood being strangled in front of his eyes. But with Donlevy's Madvig compromised early and Lake's Janet lacking the killer instinct of fatales that would follow her The Glass Key doesn't unlock much.

bobt145 (possible spoilers)As I nodded in and out of consciousness, one word kept going through my groggy head."Why?" I thought. "Why?"As I started to wrap my mind around the concept, it hit me like a ton of bricks and I was out like a light again.In the recesses of my throbbing skull, there were voices, voices that had the answers. Alan Ladd puts up with a pounding from William Bendix because he knows it will get him in a hospital bed with a good looking nurse? Veronica Lake is using Brian Donlevy because she thinks he's gonna win something, but what? An election? Control of the eighth ward? Some Cliff's Notes for this thing?Oh I like a lot of the material, taken as isolated scenes. Ladd dangling from a window, the search for a shooter in Donlevy's office that never gets explained, the scene where Ladd makes out with the publisher's wife in the living room causing the publisher to blow his brains out upstairs.Well, maybe those aren't the ones I liked. The room is spinning and I'm fading out again. Damn, where's that envelope of magic script writer powder when you really need it?