- When I recently saw The Maltese Falcon for what must have been the tenth time, I got to thinking about how essential the colorful supporting cast is to that film. Sure, Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor are two incredibly strong leads, but the film would be unthinkable without the quirky characters portrayed by Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and Elisha Cook, Jr. A similar case can be made for another Dashiell Hammett adaptation, Stuart Heisler's The Glass Key, in which Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake are constantly overshadowed by lesser-knowns Brian Donlevy, Joseph Calleia, and William Bendix. And that's not a complaint!
- At the heart of The Glass Key is a complex set of relationships that, like the eponymous key itself, threaten to shatter under the slightest strain. Take political heavy Paul Madvig (Donlevy), who immediately shifts to supporting reform candidate Ralph Henry (Moroni Olsen) upon getting publicly slapped by Henry's daughter, Janet (Lake). Complicating matters further is the fact that Madvig's sister Opal (Bonita Granville) is in love with Janet's brother Taylor (Richard Denning), who owes money to the influential mobster Nick Varna (Calleia). Whereas Varna controls the newspapers through spineless publisher Clyde Matthews (Arthur Loft), Madvig has only the redoubtable Ed Beaumont (Ladd) in his corner. Unfortunately, Beaumont seems to get a little less redoubtable every time he lays eyes on Janet. As you can imagine, things only get more muddled when Taylor is found murdered.
- Although Ladd and Lake earned their top billing in This Gun for Hire, neither of them is as compelling in this film as Donlevy's gregarious bully Madvig, who tosses objects at people who walk out of his office when he isn't tossing the people themselves. Contrast Madvig's hot temper and pugilist proclivities with the equally memorable Varna, whose smarmy grin simply swells with pride when people catalogue his various wrongdoings. Even Varna's hired thug Jeff (Bendix) manages to outshine Lake and Ladd with his sadistic enthusiasms that veer into some awkwardly sexual territory. In fact, the film's brutality, featuring extensive torture and an unexpected suicide, seem tonally inconsistent with shots of Alan Ladd's goofy grin. But I guess that's why you hire the supporting cast, right?
- Apparently Bendix accidentally punched Ladd during filming, and the two later bonded over the incident.
