The Glass Key (1942): Dirty Politics in Film Noir

The Glass Key opens at a crowded campaign headquarters. Paul Madvig walks through the crowd, greeting people as he goes. One person says, out of his earshot: “He’s head of the Voters League.” Another says, “He’s the biggest crook in the state.” A reporter stops Madvig and asks him about Ralph Henry and his Reform Party. Madvig replies, “If Ralph Henry is so anxious to reform somebody, why don’t he start with that son of his? He gets into more jams than the Dead End Kids.”

Click here for some information about the Dead End Kids from Wikipedia.

Ralph Henry’s daughter Janet is on hand to hear Madvig’s comment. She confronts him by slapping him across the face. Instead of being angry, Madvig is impressed. He asks his righthand man, Ed Beaumont, to set up a meeting with Ralph Henry so that he can meet Janet. Beaumont and another operative, Sloss, are concerned about this request. Sloss is worried about what Nick Varna will think. But Madvig doesn’t care. He is only interested now in meeting Janet Henry. Madvig thinks this is very convenient: He wants the Henry family’s blessing for both his love life and his political career.

• Madvig: “He’s [Ralph Henry] practically giving me the key to his house.”

• Ed Beaumont: “Yeah, a glass key. Be careful it doesn’t break off in your hand.”

• Madvig: “Don’t worry. It won’t.”

Madvig is completely confident in his political and romantic connections to the Henry family. Ed Beaumont is much more cautious. He worries about the consequences of linking one’s political and romantic fortunes so closely.

The main character in The Glass Key, Ed Beaumont, is a political operative and not a detective, although he often acts like a detective in his job working for Paul Madvig. Beaumont’s job is to keep an eye on trouble and then keep Madvig out of it. Madvig needs a clean reputation, or at least the appearance of one, to continue his new endorsement of Ralph Henry, who is running for governor. Beaumont is a busy man: The film has plenty of dirty politics and corruption, including a murder investigation. Before too long, he’s busy trying to keep himself out of trouble, too.

Paul Madvig’s sister Opal, nicknamed Snip, is in love with Ralph Henry’s son Taylor, a ne’er-do-well who gambles and relies on his father’s money and reputation to keep out of trouble. His penchant for gambling means that he is in debt to Nick Varna, the local gambling syndicate operator who doesn’t take kindly to other people defaulting on their debts and thus depriving him of his money.

Ralph Henry wields a great deal of influence around town, and Janet Henry agrees to an engagement with Madvig. Her motive seems to be political expediency in order to help her father. But Ralph Henry’s and Paul Madvig’s political plans take a downward turn when Taylor Henry is found dead and everyone has trouble accounting for their whereabouts at the time of his death. The investigation into Taylor’s death turns into a murder investigation after it is discovered that he died from blunt force trauma.

Paul Madvig is the prime suspect in Taylor Henry’s murder, and most of the film’s narrative involves Ed Beaumont trying to discern the truth. Someone is sending anonymous notes to various characters implicating Madvig, and all of them read the same: “If Paul Madvig didn’t kill Taylor Henry, then how did his best friend [Ed Beaumont] happen to find the body?”

A witness to the murder, Sloss, is hiding in New York City thanks to Paul Varna, who is anxious to see Ralph Henry lose his campaign bid so he doesn’t have to fulfil his promises to clean up the city—and thus clean up Varna’s lucrative and illegal club and business operations. Sloss has a story to tell about Paul Madvig and Taylor Henry, and Varna wants to make sure that Sloss gets the chance to tell it.

Nick Varna also knows that Ed Beaumont gave money to Opal Madvig so that Taylor Henry could pay off his gambling debts to Varna. Varna tells Beaumont that he still has some of Taylor’s promissory notes, which he could always make public. Varna bribes Beaumont to help him convict Madvig of murder:

• Nick Varna: “You know Sloss?”

• Ed Beaumont: “Yeah, I know him. Paul tossed him out of the league’s [Voters League] downtown headquarters last week.”

• Varna: “That’s where he made a mistake. Sloss came to me spouting. He saw Paul and Taylor arguing on the street that night. He was only a couple blocks away.”

• Beaumont: “That’s good. But you know Sloss won’t stand up.”

• Varna: “He won’t have to. I’ve got his affidavit.”

Beaumont has already accepted Varna’s money at this point, and he takes the affidavit to read it. But instead of working with Varna, he tears up the affidavit and tosses the pieces into the fire in the fireplace. He then throws Varna’s money at him.

Varna’s two henchmen, Jeff and Rusty, hold Ed Beaumont prisoner after this incident because Varna now has to put another plan into action: He wants Beaumont to give a statement to Clyde Matthews, the editor of The Daily Observer, one of the city’s newspapers. If bribery won’t work to gain Beaumont’s cooperation, Varna is more than happy to resort to violence. And Jeff and Rusty are more than happy to keep Beaumont in a constant state of bloodiness and pain.

The name of the city featured in The Glass Key isn’t mentioned, but the corruption is wide-ranging. Nick Varna bribes elected officials and political candidates to turn a blind eye to his illegal business and to the illegal practices for his legal businesses. He manipulates political candidates and the law to make sure his choices for office are elected. He plants stories in the local newspaper to tarnish the reputations of anyone who opposes him. And he is willing to resort to violence when nothing else will work.

William Bendix is Jeff, the most violent character in the film. He works for Nick Varna and performs the more violent tasks that go with running illegal businesses in a corrupt city. Ed Beaumont is a witness to Jeff’s murder of Nick Varna in a seedy bar. When a waiter arrives on the scene, Beaumont suggests, “Better get a doctor in case Varna is not dead.” Jeff replies, “Better get an undertaker in case he is.” When he is arrested for the murder, Jeff kicks the newspaper photographer who is on hand to document the event. (It’s a lot like the scene in Breakfast at Tiffany’s when Sally Tomato’s lawyer is arrested for using information from Tomato, who is incarcerated in Sing Sing Prison, to keep Tomato’s illegal activities going.) Jeff is a supporting character, but it’s hard to forget William Bendix’s performance in the role.

This is my second blog post about The Glass Key (1942): Click here for the first.

The person responsible for Taylor Henry’s murder is brought to justice, and Jeff is arrested for the murder of Nick Varna. But I wondered if Paul Madvig was serious when he told a reporter at the end of the film that anyone he backed was sure to become the next governor. Murderers are brought to justice, which fits the mandates of the motion picture code in 1942, but what about political corruption? Just how much clout did the head of the Voters League carry in 1942, or earlier if you consider that the film is based on Dashiell Hammett’s novel, which was serialized in Black Mask magazine in 1930 and published as a book in 1931?

I tried to do an online search about voters leagues in general, but I couldn’t find much information. The only information that came up consistently was about the League of Women Voters. I wonder if the term voters league was a kinder name for political machine when politics were run by people like William M. “Boss” Tweed (1823–1878), who ran the political machine called Tammany Hall in New York City. Maybe Paul Madvig’s Voters League was a concept that the film’s writers didn’t feel the need to explain to 1942 viewers because it was common knowledge going by a fictional screen (film) name.

The film starring Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake is actually a remake: An earlier version with the same title, and starring George Raft and Claire Dodd, was made in 1935. I haven’t seen the 1935 version, but the descriptions I have read about it paint an even darker film than the 1942 version, and probably one that is much closer to the novel. I may have read Dashiell Hammett’s novel years ago, but if I did, I remember little about it. I’m planning on (re)reading it.

I’m much more certain about this: Dirty politics, by any name, is a clear theme in The Glass Key.

This blog post about The Glass Key is my entry for the Classic Movie Blog Association’s 2020 Fall Blogathon: Politics on Film. Click here for the complete list of blogathon participants and links to their entries. The list is updated with live links each day of the blogathon, from October 20 to October 23.

October 14, 1942, release date  •  Directed by Stuart Heisler  •  Screenplay by Jonathan Latimer  •  Based on the novel The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett  •  Music by Victor Young  •  Edited by Archie Marshek  •  Cinematography by Theodor Sparkuhl

Brian Donlevy as Paul Madvig  •  Veronica Lake as Janet Henry  •  Alan Ladd as Ed Beaumont  •  Bonita Granville as Opal “Snip” Madvig  •  Richard Denning as Taylor Henry  •  Moroni Olsen as Ralph Henry  •  Joseph Calleia as Nick Varna  •  William Bendix as Jeff  •  Donald MacBride as District Attorney Farr  •  Margaret Hayes as Eloise Matthews  •  Eddie Marr as Rusty  •  Arthur Loft as Clyde Matthews  •  George Meader as Claude Tuttle  •  Frances Gifford as the nurse  •  Dane Clark as Sloss

Distributed by Paramount Pictures

The Long Goodbye (1973)

Seeing a film more than once gives you the chance to fall in love with it even more or to pick at its faults. Unfortunately, I found more faults when I saw The Long Goodbye on DVD recently. I had seen it a long time ago, more than once, on television. I liked Elliott Gould in the role of Philip Marlowe, but that was before I saw Marlowe (1969), starring James Garner. And it was before I read a few of Chandler’s novels.

The film opens with a great sequence that gives viewers a peek into Marlowe’s personality. Marlowe is asleep in bed, fully clothed, including shoes. An orange tabby cat wakes him up. The first thing Marlowe does, though, is light a cigarette. The cigarette pack, the matches, and the ashtray are on the bed next to him. He fell asleep with a cat and a fire hazard.

Marlowe leaves for the grocery store in the middle of the night because his cat is hungry and he doesn’t have any of the cat’s favorite brand of cat food (the cat refused to eat Marlowe’s improvised cat dinner). The opening credits commence as the film cuts between Marlowe going to the grocery store and Terry Lennox driving in his car. Viewers don’t know yet who Lennox is or where he is going—or why his knuckles are bloody enough that he decides to wear driving gloves.

Marlowe arrives at a twenty-four-hour Thrifty Mart. He is looking for Courry’s Cat Food, the only brand his cat will eat. When he asks a grocery store clerk about the brand, he is told that they are out of it.

• Grocery store clerk: “We’re outta that [Courry’s Car Food]. Why don’t you get this? All this sh-- is the same anyway.”

• Marlowe: “Oh yeah? You don’t happen to have a cat by any chance?”

• Grocery store clerk: “What do I need a cat for? I got a girl.”

• Marlowe: [to himself] “Ha, ha. He’s got a girl, and I got a cat.”

It’s an amusing exchange, one of many in the film. Another example occurs during a conversation between Marlowe and Eileen Wade. They are discussing Eileen’s husband Roger, a famous writer who can’t seem to kick his dependency on alcohol:

• Eileen Wade: “He’s really a sick man, you know. More so than you might think. He feels he’s all finished as a writer. He sits down and stares at the papers, and nothing happens. I don’t know what to do. He really needs help.”

• Marlowe: “Yeah, well, Mrs. Wade, if you think your husband is suicidal, he needs some Freudian analysis or primal scream, or I need a cigarette myself, but I’m not qualified for anything like that.”

• Eileen Wade: “I know. Anyway, I’m very grateful for what you’ve done. You will come back again, won’t you?”

After the opening credits, Marlowe is back from Thrifty Mart. His cat refuses to eat the cat food that Marlowe did purchase and promptly disappears. Terry Lennox arrives at Marlowe’s apartment soon after to ask Marlowe to drive him to the U.S.-Mexico border. Marlowe obliges. It isn’t too many days later that Sergeant Green and Detective Dayton show up to question Marlowe. They don’t find Marlowe particularly amusing, and he is taken in for questioning.

Several officers give Marlowe a hard time in the interrogation room at the police station. Marlowe gives as good as he gets, even though he’s at a disadvantage. Marlowe does learn from Lieutenant Farmer that Terry Lennox’s wife, Sylvia, is dead. He also learns that Lennox’s real name is Lenny Potts and that Lennox is a gambler and works with a criminal already known to police named Marty Augustine. It’s quite possible that Marlowe didn’t know Lennox as well as he thought he did.

Marlowe is booked and held for three days. When he’s released, Lieutenant Farmer tells him more stunning news about Lennox: He is dead, and he committed suicide. Detective Moran gives Marlowe a ride home. He gives Marlowe some of the previous day’s newspapers so that he can read about the Lennox case. Terry Lennox killed himself in Otatitlán, Veracruz, Mexico, and left a full confession. Marlowe doesn’t believe Lennox is dead or that he killed his wife.

Marlowe goes to Herbie’s bar to pick up his messages. One of them is from a Mrs. Wade: She needs to find her husband. She lives in Malibu Colony, which is where Terry Lennox lived. Marlowe arrives at Malibu Colony and is greeted by the Wades’ vicious dog (it’s a running gag throughout the film that the dog hates Marlowe and can be controlled only by Eileen Wade). Marlowe finds Roger Wade at Dr. Verringer’s retreat, where he is receiving treatment for alcoholism, and brings him back home to his wife.

Los Angeles police detectives aren’t the only ones interested in paying Marlowe a visit. Marty Augustine does so because he wants the money that Terry Lennox was carrying for him. He threatens Marlowe by smashing a glass bottle across the face of his own girlfriend. Augustine puts a tail on Marlowe, but Marlowe outwits him and follows Augustine, who goes to the Wades’ house.

Marlowe has a lot of questions to answer in this case. How does Marty Augustine know the Wades? Do the Wades know the Lennoxes better than they are letting on? How did the Wades get mixed up with Augustine? And where is Terry Lennox if he isn’t dead and hasn’t committed suicide? Marlowe gets all the answers. It might take viewers more than one viewing to understand how all of the details are connected, but Marlowe figures it out by the end of the film.

I was optimistic about seeing The Long Goodbye again after so many years. I remember liking Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe—but that was then. The film doesn’t hold up quite as well as I had hoped. One of the most glaring faults is Elliott Gould’s impersonation of Al Jolson at the police station. After Marlowe is taken in for questioning and booked as a suspect or an accessory after the fact in Sylvia Lennox’s murder, Gould, as Marlowe, uses the ink that is still on his hands from the fingerprinting process to blacken his face and imitate Jolson. Was this section of the film cut for television? It’s been so long that I cannot recall, but it’s a cringeworthy scene to watch now.

I also found Elliot Gould mumbling his way through the film to be a real distraction. I often had the sense that his mumblings were dubbed in later, and they annoyed me after the opening scene. Was he supposed to be thinking out loud part of the time? Acting as the voice-over narrator? It was hard to tell sometimes, and the fact that I started thinking about it at all is not a good sign about the plot holding my interest.

The film uses a lot of foul language, which doesn’t sound like Marlowe or Chandler to me. I haven’t read all of Chandler’s novels, but I haven’t come across foul language so far. In the film, Marlowe keeps repeating the phrase, “It’s okay with me,” but this, too, doesn’t sound like Marlowe or Chandler. I don’t think Chandler’s Marlowe would keep making this kind of observation about what he sees around him.

Marlowe as someone out of time worked well in the film Marlowe; Marlowe as someone out of time and confused didn’t work nearly as well in The Long Goodbye. Robert Altman said in one of the DVD’s featurettes, “Rip Van Marlowe,” that he wanted Marlowe to be a character that woke up in 1973 and was bewildered by everything that he saw. But that conceit grew tiresome when I watched the DVD. Marlowe is a private eye, and surely he would have adapted to a case and his circumstances after getting his bearings.

Click here for my blog post about Marlowe (1969), starring James Garner.

I haven’t yet read Raymond Chandler’s novel The Long Goodbye; I will eventually. I have read that the characters of Terry Lennox and Roger Wade could be interpreted as alter ego stand-ins for the writer Chandler himself. That interpretation is a bit hard to believe based on the film, but maybe it will be easier to believe after I have read the novel. The film is still worth seeing: Sterling Hayden gives a great performance as the alcoholic Roger Wade, and Arnold Schwarzenegger and David Carradine have uncredited bit parts. But I am already close to certain that Chandler’s novel will be a lot better than the film.

March 7, 1973, release date  •  Directed by Robert Altman  •  Screenplay by Leigh Brackett  •  Based on the novel The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler  •  Music by John Williams  •  Edited by Lou Lombardo  •  Cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond

Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe  •  Nina van Pallandt as Eileen Wade  •  Sterling Hayden as Roger Wade  •  Mark Rydell as Marty Augustine  •  Henry Gibson as Dr. Verringer  •  David Arkin as Harry  •  Jim Bouton as Terry Lennox  •  Warren Berlinger as Detective Morgan  •  Jo Ann Brody as Jo Ann Eggenweiler  •  Stephen Coit as Detective Farmer

Distributed by United Artists  •  Produced by Lion’s Gate Films, Inc.