Starring George Raft, Edward Arnold, Claire Dodd, Rosalind Keith, Charles Richman, Guinn
'Big Boy' Williams, Ray Milland
Directed by Frank Tuttle

Print: black/white
Runtime: 80 min.
Genre: film-noir
Print Quality: B

Adapted from one of Dashiell Hammett's best novels, The Glass Key is a lively and
straightforward melodrama of political corruption and urban intrigue. George Raft plays Ed
Beaumont, the right-hand man to genial ward heeler Paul Madvig (Edward Arnold), who
wants to clean up his political act. On the eve of a major election, Madvig is implicated in a
murder, and it's up to Beaumont to help him out. Intimately involved in the case is Janet
Henry (Claire Dodd), the sister of the murdered man and the daughter of "above reproach"
Senator Henry (Charles Richman). Though no babe-in-the-woods, Beaumont is in for quite a
few disillusionments as he pursues his investigation, though he does rather better
romantically than the redoubtable Madvig. The Glass Key was remade (and improved) in
1942, with Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake and Brian Donlevy; neither version, however, has as
much bite and vitriol as the Hammett original.