As Noir, The Glass Key has something going for it, chiefly how wonderfully violent it is. Alan Ladd's escape from the thugs around the mid-point, after being beaten to a pulp, has a visceral feel, and I like the most interesting villain in the film has to be William Bendix's gleefully sadistic and unhinged henchman. But it's all a bit too convoluted and difficult to follow for my tastes. It took me a while just to get my bearings as to who had what skin in the game, as we follow people who SUPPORT someone in an election, but not really the campaign itself. And though he has a fun scene here and there - like calling the cops on the mobsters right in front of them - Brian Donlevy as the hard-nosed D.A. framed for a murder he didn't commit (or did he?) gives too cool a performance, so it seems like nothing, good or bad, affects him, putting the audience at an emotional remove from the film. A fragile thing, tone. You could almost call it... a glass key.

When it comes to books by Dashiell Hammett, I would say that "The Glass Key" is one of the weaker ones he produced. However, this movie still manages to be a decent flick. Some good moment here and there, but the mystery/plot (at least for me) did not manage to get its hook into me.

I'm still shooked that as of 2024 there has still not been made a good movie of the book "Red Harvest" Dashiells undisbuted masterpiece.

It's not your typical noir, but still enjoyable.