Word: veronicas
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...Glass Key, Ladd plays cold, frail, brainy dandy Ed Beaumont, who uses his wits and risks his life to help a friend out of a tight place. The friend is naive Politician Paul Madvig (Brian Donlevy). The plot revolves about the doings of 1) Veronica Lake-with-her-hair-up, who is playing Madvig for a sucker but has a glad eye for Friend Beaumont; 2) her father, a corrupt politician, Madvig's candidate for governor; 3) her playboy brother, who gets murdered; 4) a gelid gambling boss (Joseph Calleia) who tries to pin the murder on Madvig...
...those who can take it, The Glass Key is a hard, fast, frightening hour, with a few soft spots. Veronica Lake's special talents give inappropriate energy to a somewhat vapid role. Alan Ladd is really the whole picture. With expert writing, direction and a very solid cast working to dilute him, Ladd makes Beaumont come close to the character that Hammett had in mind-an admirable, minor-league Machiavelli...
...grimly and effectively stalks his way through a difficult and interesting role, with various and sundry saboteur doing their darndest to stop him. Ladd himself makes the picture what it is, and his sensitive portrayal of a different kind of ruthless killer marks him an actor to be watched. Veronica Lake is here, too. There must be something nice to say about her presence in the film, but all we can think of right now is--well, Veronica Lake is here...
Hollywood has a cute trick for booming a rising young star in his first picture. The credits for the film begin by listing all the established stars, and then add at the end the by-now hallowed phrase, "and introducing Abuer Yokum." It was used when Deanna Durbin, Veronica Lake, and John Garfield were "introduced" to cinema audiences. If there's any good luck charm attached to tacking a new star's name on at the end, instead of at the beginning of his starting venture, it has proved its validity in Paramount's "introduction" of Alan Ladd in "This...
...picture is complete today without its ring of sinister saboteurs, and "This Gun For Hire" has its share of them, headed by hulking Laird Cregar, who again manages to turn in an effective characterization of a refreshingly unstereotyped villain. There's a love interest, too, with Preston Foster and Veronica Lake as the involved parties. Ladd doesn't win the girl-he doesn't even try-but he does win a whopping head-start as Hollywood's best discovery in years...