Saw The Glass Key this weekend, a movie I've always been curious about. Here's my rather skewed analysis. (Lots of spoilers)

I thought this would be a typical atmospheric and moody noir (it was up to a point) with a bit of a convoluted plot (it did have that) but no one warned me that it was going to be so subtly weird, kinky and delightfully perverse.

Let's start with the familiar trope of the "beautiful object." This is the Hollywood lovely who is given lingering close-ups, usually in soft focus, and we then know that this is the object that we are supposed to gaze upon and delight our eyes with. It does not matter if one is a straight woman (like me) because the object is not necessarily a sexual thing. She is lovely eye candy...something to adore and emulate. We go into this movie expecting our object to be Lake. She does have a few soft lingering close-ups and there is a moment when the nurse opens Ladd's hospital room door and she stands there PERFECTLY FRAMED in her Edith Head ensemble, but overall Lake seems to be an afterthought in this movie.

But who the camera seriously and continuously slobbers over is Alan Ladd. In fact, I've never seen a movie in which the MALE lead was pawed at so much by the camera (and thus, us) and by the other characters in our little play. Everybody is all over this guy. There's Lake who throws herself at him to very little avail. He flirts with her a bit in an early party scene (and here we get some of those lingering, soft-focus close-ups of Ladd as he flashes his wicked smile) but he also gives her a kind of kiss-off at the door when she sees him out and she gets left standing there with her panties in a bunch.

Then there's poor William Bendix who - quite literally - CANNOT keep his hands off of Ladd. Sure, it's mostly to beat the crap out of him, but he's usually calling him sweetheart and baby while doing so. Bendix seems to light up from within every time Ladd steps into his view.

Throughout this movie Ladd is always entering somebody's room or office or chambers, draping himself easily onto some piece of furniture and saying "look at me." And look they do. Mob boss Nick Varna positively beams every time he's in Ladd's presence. There's a scene after Ladd's Ed Beaumont has broken ties with his bro-friend Madvig and goes to see Varna to talk terms on a possible defection. Varna mentions a sort- of witness affidavit he has, and instead of sensibly leaving it in the safe he practically SKIPS over to the safe to get it out and show to Beaumont. One "aren't you a clever boy" from Ladd and this guy would swoon.

In fact, it seems the only person in this movie who doesn't get giddy in Ladd's presence is boss/cohort/bestie Paul Madvig...and absolutely every machination of Beaumont's is in the service of Paul. You can see where I'm going with this. This has got to be the gayest movie of this era I have ever seen. But I'm not putting it down for that. I think the whole thing is wonderfully subversive and entertaining as hell.

Now let's talk Lake. It is painfully obvious that Beaumont doesn't care two ticks for her. Most telling in this vein is a scene near the end of the movie in the Henry household when Henry finally confesses. Ladd says "I thought we'd have to send the girl to the gas chamber before the old man confessed." The girl??! It's like he's forgotten what her name is. Oh sure, he likes to flirt around with her but doesn't stick at making kissy face with the hospital nurse or flat out get busy with Mrs. Newspaper Owner.

And let's talk about that whopper of a scene! It is in this scene that we see the stunning amorality of Beaumont come to light. Beaumont goes out to the country house of Mr. Newspaper Owner in order to confront...I dunno, a whole mess of people. First off he comes in and stands there for a good 30 seconds, giving off his sly smile, so everyone can get a load of him. Mrs. Newspaper Owner then gives him the "well hel-LO!" and "come sit by me Mr. Beaumont" routine. She finds out that her husband is under Varna's thumb. Big surprise...not, and uses her (fake) indignation as an excuse to throw herself all over Beaumont. Everyone goes to bed while Beaumont and Mrs. NO start getting' busy right on Mr. NO's own couch! The doughy Mr. NO comes downstairs occasionally to ask his wife if she's coming upstairs or what. Mrs. NO just goes back to sticking her tongue down Ladd's throat. Eventually Mr. NO just goes upstairs and puts a bullet in his own head.

This scene is stunning in its amorality. What kind of dude gets his face all in another guys's wife's cleavage right on that guy's own couch in that guy's own house and just gives a bored, blank look when the guy dares to protest? Was it Beaumont's intention that Mr. NO go upstairs to off himself? This is never explained and Beaumont shows zero concern for what's happened. The guy is one piece of work.

Finally, the "Lake and Ladd run off together" ending seems a bit tacked on. I mean, I can see that they sort of dig each other. There was a fair bit of chemistry but in the long run I don't think he's going to stay interested in her. They're both a couple of evil, twisted ice cubes, and therefore made for each other, but he'll "not keep her long" to quote Shakespeare, and in this world she's just not the object of adoration. He is.