Who is Frank Tuttle? He started out directing in 1922, made a version of The Glass Key, funnily enough, in 1935, with George Raft, can't say I really know any of his films before or since this. His final film was Island of Lost Women in 1959 which looks as bad as it sounds. Anyway, he's done a good job here, with a screenplay from Albert Maltz and W.R. Burnett (Scarface, High Sierra, The Asphalt Jungle) loosely based on Graham Greene's 1936 'entertainment' 'A Gun For Sale'.
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| I wonder how long it took John Seitz to light this throwaway shot? |
See here also. With Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Laird Cregar, Robert Preston, Tully Marshall, Pamela Blake. A Paramount production.
Ladd's character isn't entirely dispassionate - he likes cats (but then kills one), gives the little girl her ball back, though she can clearly identify him, protects Lake... It's a good picture. made even better by the great John Seitz on camera.
Lake's hair had sparked a national craze from the year before and her appearance in I Wanted Wings. This film made an instant star out of Alan Ladd, and Paramount capitalised on this success be reteaming them immediately with The Glass Key.
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