The Alan Ladd version is better known although this has a strong cast - George Raft and Edward Arnold as the love duo (Arnold is a political boss and Raft is his devoted right hand man) who get involved in various machinations once Arnold decides to go straight, and his girlfriend's brother (Ray Milland!) winds up dead.
The story remains strong - tales where everyone is basically corrupt and out for themselves age very well. Some of the dialogue is a bit creaky - "I've got a story that will blow this town wide open", "this town isn't big enough for the two of us". There's a scene where Raft punches out a girl - who subsequently falls in love with him (a romance even more undercooked than that between Ladd and Lake in the 1942 version).
Of course the real love story here is between Raft and Arnold and these two don't have much chemistry. Arnold is very good - he could play political bosses in his sleep - but Raft is weak. It should have been a natural role for him, and I guess he's well cast, but his inadequacies as an actor are too apparent - that weak voice and inability to convey complex thoughts. (It probably doesn't help that his character is mostly passive - he gets beaten up in an extended sequence, the only time he punches someone out it's a girl).
Not as good as the 1942 film but still entertaining and worth watching for Dashiell Hammett fans especially.
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