I recognise this isn't among the top notch of 40s black and white classics - like say Casablanca or The Maltese Falcon - but it remains enjoyable because so many of its pleasures are no longer available from films: a fresh faced Alan Ladd at his most handsome, tough best - when he was in shape, and trying to do the best job he could (something not the case from the mid 50s onwards), inexperienced but very charismatic, doing some great anger; Brian Donlevy being top billed but really supporting Ladd as a tough political boss trying to go straight (surprisingly common in 40s cinema eg Meet John Doe, Mr Ace); William Bendix in a stunningly good performance as a henchman, homoerotically keen on slapping Ladd around in an extended sequence); supporting actors like Bonita Graville and Joseph Calleia; tough dialogue; stunningly good black and white photography.
It has a remarkable sophistication when it comes to sexuality and corruption - the world is so corrupt that Ladd can bully a district attorney how to work; Lake's father tells his daughter to romance Donlevy to help his political career and she doesn't mind; Ladd seduces Margaret Hayes in front of her husband Arthur Loft, even making out with
her on the couch while Loft comes down and whines for her to go
to bed, then she tells her husband to go away and the guy goes and kills himself (the hero drives a man to suicide by cuckolding him!!); Bonita Granville is clearly having sex with Denning despite being 18 ("I've been to his apartment lots of times"); Ladd destroys a will and arranges for a trial to be rigged; Bendix is forever keen to kill, shoot, torture people, and putting his hands all over Ladd; Ladd flirts with a drunk Bendix to get a confession from the latter; Ladd's delight as he whips Bendix up into a frenzy against Calleia then watches on silently as Bendix strangles Calleia; Ladd bullies the DA into arresting the wrong woman (Lake).
Hammett gets a lot of credit, deservedly, but I think some should go to screenwriter Jonathan Latimer, whose name is on so many classic movies. Stuart Heisler isn't a very well known director (neither was Frank Tuttle who did This Gun for Hire) but on the evidence available here anyway he did a good job.
Veronica Lake is beautiful and enigmatic - you've got so much goodwill towards her (or at least I do) that you over look her flaws. She and Lake are very effective, two blonde shorties, whose mutual smirking/contempt is effective. Re-watching this I felt Lake would've been better going off with Brian Donlevy who, after all, not only has money and ambition but hid the identity of the murderer to protect her.
The film is less effective as a love story between Ladd and Donlevy, which it kind of has to be to justify a plot where Ladd was so devoted to Donlevy and him to Ladd. The two don't have great "mates" chemistry (whereas Ladd and Bendix have chemistry) but the film has so many other things in it's favour I forgave it.
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