MEMORY AND "THE GLASS KEY"

The other night I caught the end of Key Largo on TCM. As I watched, another film noir that I'd seen many years ago came to mind. If my grandmother and I saw the movie in the year the movie came out, 1942, I was eight years old, too young to venture out on my own. My grandmother was not a moviegoer, but I know she loved me unconditionally.

What I think now is that I dragged her to the theater because I wanted to go there or somewhere, not because I wanted to see the movie, The Glass Key, with Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake. The movie is based on a story by Dashiell Hammett. I didn't like the movie; I found it rough and somewhat scary, and I'm certain Mémere didn't like it. She was not a moviegoer, and I don't remember that she ever went to see a movie again. She took me because, for some strange reason, I wanted to go.

Why do I remember the event and the movie from so long ago? A couple of years later, I became a regular moviegoer with kids from the neighborhood. We walked to the theater, which was three blocks away, three times a week in a rather large group. Nearly every Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoon we trooped to the Rivoli Theater in New Orleans.

Since then, The Glass Key has become a film noir classic. A version is on YouTube, so I'll probably watch it again. A few years later, I had a huge crush on Alan Ladd. The rumor in the neighborhood was that Veronica Lake had a glass eye, which was why she wore her hair covering her eye.