Today Evan Lewis in his digging through digital archives pulls up some interesting news articles from 1941, covering the birth of a film version of Hammett’s Red Harvest.
Hollywood had decided not to do a new version of The Glass Key. So they were working Red Harvest into the schedule, to star Brian Donlevy and Paulette Goddard — with the hot young actor Alan Ladd as the third-billed player.
By the time a movie was made for a 1942 release, it was The Glass Key — with Donlevy still top-billed, although anyone can see third-billed Alan Ladd is the star. Somewhere in there Goddard was replaced with Veronica Lake (second billed).
Lake and Ladd — hot young stars fresh off This Gun for Hire, released earlier in 1942.
The creative — and commercial — foment of Tinseltown.
And the Alan Ladd Red Harvest, yet another lost film.
