If The Key looks like The Informer you'd definitely be right. Michael Curtiz's film looks a lot like it although John Ford created better atmosphere telling his story in his Oscar winning film. Then again this was a different type of story, a story of the Irish Rebellion told from the British point of view.
William Powell who's served just about everywhere in the British Empire as a career army man is now arrived in Ireland in 1920. He's billeted with an old friend Colin Clive in the same area. But Clive is now married to Edna Best who has history with Powell before she met and married Clive.
The big concern for the army is to get a man named Peadar Conlan who is a kind of composite character between Michael Collins and Eamon DeValera. Get him and the rebellion will be over. He's played by Donald Crisp and Crisp when he's on screen he's stealing the scenes from the stars. So is J.M. Kerrigan who is one shifty character, a bit more polish than the guy he played in The Informer and in The General Died At Dawn, but definitely not one to turn your back on.
The romantic triangle intersects with the politics of the Rebellion in ways not anticipated by the leads. In the end one lead makes a big sacrifice for the other.
The Key was William Powell's last film in his stint with Warner Brothers before moving on to MGM and his years in The Thin Man series with Myrna Loy. According to the Citadel Film series book about him he thought this was one of the better films he did at that studio and I'm inclined to agree.
William Powell who's served just about everywhere in the British Empire as a career army man is now arrived in Ireland in 1920. He's billeted with an old friend Colin Clive in the same area. But Clive is now married to Edna Best who has history with Powell before she met and married Clive.
The big concern for the army is to get a man named Peadar Conlan who is a kind of composite character between Michael Collins and Eamon DeValera. Get him and the rebellion will be over. He's played by Donald Crisp and Crisp when he's on screen he's stealing the scenes from the stars. So is J.M. Kerrigan who is one shifty character, a bit more polish than the guy he played in The Informer and in The General Died At Dawn, but definitely not one to turn your back on.
The romantic triangle intersects with the politics of the Rebellion in ways not anticipated by the leads. In the end one lead makes a big sacrifice for the other.
The Key was William Powell's last film in his stint with Warner Brothers before moving on to MGM and his years in The Thin Man series with Myrna Loy. According to the Citadel Film series book about him he thought this was one of the better films he did at that studio and I'm inclined to agree.