Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Blistering performances.

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.

I am a William Powell Fan, and this is one of weakest movies of his career. The biggest problem is the casting. Powell as British Captain Bill Tennent? Does not work whatsoever. Maybe Ronald Colman might have pulled it off, but not Powell, who does not even attempt a British Accent. Even worse was Colin Clive was Captain Andy Kerr and Edna Best as his wife Norah Kerr, He is a boring pathetic character and she is ugly to say the least. To be honest the story that takes place in Ireland in 1920 was good, but the casting was wrong. I would love to see this remade with better British Actors then Clive and Best and an authentic Englishman. Maybe Charlie Murphy as Norah might work. 3 stars for the story and setting.

They say timing is everything. It's true in sports. It's true in life. And it's true in love. In The Key, two former lovers meet again and discover if, this time, the timing is right.Set against the backdrop of a hunt for a charismatic leader of the Irish resistance group, Sein Fein, The Key is a schizophrenic mixture of love story and suspense film. I can't say it is successful with either genre.The most interesting action is between the ex-lovers. But the action of the camera comes in a close second. Not always successfully, the camera tracks with and against the action. It feels like the director is trying to be innovative, but it sometimes feels experimental and slightly distracting.The Key is only 71 minutes long, so the pace of the film is brisk, which is fine. I just wish there were more to the story. The ending is a little too neat. Because it wraps up so quickly, there is a lack of emotional depth.For fans of William Powell, The Key is worth a look. Otherwise, it is rather shallow and somewhat mediocre.

William Powell is Bill, a British officer who finds an old love in Ireland in "The Key," a 1934 film also starring Edna Best (Norah) and Colin Clive (Andy). A very young Donald Crisp, though his voice identifies him immediately, plays a Sein Fein leader whom the British army seeks to capture. When Bill arrives on the scene, he finds himself living below Andy, a fellow officer and friend, but he doesn't know that the woman he once loved is married to him - and Andy never knew that Bill and Norah were involved. Realizing that their breakup was a mistake, Bill seeks to rekindle the relationship. Norah has continued to love him, and it's stood between her and her husband throughout their marriage.Full of dry ice and night scenes, this old movie was hard to see at times. The story is very familiar, the film is short; it doesn't have a lot to recommend it. It's atmospheric, although this viewer was not drawn into the story. Powell brings it lots of energy - he's the best thing in it; Best and Clive don't project much and look unhappy throughout.