Ned Beaumont
Created by Dashiell Hammett

Unlike Hammett's other creations, Sam Spade, The Continental Op and or even Nick Charles, NED BEAUMONT is not a private eye. He's a political hanger-on, a cigar-smoking, hard-drinking gambler with a weakness for money and women. He's tall, slim, with a mustache, and obsessed with personal honour, More than one wag has suggested that he was, in many ways, Hammett himself (a charge also often aimed at Nick Charles, in fact), and they're probably not completely off-base.

He may not be an eye, but Beaumont certainly shares more than a few tributes with Hammett's other heroes (and Hammett himself), including, most importantly, a sense of loyalty and honour. Just as The Op pledges allegiance to The Continental Detective Agency, and Sam Spade sets out to avenge Miles Archer's death (even though he didn't like him much) so does Ned stick his own neck out, in the name of nothing more than friendship. To clear his pal, Paul Madvig, a flashy, corrupt politico, from a trumped-up murder charge, Ned takes the law into his own hands, in Hammett's The Glass Key, first serialized in Black Mask, and later published in book form in 1931.

It was later adapted into a film, in both 1935 and 1942.

SERIALIZED IN BLACK MASK:

• "The Glass Key" (March 1930, Black Mask)
• "The Cyclone Shot" (April 1930, Black Mask)
• "Dagger Point" (May 1930, Black Mask)
• "The Shattered Key" (June 1930, Black Mask)

NOVEL

• The Glass Key (1931)

FILM

• THE GLASS KEY
  (1935, Paramount)
  80 minutes, black and white
  Based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett
  Directed by Frank Tuttle
  Starring George Raft as NED BEAUMONT
  Also starring Edward Arnold, Ray Milland, Claire Dodd, Rosalind Keith, Ray Milland, Guinn Williams
  .
• THE GLASS KEY ..Buy this video
  (1942, Paramount)
  85 minutes, black and white
  Based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett
  Screenplay by Jonathan Latimer
  Directed by Stuart Heisler
  Produced by B.G. DeSylva
  Associate Producer: Fred Kohlmar
  Starring Alan Ladd as ED BEAUMONT
  Also starring Brian Donlevy, Veronica Lake, bonita Granville, Joseph Calleia, Richard Denning, Moroni Olsen, William Bendix, Margaret Hayes, Arthur Loft, George Meader, Eddie Marr, Frances Gifford, Joe McGuinn, Frank Hagney, Joseph King

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