Oct 301942
 
two reels

Hired killer Philip Raven (Alan Ladd) is betrayed by his employer, being paid with marked bills. He’s chased by Lieutenant Michael Crane (Robert Preston), who is engaged to Ellen Graham (Veronica Lake), who happens to have been recruited by a senator to uncover a spy ring that includes Raven’s employer. She also happens to be the person Raven sits next to on a train.

For the ultimate in cold-blooded killers, Raven sure is chatty. If I was going to murder someone, I wouldn’t make a lot of comments about it to the first person I met.

This Gun For Hire was—once upon a time—famous and popular. Like its stars, Ladd and Lake, it has lost some of its undeserved luster. It’s a nice little thriller, but brought down by the tone and requirements of ‘40s Hollywood. The WWII propaganda and spy material doesn’t fit with the dark Noir side. The songs (they did love inserting songs into films) have the wrong tone. And why is merciless Raven leaving people alive? (Ah yes, because the studio was told to tone done the violence for the Production Code.)

Ladd was a limited actor, but Raven falls with his range. Lake could manage a bit more, and as the tough girl, who combines sexy and childlike, she’s perfect. But then the script also wants her to be the submissive good wifey-girl (it’s the ‘40s) and no actress could combine that in to make a character.

The film functions on coincidences: Raven happens to sit by Graham. Graham happens to be hired by Raven’s employer. Raven happens to arrive at the employers house just when Crane is there on the phone. Actually, everyone arrives everywhere just when someone else is doing something important.

When Lake is speaking in her breathy-sexy style, and when Ladd is in full-tilt assassin mode, This Gun For Hire is entertaining. The rest of the time it is good to have a book handy.

Lake and Ladd co-starred in two other Noirs, The Glass Key (1942) and The Blue Dahlia (1946).

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