This Gun for Hire (1942)

Directed by: Frank Tuttle | 80 minutes | thriller, crime | Actors: Veronica Lake, Robert Preston, Laird Cregar, Alan Ladd, Tully Marshall, Marc Lawrence, Olin Howland, Roger Imhof, Pamela Blake, Frank Ferguson, Victor Kilian, Patricia Farr, Harry Shannon, Charles C. Wilson, Mikhail Rasumny, Bernadene Hayes, Mary Davenport, Chester Clute, Charles Arnt, Earle S. Dewey, Clem Bevans, Lynda Grey, Virita Campbell, Yvonne De Carlo, Ivan Miller, Charles R. Moore, Frances Morris, Pat O’Malley, Sarah Padden, Reed Porter Lee Prather, Cyril Ring, Julian Rivero, Dick Rush, Tim Ryan, John Sheehan, Alan Speer, Edwin Stanley, Elliott Sullivan, Phil Tead, Emmett Vogan, Fred Walburn, Richard Webb, Pat West, Robert Winkler

Graham Greene (1902-1991) was one of the most important writers of the twentieth century and his influence on theater and cinema was enormous. He wrote five plays and nearly all of his novels – including ‘Brighton Rock’, ‘The Ministry of Fear’ and ‘The End of the Affair’ – have appeared on the big or small screen. This legendary storyteller is also responsible for the screenplays of classics like ‘The Fallen Idol’ and ‘The Third Man’. Greene and film are inextricably linked. The colorful and eccentric writer said of his work for the silver screen: ‘When I describe a scene, I capture it with the moving eye of a film camera instead of the still camera, which freezes the situation, as it were. In that respect I think cinema has influenced me.’ One of his first stories to be filmed was ‘This Gun for Hire’ (1942), a suspenseful film noir that takes a slanted eye on the war situation of the time.

Alan Ladd plays Raven, a cold-hearted assassin with a story. In an almost clinical manner, he carries out the crimes for which he is hired. Stubborn nightclub owner Willard Gates (Laird Cregar) asks him to get someone out of the way. Raven complies with his request, also killed the wife of this Albert Baker (Frank Ferguson) and collects his money from Gates. When it turns out that the latter has ripped him off with money that he himself reported stolen from Michael Crane (Robert Preston) – a Los Angeles detective who happens to be in San Francisco looking for his girlfriend Ellen Graham (Veronica Lake) – Raven on the run. Ellen, who performs with an act where she sings and juggles, has been asked by Gates to perform at his club in LA. On the train to Los Angeles she appears to be sitting next to the fugitive Raven. The assassin is out for revenge on Gates. Ellen turns out to be just the person who can take him to his enemy…

Greene managed to cram a lot of information into just eighty minutes of film. That excess of plot comes at the expense of other aspects, of course. In this case, the subtlety of the characters must believe it. The evil genius behind all developments, an ancient industrialist (Tully Marshall) who is even willing to sell his land as long as it pays him off, is so over the top that it is impossible to take him seriously. He is the type who calls everything and everyone weak and pathetic from his wheelchair… Ladd – in the film that would mark his definitive breakthrough – is a hard-core killer with whom we are forced to empathize. After all, he is the central figure. But no matter how nice he is to Ellen, cats and small children, he somehow continues to radiate something unsympathetic. We never really get to know Detective Michael Crane. Yes, he’s the good guy, but that’s the only thing that’s clear about him. Gates is a colorful character – the most interesting of the whole bunch, by the way – but in fact he too is portrayed very one-sided.

No, then Veronica Lake. She was also still at the beginning of her fairly short career, but had already shown that she had a lot to offer with ‘Sullivan’s Travels’ (1941). Director Frank Tuttle (who made the first film adaptation of ‘The Glass Key’ in 1935; Lake would star in the much more successful remake a decade later) gives her plenty of room to shine here. She can sing, dance, do magic and is by far the most sympathetic character in the film. She was not a gifted actress, but thanks to her charismatic and unique appearance, she came a long way. Lake carries this film on her slender shoulders, especially because the other actors do not get room to shine due to their poorly developed characters. Despite all those points of criticism, ‘This Gun for Hire’ is definitely an entertaining movie, with lots of action (cliffhangers, flying bullets and even a hostage situation). Especially the middle part of the film, in which this crime drama at times resembles a screwball comedy (the characters who do their best to avoid each other), is very nice to watch.

Frank Tuttle does a decent job. The hardworking director has actually always stuck in the corner of the B-movie and has never made a real hit. His work is not of exceptional class and he does not know how to distinguish himself (for that matter the time and money was also lacking), but nevertheless it all looks fine. For this, Tuttle owes much to his director of cinematography John Seitz, a master of creating atmospheric black-and-white images as witnessed by his work on the Wilder classics ‘Double Indemnity’ (1944), ‘The Lost Weekend’ (1945) and ‘ Sunset Blvd’ (1950). It doesn’t make ‘This Gun for Hire’ memorable, but it certainly is pleasant to watch!