elvircorhodzic THIS GUN FOR HIRE, the film from which most profited Alan Ladd. The story is actually based on a novel and is a solid thriller with elements of melodrama. The atmosphere is pretty good, acting is nothing special with the exception of Ladd. A cold-blooded killer left a pretty good impression and because of that fact this movie not to be missed.The killer of children's faces would be overblown observation. The killer who likes to do his job is more suitable description. Consistent itself or only very standoffish?This movie could go to two extremes. Being one of the best "noir" or complete failure in the melodrama. Fortunately the director s all kept within certain limits.Veronica Lake as Ellen Graham is special. The woman who found herself in the right place at the right time. Her acting expression could be a little better. Alan Ladd as Philip Raven was excellent. Performance that only has to do with the character in the film. Cold and unfeeling character for those who do not see well.The movie is exciting and easy. Nothing too good, but quite decent.

SnoopyStyle Philip Raven (Alan Ladd) is a harden killer hired by Gates to kill Baker who was a blackmailer. Raven recovers a chemical formula for Gates but he is double-crossed when he is paid with marked bills that have been reported to the police. LAPD detective Michael Crane (Robert Preston) has traveled to San Francisco to track down the bills for Gates and his boss Brewster who runs Nitro Chemical. Meanwhile Crane's girlfriend Ellen Graham (Veronica Lake) is a magician/singer who auditions for Gates's nightclub. She is approached by Senator Burnett who tells her about a plot to sell a deadly toxic gas formula to Japan. He asks her to spy on Gates and his boss after getting the nightclub job in LA. By coincidence, Ellen Graham happens to sit right next to Raven as he travels by train to LA to track down Gates and find out who is behind his double-cross.I love some of the hardboiled dialog. Overall, it's a compelling fun thriller noir. I love Veronica Lake although she has an unusual job as a magician in this movie. Maybe it's in the Graham Greene's novel, but they should have just changed her into a simple singer. Also the story has a few too many coincidences. The gas masks in the last act are a bit too much. Alan Ladd is a little too babyfaced to be that hard character. Even with all of these minor problems, the overall sense is one of thrills and spills.

drjgardner "This Gun for Hire" is interesting from an historical perspective, but it isn't film noir by any stretch of anyone's imagination. Film noir usually involves an innocent or naive hero who is seduced by a femme fatale, brought into a seedy world, betrayed (at least once), and then left to an unhappy ending. There's usually lots of night scenes, rain, dark shadows, and an urban environment to boot. Alan Ladd is neither innocent nor naive and there is no femme fatale. Veronica Lake and Ladd develop a relationship and she doesn't betray him. Thus, if you're looking for film noir, look elsewhere. Also, you may find the acting a little heavy handed, at least by 21st century standards.While this film helped make Ladd a star, it's probably one of his weaker films. I liked him far more in "Shane": (1953), "The Blue Dahlia" (1946), and "Boy on a Dolphin" (1957).

tomgillespie2002 While the 'film noir' genre was still in its earlier stages (back then they were generally referred to simply as melodramas), This Gun For Hire, an exciting, violent thriller from Frank Tuttle, probably shares more thematically with the Pre-Code gangster thrillers. There is no femme fatale to manipulate the film's anti-hero, nor is the lead a hard- bitten private dick or a dead-beat trying to make some cash. In fact, there isn't really a lead at all. It's arguably three inter-linking stories that intertwine and finally come to a head at the climax. Such is the curiosity of This Gun For Hire, one of the finest examples of the B-movie noirs.Stoic hit-man Philip Raven (Alan Ladd) guns down chemist Albert Baker (Frank Ferguson) and his innocent secretary, and takes what he came for - a chemical formula. His employer, the effeminate and cowardly Willard Gates (Laird Cregar), pays Raven in marked bills and then reports the bills stolen from his company. Nightclub entertainer Ellen Graham (Veronica Lake) is in town to audition for a nightclub spot owned by Gates, but is pulled aside by a senator hoping to gain information on Gates, who is under investigation for treason. Graham's boyfriend, LAPD detective Michael Crane (Robert Preston) is assigned to the case of Raven and the stolen money, but Raven has plans for revenge.Although only fourth-billed, this made a star of Alan Ladd. His dead- eyed, cold-blooded gun for hire is what you take away from the film. Like Richard Widmark as Tommy Udo in Kiss of Death (1947), his character displays such a shocking lack of ethics, quite alarming for its day. His brief moment of humanity comes when he chooses to spare an child who sees his face after a murder. Yet Ladd makes him undeniably compelling, even when he's smacking his girlfriend around for messing with his cat. Veronica Lake, an actress who has yet to completely win me over, does a decent job with a rather unexciting character, performing a couple of nice musical numbers (even though she is lip-synching) while performing magic.Made during WWII, the overseas menace plays a definite part in the film. While by no means a political thriller, the chemical formula that Raven unwittingly steals is for poison gas, intended to be sold overseas to the highest bidder by Gates' mysterious, wheelchair-bound boss Alvin Brewster (Tully Marshall). America's need for corny patriotism damages the film in the end, used as a tool to allow its mean anti-hero some one-dimensional sympathy. It's my only real problem with the film, which without the ending, come have been up there with the greats of film noir. It's still a damn fine film, as hard-edged as you would want your noirs to be, with a truly enigmatic character (and actor) at its centre.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com