Customer Reviews

This Gun For Hire (Universal Noir Collection)

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Wonderful character actor Laird Cregar plays the oily and overfed Broadway angel and hulking Lothario to singing magician Veronica Lake. By day he's a squeamish schemer, eager to contract out crime most foul just so long as he isn't subjected to recitals of any disturbing details. That he'd double cross Alan Ladd's Raven was as inevitable as his bedtime box of mints and book of racy French stories. That Raven would resent it was unfortunate, indeed.
Cregar died at the tender age of 30, two years after THIS GUN FOR HIRE was released. For old movie fans unfamiliar with him, he was a combination of a bulked up Vincent Price and Sydney Greenstreet with a little more bounce in his step.
As delightful as Cregar is, discussion of THIS GUN FOR HIRE starts and stops with Alan Ladd, who catapulted to stardom with his portrayal of the cold-blooded killer Raven. The emblematic scene occurs early on, when the hired Ladd enters an apartment building to fulfill his end of the contract. He meets a young girl wearing leg braces as he walks up the stairs. What occurs next, and continues on until he leaves the building, is simply a brilliant bit of minimalist screen acting. Raven's face is an expressionless, cold-blooded, inscrutable mask. Ladd plays the sequence almost solely with his eyes. They dart menacingly from the crippled girl to the apartment door, assessing the risks, flashing for a split second before smoldering to a colder temperature. It's a justifiably famous scene, one of the best tough guy sequences ever, a star maker.
The plot bends and twists just enough to throw Ladd and Lake together for most of the last half of the movie. She a hostage with a secret or two, he obsessed with getting back at Cregar. The camera liked what it saw when they shared a frame. Ladd and Lake oozed chemistry, enough for a handful of future teamings. Their characters dance an uneasy minuet in this one - Ladd never lets Lake's considerable charms breach his tough guy shell, she's reminded more than once why he's named for a ruthless carrion killer. The only time this movie stumbles, I believe, is when Ladd talks about the "psych-something doctor" who can make his bad dreams go away. By then the movie was in a hurry to get to the final scene, and it needed to humanize Ladd some before getting there. Still, it feels awkward and stilted.
THIS GUN FOR HIRE is an exceptional movie, one of the best tough-guy crime thrillers ever made.

"This Gun For Hire" is a watered down, glammed up version of Graham Greene's novel A Gun for Sale. It represents the first of four cinematic outings that teamed sultry Veronica Lake with the stoically handsome Alan Ladd, a potent cocktail of personalities that proved to be much in demand over the next decade. Perhaps a tad heavy on sentimentality than most film noirs, the plot concerns Philip Raven's (Ladd) obsession with Ellen Graham (Veronica Lake) a nightclub dancer with a rough and rumble cop boyfriend, Michael Crane (Robert Preston). Ellen is supposed to be working on exposing Alvin Brewster (Tully Marshall), a chemical company CEO who sold poisonous gas to the Japanese. But an odd and Freudian driven relationship surfaces between Ellen and Raven when she senses his childhood pain and angst. Ellen becomes Raven's willing captive, in the process transcending his nightmares and making him more human. The very first scene in this film is so incredibly chilling it begs special mention. After having been double crossed by ne'er-do-well, Williard Gates (Laird Cregar), Raven (Ladd) contemplates killing an innocent little girl who has seen him. Even though the resulting decision is typical "golden age" morality, Ladd makes one believe, if only for a moment, that such cold blooded silencing might be possible.
THE TRANSFER: Universal's DVD transfer is remarkably solid and clean. The gray scale is very well balanced with deep solid blacks and whites that are almost pristine. There's a hint film grain and some age related artifacts. Also, some edge enhancement and pixelization occur, but nothing that will distract from a visual presentation that is a considerable improvement over previously issued VHS tapes. The audio is mono and very well represented.
BOTTOM LINE: There are no extras on this disc. Nevertheless, it is a good disc to add to your library of classic cinema.

"This Gun for Hire" is an early film noir adapted from the novel by Graham Greene. Phillip Raven (Alan Ladd) is a stone-faced assassin whose only sympathies seem to lie with cats. He murders a blackmailer for industrialist Alvin Brewster, but Brewster's assistant Willard Gates (Laird Cregar) pays him in "hot" money. When Raven spends one of the $10 bills, it puts the police on his trail. In the meantime, lovely nightclub singer Ellen Graham (Veronica Lake) has been approached by a Senator who is investigating Brewster's collaboration with enemy powers. The Senator asks her to take a job at Willard Gates' Los Angeles nightclub in order to spy on him. She accepts the mission, and leaves for L.A. on the same train that Raven is taking to flee town. Gates see Raven and Ellen together on the train and assumes she's in cahoots with Raven, who's determined to kill Gates' for setting the police on him. Ellen's boyfriend, police Lieutenant Michael Crane (Robert Preston) follows them to L.A. in pursuit of Raven, whom Brewster and Gates claim robbed their payroll.

If the plot sounds convoluted, it is. That's just the set-up. Every character is either ignorant or mistaken about the others' role in this web of treachery. Ellen is privy to the most information, but she can't tell anyone. Veronica Lake has a lot of charisma, even if Ellen's role is convoluted. Ellen is a different thing to every person in the film, to the extent that the audience has to think at times to keep it all straight. It's interesting that she plays the role of a femme fatale to the assassin Raven, but her actions are selfless and righteous. Ellen isn't an ambitious seductress; she's a steadfast, practical woman who loves her boyfriend, her country, and wants a family. Raven is the film's protagonist, but he's a bad guy, so when Ellen manipulates him, it's a good thing. It's not a good thing for Raven, who suffers for having acted selflessly for once. Alan Ladd gives a wonderful performance that makes Raven ruthless, cruel, and frightening, but not at all superficial. Laird Cregar is also memorable as the thoroughly criminal Gates, who nevertheless abhors violence and loves peppermints.

"This Gun for Hire" has a mixture of indoor and outdoor location scenes. Its undisguised allusion to film noir's gothic roots surprised me. There is a sequence in Willard Gates' gothic mansion that takes place at night during a thunderstorm. It could have been the set of a gothic horror picture. I halfway expected a lecherous nobleman or terror-stricken maiden to come running into the scene. Of course, Gates and Ellen are a perversion of that theme. The gothic theatrics are eye-catching and a little creepy. "This Gun for Hire" is an entertaining World War II-era noir with a memorable cast of characters.

The DVD (Universal 2004 release): There are no bonus features. Captioning is available in English for the hearing impaired. Subtitles are available in Spanish and French.

This is a straight-forward, linear, quick-moving story based on a much more interesting book. But it's still an entertaining movie, and probably close to required viewing if you enjoy noir and/or Forties movies.

Raven (Alan Ladd) is a hired killer, evidently without remorse or nerves, who is paid to knock off a blackmailer. The blackmailer was trying to take to the cleaners a corrupt industrialist who was coincidentally helping the enemy. (This is during WWII.) However, Raven is paid in counterfeit bills on the assumption the police will catch him when he spends the money. He discovers the plot and decides to take out the guy who hired him and the fellow, the industrialist, who was behind it all.

The movie bills Veronica Lake and Robert Preston above the title, Laird Cregar just below the title, and Alan Ladd last in big type as "Introducing Alan Ladd." Some introduction; according to IMDb, Ladd had already appeared in more than 40 films in unbilled and minor parts.

This was Ladd's breakthrough movie and he's very good in it. I don't think he was much of an actor, but he had a lot of star presence, especially in the movies he made in the Forties. There was always something passive but potentially dangerous about him. His looks could have kept him in the pretty boy category, but for whatever reason didn't. Veronica Lake, for me, is something of an acquired taste, but for whatever reason she and Ladd made an effective pairing that was repeated several times. Laird Cregar played the heavy, and he was an interesting actor. Big and fleshy, he was something of a Raymond Burr type but more versatile. Robert Preston is seldom mentioned in regard to this movie and this must have ticked him off. Here's a guy who usually played best friend of the lead, gets a good part as the lead in a solid movie -- and winds up being over-shadowed by Ladd.

The first five minutes or so of the movie are among the most efficient I've come across in establishing a major player's character and complexities. We first see Raven waking up in his rented rooms and checking the clock. Nothing out of the ordinary there. In very short order, however, he's taken a gun out, helped a stray kitten get into his room and given it some food, slapped hard and full in the face a maid who tried to kick out the cat, showed up at the blackmailer's place where he meets the blackmailer (who was supposed to be alone); the blackmailer has his "secretary" with him so he just kills them both; on the way out a little girl on the stairs asks him to get her ball which has rolled away; she sees his face, he obviously thinks about shooting her, too -- but gets the ball for her and leaves. In just a few minutes Raven's cold ruthlessness and his conflicts are established, and so is a sort of sympathy for him. These first few minutes, in my view, are what make the movie work.

The DVD transfer is very good. There are no extras.

I hope sometime soon we get DVDs of two other first rate Ladd/Lake noir pairings, The Glass Key and The Blue Dahlia.

In the world of film noire I found all the elements here, with wonderful casting. Lake and Ladd are imbued with a gorgeous chemistry, there is an underlying element that suggests that if the circumstances had been different:they would easily have succumbed to each other. This is indeed Ladd at his best,he carries the subtle,seething world of hatred just beneath the surface, and the camera is fascinated by the intensity of his physical gestures, and facial expressions. In particular when he recounts the nature of the injury to his wrist, you get a window into how his mind works and what motivates him to be who he is. Lake is strong, and vulnerable and I see no mistep in her performance. This is a film that mesmerized me when I was much younger and I still find it to do so. Laird Cregar as Willard Gates is as oily as grease and I felt his performance too was a standout,a coward at the core but willing to have murder done on his behalf . I enjoyed the whole spy-thing interwoven into the plot, and as well very memorable atmospherics, especially the scene where Ladd and Lake are trapped in the railroad yards; the fog just added an extra dimension to the scene. I also found Robert Preston did a fine job too in his role as Lake's detective love interest with an understated performance, but with just the right touch of resolve to win through the day.

In his first feature role, Alan Ladd portrays a laconic hit man whose life remains isolated from the emotionalism of society. Raven's (Ladd) daily solitude is evident in the opening scene when he awakens at mid-day in a boarding room and begins preparation for his next assignment. As Raven straightens his rumpled clothes, he checks his pistol and reviews the address of his next victim. The scene echoes the solitary sequences that professional gunmen presumably rehearse before each date with death. Director Frank Tuttle captured the inner realm of the urban psychopath and provided other directors such as Martin Sorcese ( Taxi Driver) and Edward Dmytryk ( The Sniper) with scenic inspiration. Adapted from a Graham Greene novel, This Gun For Hire released in 1942 cleverly channels Raven's violent obsessiveness into a patriotic cause. Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 justified vindictive recourse in Amercian filmmaking. When an aging industrial tycoon ( Tully Marshall) plans to secretly sell poisonous gas to the Japanese military, a stage girl (Veronic Lake) is hired to investigate Marshall's connections. One of the middlemen is Gates (Laird Cregar) who unknowingly has hired Lake as a magician in his nightclub. Gates had previously hired Raven for a hit, but paid Raven in marked ten dollar bills. Raven and Lake's path cross as the two enter a tenuous relationship. Raven's revelation that as a child he was slashed with a hot iron by his aunt left more than a disfigured, grotesque wrist. Psychologically scarred by a woman, Raven fears the closeness of human contact. Although Lake is engaged to the detective trailing Raven, she is the only person to penetrate Raven's rancorous persona. In the film's climaxing sequence, Raven coldly states: "You tried to hurt my friend". That Raven has acknowledged another person as a friend, especially a woman, is cathartic. This Gun For Hire is a seventy-five minute B+ Paramount thriller. It might have attained a higher status if Ladd and Lake's character involvement became more complex. Still, This Gun For Hire is a high grade film and a portend for Ladd and Lake screen vehicles such as: The Glass Key and The Blue Dahlia.

The collaborative skills of screenwriter Albert Maltz and director Frank Tuttle brought us one of the more effective `we-hooked-you-now' openings to be found in film. The first 10 minutes or so have you completely fixated on the character Philip Raven (Alan Ladd). You can't not watch him. It's not so much what he does (although what he does, shocks), it's who he is. If a portrayal of ice was the objective, it was overachieved. Calculating and emotionless-it's all in the eyes. Not a lot of acting going on here, doesn't seem so anyway. More like-REAL. And that would be the magic in all of this movie making stuff, wouldn't it? I didn't count them, but I'd be surprised if Raven said more than 30 words in those first scenes. Is this to be our future Old Yeller guy? Hollywood hits, Hollywood misses.

Veronica Lake and Robert Preston are top billed in This Gun for Hire with Ladd "introduced" (in big letters). Make no mistake, Ladd rules in this film if only through simple captivation. The story itself might have been better landscaped and fleshed out, milking the Ladd-Lake formula for all its worth. There was more to be had there, or maybe I just wanted more. Not just volume, range.

Preston the solid actor, and I do consider if the future professor Harold Hill of River City was a best choice here. The contrast between Michael Crane (Preston) and Raven could not have been sharper. Maybe that was part of the plan, a mix not foreign to Noir-play the honorable chump against the razor. And then, again revealed, the side of woman that finds the life-hardened self-absorbed bad guy loser to be the inescapable magnet. Always interesting, that one, and very often all too real.

This Gun for Hire is a keeper. Corruption, treason, blackmail, murder, WW-2 backdrop......what else, oh yeah, good guy, bad guy, woman needing to choose but caught up in predictable formula. And, no way, he's not going to ice that innocent little girl sitting on the stairs-he wouldn't. The flinch. You'll want more, and if like me, maybe you'll wonder if Alan Ladd might have better benefited the movie-going world by staying typed as case-hardened steel.

I hadn't seen this wartime noir since it was screened at a local arthouse back in the early seventies. At that time nothing in the movie made much of an impression on me--either the quality of the print was dreadful (which is likely), or the owner/popcorn dispenser/projectionist was too harried to blow the lint off the lens occasionally (also likely). It's a treat that such classic films are finding new life in the digital age.

THIS GUN FOR HIRE has been on DVD for a while now as part of Universal's somewhat meager offerings in film noir. While it's no TOUCH OF EVIL (what other noir is?), it is still a satisfying film with--I can now testify--some striking cinematography, a pretty brisk pace, and plenty of mugs who eat lead.

Plotwise: Oily henchman of Mr. Big tries to doublecross the hit man he hired to take care of a blackmailer. Svelte singer/dancer/magician (try getting THAT job today!) gets involved with both oily henchman (who repels her) and hit man (who interests her when he's not trying to kill her), unaware at first that her boyfriend, a cop, is after the hit man too. The plot is actually more convoluted than this, but it doesn't seem so while you're watching it because you don't care. You're distracted by the gowns that appear to have been spray-foamed onto Veronica Lake.

Alan Ladd was "introduced" in the film, having been billed after Veronica Lake and Robert Preston, but he's the one who drives the story. Robert Preston makes a lot of noise (real noise: he's a Loud Talker in most of his scenes, even when addressing people standing two feet away), and it's a shame. He's the cop the girl is supposed to be in love with, and you begin to wonder why. Preston must have wondered too.

Laird Cregar is very good in his oily henchman part, but you feel as you watch him that he was destined to be awarded more complex roles--he managed only a few before dying unexpectedly a couple of years after THIS GUN FOR HIRE.

Veronica Lake is best in her scenes with Alan Ladd. Perhaps his (and the character's) smoldering passivity, in contrast to Preston's more by-the-book emoting, makes her seem more animated and less like a lovely velvet drapery. Unfortunately, because she's who she is and he's who he is, they never get around to doing what they might if they weren't. Huh?

Alan Ladd--he was no Alec Guinness, to be sure, but then Alec couldn't have become Shane. Watch the first 15 minutes of THIS GUN FOR HIRE and you understand why Ladd was the perfect choice for this troubled, repressed, cat-loving, dame-wary hitman. He underplays marvelously, making himself FELT as a threat well before he resorts to gunplay.

The DVD transfer is sharp, with real depth to the black and white. No extras, alas.

This review is for the 2004 release of the Universal Studios DVD

The story opens in San Francisco with Philip Raven (Alan Ladd) killing a blackmailer who has an incriminating letter about a valuable chemical formula. Next, we find out that Raven was hired by Willard Gates (Laird Cregar) who works for major chemical company and Raven gets paid $1,000 in fresh ten dollar bills. Gates later goes to the police and betrays Raven by reporting the marked money he gave to Raven as stolen from a deadly payroll heist. We also learn that Gates owns a nightclub in Los Angeles and hires a beautiful singing magician named Ellen Graham (Veronica Lake). Immediately after Ellen is hired she is approached by a Senator to essentially spy on Gates to see if he is selling deadly chemicals to one of America's enemies (this film was made in 1942 - during WWII). To add another twist to the plot, Ellen is dating a policeman who is looking for Raven. So this obviously sets up a neatly woven plot between the four characters as the story moves to Los Angeles.

In spite of the overtly coincidental plot setup, the story holds up quite well with plenty of tension and thrills throughout the movie. The film clearly has the unmistakable noir look and there are very few wasted moments in the entire movie. This was Alan Ladd's major screen debut and he does a stellar job as the hired hitman.

As for the DVD, the black and white picture quality is one of the best I've seen for a movie from this era. Film wear is virtually nonexistent and the picture is very sharp. A few scenes had some noticeable graininess, but overall it's a superb transfer. The sound is fine as well. There are no bonus features which is disappointing for a movie of this caliber, but I'm still very pleased with the DVD.


Movie: A-

DVD Quality: A

While some scenes of this exceptional early example of film noir are a little slow, the scenes with Alan Ladd & Veronica Lake are awesome & that's why this classic deserves 5 stars. I was surprised that Alan Ladd, although portraying a hired killer, is almost a semi-hero at the end when he seeks revenge on the evil thug who set him up. Universal released several classic film noirs on dvd this past July, & this along with "Criss Cross" are outstanding. There are two scenes in "This Gun For Hire" that are unforgettable: the beginning where Ladd brutally shoots a man he was hired to kill. When Ladd discovers a woman in the room, he shoots her too, although reluctantly. I'm surprised they included such a brutal scene in a 1940s movie, but it's very effective. The other unforgettable scene is the desperate chase where Ladd is running from the police & jumps off a bridge & lands on a train. I hope that Universal will release the other film noirs with Alan Ladd & Veronica Lake ("The Glass Key" & "The Blue Dahlia") soon on dvd. This classic crime drama takes several viewings to be fully appreciated & it's essential to any film noir buff's collection.