Film Review: This Gun for Hire (1942)

Multitudes of aspiring actors and actresses arrive in Los Angeles only to spend years working menial, low-paid jobs or acting in humiliating bit‑parts while waiting for the elusive “big break” that might make them stars. They may take comfort in the few examples of colleagues who endured the same ordeal and saw perseverance and patience pay off. Perhaps the best example is Alan Ladd, an actor who spent his youth working all kinds of jobs behind and in front of the camera before his triumphant introduction to Hollywood stardom with This Gun for Hire, the 1942 film directed by Frank Tuttle, known as one of the early classics of film noir.

The film is based on A Gun for Sale, a 1936 novel by British writer Graham Greene. The script by Albert R. Maltz and W. R. Burnett moved the plot setting from England to the USA. It begins in San Francisco, where Philip Raven (played by Alan Ladd), a contract killer, kills Albert Baker (played by Frank Ferguson), a chemist who has stolen an important formula from his employers in order to blackmail them. Raven’s cold professionalism is revealed when he also kills Baker’s secretary (played by Bernardene Hayes), who happened to be at the scene. Raven has been hired by Willard Gates (played by Laird Cregar), who works for Alvin Brewster (played by Tully Marshall), an elderly chemical factory owner who wants to secretly sell poison gas to the highest bidder, including Japan and other Axis powers. Gates decides to cut all loose ends by paying Raven with marked bills that should lead to Raven’s arrest. Before that happens, Raven becomes aware of the treachery and decides to exact revenge, but not before Gates leads him to his boss. A key lead might be Ellen Graham (played by Veronica Lake), a singer and magician who is the object of Gates’ lust and whom he wants to bring to Los Angeles. Matters are further complicated because Graham’s boyfriend is Lieutenant Michael Crane (played by Robert Preston), an LAPD detective assigned to the case.

Made shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, This Gun for Hire is not “pure” film noir and can be seen as a more generic thriller, with elements of the spy genre and wartime propaganda. As in many Hollywood films with such themes made during the first year of US participation in the war, the script tried to warn Americans about the dangers of the fifth column and promote patriotic values. Maltz and Burnett did not do this in the most efficient way – a subplot involving Senator Burnett (played by Roger Imhof) recruiting Graham to spy on Gates seems artificially inserted, just like Graham’s attempts to appeal to Raven’s patriotism near the end of the film. The same can be said of the character of Lieutenant Crane, who conveniently has a romance with Graham and, in accordance with Hollywood conventions, provides a happy ending by embracing her.

That unnecessary subplot was, on the other hand, inherited from Greene’s novel (which also had a political subtext, presenting an assassination as an attempt to trigger a European war that would enrich arms manufacturers). All those flaws are more than compensated for by Alan Ladd playing what could be seen as one of the best roles of his career. After years of bit‑parts, he was named fourth on the credits and referenced as “introduced”. But director Frank Tuttle knew he had a real star on his hands and did his best to make Raven the most iconic character in the film. Ladd, a natural blonde, dyed his hair black not only to be more in line with his character’s name, but also to look more menacing. Raven is cold, professional and ruthless in his killings, and his ability to take other people’s lives without a second thought contrasts sharply with his good film‑star looks, making him appear like an angel of death. He provided the template for many future contract killers in cinema, most notably Alain Delon’s character in Melville’s Le Samouraï. He also became one of the first iconic antiheroes of 1940s Hollywood and of film noir in general.

This was achieved not only through Tuttle’s clever direction, which hid Ladd’s short stature, but also by a script that ultimately made Raven look like a human being. Despite being a killer, Raven had a few redeeming qualities, most notably his fondness for cats and occasional acts of kindness towards people on the margins of society. In one powerful scene in the second half of the film, he reveals his criminal career as the product of childhood trauma. In the end, Ladd manages to create sympathy for his character, almost making the audience root for his escape from the consequences of his crimes (although the Hays Code censorship of the time made such a finale impossible).

Ladd’s performance was greatly helped by the producers’ casting of Veronica Lake. As one of the shortest actresses in Hollywood and one of the rare few who looked short next to Ladd, she was his perfect companion. But apart from that, Ladd and Lake shared great chemistry; in This Gun for Hire this involved playing characters who, despite their many differences, both existed on the margins of society (Raven as a criminal, Graham as an entertainer in sleazy nightclubs). Lake, although her character never becomes romantically attracted to Raven, very convincingly portrays a woman to whom even such a cold killer would feel attraction and begin discovering a path to redemption. Lake and Ladd worked well as a couple, much better than Lake and Preston, whose character was obviously second fiddle to Raven. The chemistry between the two actors was easily recognised by Paramount Pictures, which would use them in a series of very successful films, making Ladd one of the most successful stars of 1940s Hollywood.

Sadly, both Ladd and Lake succumbed to alcoholism later in their careers, which ultimately contributed to their deaths after barely passing the age of 50. Laird Cregar, a character actor specialising in playing villains who intimidate with their size and who, as Gates, gives the best supporting performance, suffered a similar tragic fate by dying from the effects of a crash diet in 1944. Even the film’s director, Tuttle, was cursed, seeing his career sidetracked because of his Communist past during the McCarthy era (Ladd later, as a producer, rehabilitated him by hiring him as director of the 1959 film Island of Lost Women).

Like many genre pieces of Classic Hollywood, This Gun for Hire is short, with dynamic use of sets and authentic locations hiding some of its flaws. Although not exactly a film noir in the purest sense, it provided one of the triumphs of the newly emerging genre and can be enjoyed even by viewers who care little about film history.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)

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