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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This Gun for Hire is famous as the film that launched Alan Ladd's career, but - in the extensive literature covering the film noir era - is not considered one of the top notch examples of the genre. I think this is unfair.
Unlike many more famous noirs (honourable exceptions here are The Killers and Double Indemnity), This Gun for Hire does not have an utterly incomprehensible plot, best ignored in favour of witty characters and effective lighting. Alan Ladd - as killer Philip Raven - is simply after revenge on the people who have double crossed him and, as such, he is reminiscent of Lee Marvin in the astonishing Point Blank. He is implacable and remorseless - unsmiling and laconic. In short, he's great. Star power pulses out of every frame. The opening sequence is rightly acclaimed and - second to The Killers - I think it is the best opening in noir. Raven is utterly unsympathetic - he slaps the maid around - but controlled and compelling. (And this thing was made in 1942!)
The only clunking piece of plot is when Raven happens to bump into Veronica lake on a train to LA as she is already involved with the men who have double crossed the killer. Lake was a strange actress and this is a strange character - dressed in a 'fishing' outfit for one of the two songs (she's a cabaret singer) that is so fetishist, it has to be seen to be believed - but she 'works' in this film and not just because she was short enough to pley with Ladd without him needing a box to stand on. Laird Cregar, as the baddie Gates - is astonishing. He's twenty-six. Watch the tilm and try and convince yourself of that. It's just another point of interest in this remarkable film.
Ultimately the reason this film is still available on DVD, nearly seventy years after it was made, is Alan Ladd's portrayal of Raven. It is one of the great film portrayals and was rightly 'homaged' by Alain Delon in Le Samourai. This film is not expensive, so buy it. It bears repeated viewing.
Unlike many more famous noirs (honourable exceptions here are The Killers and Double Indemnity), This Gun for Hire does not have an utterly incomprehensible plot, best ignored in favour of witty characters and effective lighting. Alan Ladd - as killer Philip Raven - is simply after revenge on the people who have double crossed him and, as such, he is reminiscent of Lee Marvin in the astonishing Point Blank. He is implacable and remorseless - unsmiling and laconic. In short, he's great. Star power pulses out of every frame. The opening sequence is rightly acclaimed and - second to The Killers - I think it is the best opening in noir. Raven is utterly unsympathetic - he slaps the maid around - but controlled and compelling. (And this thing was made in 1942!)
The only clunking piece of plot is when Raven happens to bump into Veronica lake on a train to LA as she is already involved with the men who have double crossed the killer. Lake was a strange actress and this is a strange character - dressed in a 'fishing' outfit for one of the two songs (she's a cabaret singer) that is so fetishist, it has to be seen to be believed - but she 'works' in this film and not just because she was short enough to pley with Ladd without him needing a box to stand on. Laird Cregar, as the baddie Gates - is astonishing. He's twenty-six. Watch the tilm and try and convince yourself of that. It's just another point of interest in this remarkable film.
Ultimately the reason this film is still available on DVD, nearly seventy years after it was made, is Alan Ladd's portrayal of Raven. It is one of the great film portrayals and was rightly 'homaged' by Alain Delon in Le Samourai. This film is not expensive, so buy it. It bears repeated viewing.
26 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Shocking blonde Veronica Lake with the famous peek-a-boo hairdo covering her right eye and the equally diminutive Alan Ladd were Paramount's version of Warner's Bogart & Bacall. The poor man's Bogie & Bacall, as it were.
'This Gun for Hire', based on the Graham Greene classic 'A Gun for Sale', was always a favourite film noir of mine, even though Hollywood tried to make Greene's anti-hero more palatable by changing his hare-lip into a deformed wrist. It is still quite an astonishingly desillusioned look at society and man's chances at survival, and the film easily holds up with the greatest of Warner's classics of the time. This new (and first) DVD edition lovingly recreates the gorgeous B&W cinematography with wonderful texture to make the rain-wet streets and the chiaroscuro sink in.
Obviously, 'This Gun for Hire' is somewhat influenced by the fact that it was made during WW2, but the patriotism never takes the upper hand, as could have been feared. Ladd made his debut as the soft-spoken, tender killer with a soft spot for kittens, and Lake exudes Hollywood glamour times 100 as the cop girlfriend who helps out.
25 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
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.
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.
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