This Gun for Hire

1942 film by Frank Tuttle

For the TV film, see This Gun for Hire (1991 film). For the 1990 album by The Toasters, see This Gun for Hire (album). For the Eric Ambler novel, see Dirty Story (novel).

This Gun for Hire

Theatrical release poster

Directed by| Frank Tuttle
Screenplay by| Albert Maltz
W.R. Burnett
Based on| A Gun for Sale
by Graham Greene
Produced by| Richard Blumenthal
Starring| Veronica Lake
Robert Preston
Laird Cregar
Alan Ladd
Cinematography| John Seitz
Edited by| Archie Marshek
Music by| David Buttolph
Color process| Black and white

Production
company

Paramount Pictures

Distributed by| Paramount Pictures

Release date

* April 24, 1942 (1942-4-24)

Running time

| 81 minutes
Country| United States
Language| English
Budget| Less than $500,000[1] or $512,423.16[2]
Box office| $1 million (US rentals)[3]

This Gun for Hire is a 1942 American film noir crime film directed by Frank Tuttle and starring Veronica Lake, Robert Preston, Laird Cregar, and Alan Ladd. It is based on the 1936 novel A Gun for Sale by Graham Greene (published in the United States with the same title as the film).[4]

## Plot

[edit]

In contemporary wartime San Francisco, chemist and blackmailer Albert Baker is killed by hitman Philip Raven, who recovers a stolen chemical formula. Raven is double-crossed by his employer, Willard Gates, who pays him with marked bills and reports them to the Los Angeles Police Department as stolen from his company, Nitro Chemical Corporation of Los Angeles. Raven learns of the setup and decides to get revenge. Police Detective Lieutenant Michael Crane, who is vacationing in San Francisco to visit his girlfriend, nightclub singer and stage magician Ellen Graham, is immediately assigned the case. He goes after Raven, but the assassin eludes him.

Meanwhile, Gates hires Ellen to work in his Los Angeles nightclub after an audition wherein she sings and performs magic tricks. Then, she is taken to a clandestine meeting with Senator Burnett, where she learns that Gates and Nitro Chemical are under investigation as suspected traitors, and is recruited to spy on Gates. Unknown to each other, Gates and she board a train for Los Angeles, followed by Raven. By chance, Raven and Ellen sit next to each other. The next morning, Gates is alarmed when he sees them asleep with Raven's head on her shoulder. He wires ahead to alert the police, but Raven forces Ellen at gunpoint to help him elude them again. He is about to kill her, but is interrupted by workmen, allowing Ellen to flee. From Gates's club, she tries to contact Crane, but he has left San Francisco to return to Los Angeles.

That evening, the suspicious Gates invites Ellen to his Hollywood mansion, where his chauffeur Tommy knocks her unconscious to set up a fake suicide. Tipped off by Ellen's friend at the club, Crane goes to the mansion looking for Ellen, but Gates has already left. Tommy tells Crane that Ellen has been gone for two hours. While Crane questions Tommy, and makes a phone call to Ellen's hotel, Raven arrives and hides outside, where he sees Tommy discard Ellen's purse, to keep Crane from spotting it. Raven realizes that Ellen is in danger. After Crane leaves, Raven knocks Tommy down a flight of stairs when the chauffeur denies Ellen is still there. Raven searches the house and rescues her. Tommy recovers and warns Gates at his club, where Crane has caught up with him. Raven and Ellen are confronted as they enter the club, so Raven takes her hostage as he flees. She surreptitiously drops monogrammed playing cards as a trail of "breadcrumbs". The police corner them in a railroad yard, but wait for daylight to move in.

Raven reveals to Ellen that he was orphaned at a young age and raised by an abusive aunt. One day, he snapped while she was beating him, and killed her, for which he was imprisoned in reform school; there, he was abused by the other children. She tells him that the formula he recovered was for a poison gas that Nitro is selling to the Japanese and begs him to extract a signed confession instead of killing Gates. Ellen helps Raven escape the dragnet, hoping she has appealed to his patriotism. However, he breaks his promise to her and kills a policeman who had almost managed to capture him to get away.

Raven arrives as Nitro Chemical conducts a gas attack drill and its employees wear gas masks, obscuring their faces. Gates orders Tommy to guard his door. Tommy spots Raven and gives chase, but Raven knocks him out. Raven disguises himself in Tommy's uniform and gas mask to surprise Gates, forcing him to take him to company president Alvin Brewster, the mastermind of the treasonous Nitro sale. Raven barricades himself with them when the police and Ellen arrive, and coerces both into signing a confession. Brewster dies of a heart attack while trying to kill Raven, who then kills Gates. Crane is lowered on a scaffold and exchanges gunfire with Raven, wounding him. Raven passes up the opportunity to kill Crane when he sees Ellen helping the detective. Other police fatally shoot Raven, but he lives long enough to be assured by Ellen that she did not turn him in and that he succeeded in getting the confession.

## Cast

[edit]

* Veronica Lake as Ellen Graham
* Robert Preston as Michael Crane
* Laird Cregar as Willard Gates
* Alan Ladd as Philip Raven
* Tully Marshall as Alvin Brewster
* Marc Lawrence as Tommy
* Olin Howland as Blair Fletcher
* Roger Imhof as Senator Burnett
* Pamela Blake as Annie
* Frank Ferguson as Albert Baker
* Victor Kilian as Drew
* Patricia Farr Ruby
* Harry Shannon as Steve Finnerty
* Charles C. Wilson as the Police Captain
* Mikhail Rasumny as Slukey
* Bernadene Hayes as Albert Baker's Secretary
* Mary Davenport as Salesgirl
* Chester Clute as Rooming House Manager
* Charles Arnt as Male Dressmaker
* Earle S. Dewey as Mr. Collins (as Earle Dewey)
* Clem Bevans as Scissor Grinder
* Lynda Grey as Gates' Secretary
* Virita Campbell as Little Girl

## Production

[edit]

### Development

[edit]

Graham Greene's novel was published in the U.S. as This Gun for Hire in 1936, and several movie studios considered obtaining rights to the book. These included 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures.[a] Paramount bought the rights, and announced Gertrude Michael as a possible star.[5] Later that year, the cast was announced as being Akim Tamiroff, Ray Milland, and Ida Lupino, with Dore Schary writing the script.[6]

However, the film was not made for several more years; it was reactivated in 1941, with Frank Tuttle assigned as director.[7] The book's plot line was kept essentially unchanged, though moved from the original European and British setting to an American one.

### Casting

[edit]

Veronica Lake was announced early as a female lead, with Macdonald Carey, who had been signed by Paramount following his appearance on Broadway in Lady in the Dark – mooted as a possible male lead.[8] Tuttle had some difficulty casting the part of Raven. He later claimed that he looked at six stars, but none was suitable.[9] One of them was Alan Baxter.[10] Another was DeForest Kelley.[11] Alan Ladd screen tested. By September, he had been cast and signed to a long-term Paramount contract.[12]

Robert Preston was given the other main role, replacing Carey.[13] Lake and Preston were given above-the-title star billing, with Ladd given an "and introducing" credit. However, during filming, Ladd clearly would be the breakout star. Shortly afterwards, The New York Times reported:

> Tuttle and the studio are showing more than a passing enthusiasm for Ladd. He has been trying to get a foothold in pictures for eight years, but received no encouragement, although he tried every angle known to town – extra work, bit parts, stock contracts, dramatic schools, [and] assault of the casting offices. Sue Carol, the former silent star who is now an agent, undertook to advance the youth's career two years ago and only recently could she locate an attentive ear. Then, the breaks began.[14]

Before This Gun for Hire was even completed, Paramount announced that their next film for Ladd would launch him as a star. It was to be a version of The Glass Key (also 1942).[15]

The film features Yvonne De Carlo in an early role. She has one line, "Cigarette, sir?", in the Neptune Club scene. Making the film caused her to be fired from her job dancing for Earl Carroll.[16]

## Reception

[edit]

Although Ladd only received fourth billing, the film made him a star, due to fan reaction and critical praise.[17]

### Critical

[edit]

Bosley Crowther, film critic for The New York Times, wrote a rave review:

> One shudders to think of the career which Paramount must have in mind for Alan Ladd, a new actor, after witnessing the young gentleman's debut as a leading player in that studio's This Gun for Hire... Obviously, they have tagged him to be the toughest monkey loose on the screen. For not since Jimmy Cagney massaged Mae Clarke's face with a grapefruit has a grim desperado gunned his way into cinema ranks with such violence as does Mr. Ladd in this fast and exciting melodrama. Keep your eye peeled for this Ladd fellow; he's a pretty-boy killer who likes his work... Mr. Ladd is the buster; he is really an actor to watch. After this stinging performance, he has something to live up to - or live down.[18]

The Los Angeles Times wrote, "to say the film is a success is an understatement."[19]

Albert Maltz, who worked on the script, later said "it was a very creaky melodrama - in my opinion, pretty second rate. It doesn't stand up at all and I just don't know why it was so successful in the way it was."[20]

John Houseman later wrote Ladd played "a professional killer with a poignant and desolate ferocity that made him unique, for a time, among the male heroes of his day."[21]

Diabolique later wrote Ladd "gives an electric debut star performance – cold, blonde, tough, mysterious, ruthless, cat-loving, redeemable – and stole the film, but a lot of this was due to Lake, who matches him beautifully (at five foot two, she was one of the few female actors shorter than him); poor old Robert Preston is completely overshadowed."[22]

### Box office

[edit]

According to Ladd's biographer, the film ended up making $12 million,[1] but Variety puts the film's rentals for 1942 at $1 million.[3]

## Adaptations

[edit]

### Radio

[edit]

This Gun for Hire was adapted as a radio play on the July 3, 1942, broadcast of Philip Morris Playhouse with Marlene Dietrich starring,[23] on the January 25, 1943 broadcast of Lux Radio Theater and the April 2, 1945 broadcast of The Screen Guild Theater. Alan Ladd reprised his role in both adaptations while Veronica Lake reprised in the latter, but was replaced with Joan Blondell in the former.

### Remakes

[edit]

Paramount Pictures later adapted the story as Short Cut to Hell (1957), directed by James Cagney, his only directorial effort.

In 1978 Tony Richardson announced he intended to remake the film, however, no movie resulted.[24] The film was remade as a TV movie in 1991 by Lou Antonio, starring Nancy Everhard and Robert Wagner.[25]

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ Two first-edition copies of the novel – one from Twentieth Century Fox's Research Library and one from Paramount Picture's Story Department – are held in a private collection of the works of Graham Greene. Each copy bears the respective studio's file copy library stamps, and the Paramount copy includes the film's original studio project number.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Linet, Beverly. Ladd: A Hollywood Tragedy. p. 67.
2. ^ Mank, Gregory William (2018). Laird Cregar: A Hollywood Tragedy. McFarland.
3. ^ a b "101 Pix Gross in Millions". Variety. January 6, 1943. p. 58.
4. ^ eMoviePoster.com
5. ^ Edwin Schallert (May 19, 1936). "Jerome Kern, Noted Composer, Renounces Broadway Stage for Work in Movies: Opportunities Now Found With Screen 'A Gun For Sale,' War Story, to Be Filmed With Gertrude Michael Considered for Lead; Brisson Leaving Town Today". Los Angeles Times.
6. ^ "News of the Screen: Don Marquis and Friends Sell a Play – Akim Tamiroff A New Sherlock for the Screen". The New York Times. August 22, 1936.
7. ^ Churchill, Douglas W. (June 4, 1941). "Screen News Here and in Hollywood: David Selznick Is Negotiating Deal to Join United Artists With Frank Capra Two Films Open Today There's Magic in Music' at the Criterion and Central Will Show 'Naval Academy'". The New York Times.
8. ^ Schallert, Edwin (August 27, 1941). "Need for Exploitation of Film Product Told: Gaynor Plans Stage Debut Stardom Urged for Actor Gene Tierney Gets Lead Cowan Turns Lobbyist MacDonald Carey Cast". Los Angeles Times.
9. ^ Gower, Melrose (September 17, 1942). "Screen Tests All or Nothing, According to Circumstances". The Washington Post.
10. ^ "Hedda Hopper Picks the Stars of 1947". Chicago Daily Tribune. January 5, 1947.
11. ^ Jacobs, Andrew (June 12, 1999). "DeForest Kelley, 79, Creator Of Dr. McCoy on 'Star Trek'". The New York Times. Retrieved May 19, 2021.
12. ^ Churchill, Douglas W. (September 13, 1941). "Screen News Here and in Hollywood: ' Pied Piper,' Novel by Nevil Shute, Purchased by Fox – Harold Shuster to Direct Rialto Film is Held Over ' Badlands of Dakota' to Begin a Second Week – Swedish Program Opens Today". The New York Times.
13. ^ "Screen News Here and in Hollywood: Robert Preston Is Selected by Paramount Studio for Lead in 'This Gun for Hire' 8 New Films This Week ' Our Wife,' 'Ice-Capades' Due on Wednesday, 'Lady Be Good', 'Lydia' on Thursday".
14. ^ Churchill, Douglas W. (October 12, 1941). "Signing on the Lawn: Mr. Selznick Joins United Artists at Pickfair Meet – More Hollywoodiana". The New York Times.
15. ^ Schallert, Edwin (October 31, 1941). "Warners Cement Deal for Rogers' Biography: Alan Ladd Build-up Set Stars Named for 'Harvest' 20th Bids for De Fore 'Sunday Punch' Slated Rita Piazza to Do Play". Los Angeles Times.
16. ^ De Carlo, Yvonne; Warren, Doug (1987). Yvonne : an autobiography. St Martins Press. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-312-00217-6.
17. ^ Franchey, John R. (June 7, 1942). "The Gent Is Alan Ladd, the Calculating Trigger-Man in 'This Gun for Hire'". The New York Times.
18. ^ Crowther, Bosley (May 14, 1942). "This Gun for Hire (1942)". The New York Times.
19. ^ Lusk, Norbert (May 25, 1942). "Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake 'Discovered' by Critics". Los Angeles Times.
20. ^ Maltz, Albert (1983). The citizen writer in retrospect oral history transcript. University of California. p. 1083.
21. ^ Houseman, John (1976). "Lost Fortnight, a Memoir". The Blue Dahlia: A Screenplay. By Chandler, Raymond. Carbondale. pp. xiii.
22. ^ Vagg, Stephen (February 11, 2020). "The Cinema of Veronica Lake". Diabolique Magazine.
23. ^ "Marlene Dietrich Has Star Role in Playhouse Drama". Harrisburg Telegraph. Harrisburg Telegraph. June 27, 1942. p. 25. Retrieved August 6, 2015 - via Newspapers.com.
24. ^ Gregg Kilday (October 25, 1978). "Film Clips: Melnick Resigns Columbia Post". Los Angeles Times.
25. ^ "This Gun For Hire (1991 TV Movie)". IMDb. Retrieved December 5, 2019.

## External links

[edit]

* This Gun for Hire at IMDb
* This Gun for Hire at the TCM Movie Database
* This Gun for Hire at Rotten Tomatoes
* This Gun for Hire trailer on YouTube
* Review of film at Variety

### Streaming audio

[edit]

* This Gun for Hire on Lux Radio Theater

* v
* t
* e

Graham Greene

Bibliography

Novels|

* The Man Within (1929)
* The Name of Action (1930)
* Rumour at Nightfall (1932)
* Stamboul Train (1932)
* It's a Battlefield (1934)
* England Made Me (1935)
* A Gun for Sale (1936)
* Brighton Rock (1938)
* The Confidential Agent (1939)
* The Power and the Glory (1940)
* The Ministry of Fear (1943)
* The Heart of the Matter (1948)
* The Third Man (novella; 1949)
* The End of the Affair (1951)
* The Quiet American (1955)
* Loser Takes All (1955)
* Our Man in Havana (1958)
* A Burnt-Out Case (1960)
* The Comedians (1966)
* Travels with My Aunt (1969)
* The Honorary Consul (1973)
* The Human Factor (1978)
* Doctor Fischer of Geneva (1980)
* Monsignor Quixote (1982)
* The Tenth Man (1985)
* The Captain and the Enemy (1988)
* No Man's Land (2005)

Non-fiction|

* Journey Without Maps (1936)
* The Lawless Roads (1939)
* The Lost Childhood and Other Essays (1951)
* In Search of a Character (1961)
* A Sort of Life (1971)
* Ways of Escape (1980)
* Getting to Know the General: The Story of an Involvement (1984)

Plays|

* The Living Room (1953)
* The Potting Shed (1957)
* The Complaisant Lover (1959)
* Carving a Statue (1964)
* The Return of A. J. Raffles (1975)
* The Great Jowett (1981)
* Yes and No (1983)
* For Whom the Bell Chimes (1983)

Story collections|

* Twenty-One Stories (1954)
* A Sense of Reality (1963)
* May We Borrow Your Husband? (1967)
* The Last Word and Other Stories (1990)

Short stories|

* "The End of the Party" (1929)
* "Proof Positive" (1930)
* "The Basement Room" (1936)
* "Across the Bridge" (1938)
* "Alas, Poor Maling" (1940)
* "The Blue Film" (1954)
* "The Destructors" (1954)
* "A Shocking Accident"
* "The Invisible Japanese Gentlemen"
* "The Last Word"

Screenplays|

* 21 Days (1940)
* Brighton Rock (1948)
* The Fallen Idol (1948)
* The Third Man (1949)
* Loser Takes All (1956)
* Saint Joan (1957)
* Our Man in Havana (1959)
* The Comedians (1967)
* Monsignor Quixote (1985)

Adaptations|

* Orient Express (1934)
* The Green Cockatoo (1937)
* This Gun for Hire (1942)
* Went the Day Well? (1942)
* Ministry of Fear (1944)
* The Heart of the Matter (1953)
* The End of the Affair (1955)
* The Quiet American (1958)
* Travels with My Aunt (1972)
* The Human Factor (1979)
* The Honorary Consul  (1983)
* The End of the Affair (1999)
* The Quiet American (2002)
* Brighton Rock (2010)

Other|

* Brighton Rock (play)
* Shades of Greene

Category

* v
* t
* e

Films directed by Frank Tuttle

* The Cradle Buster  (1922)
* Second Fiddle (1923)
* Youthful Cheaters (1923)
* Puritan Passions (1923)
* Grit (1924)
* Dangerous Money (1924)
* A Kiss in the Dark (1925)
* Miss Bluebeard (1925)
* The Manicure Girl (1925)
* The Lucky Devil (1925)
* Lovers in Quarantine (1925)
* The American Venus (1926)
* The Untamed Lady (1926)
* Love 'Em and Leave 'Em (1926)
* Kid Boots (1926)
* Blind Alleys (1927)
* One Woman to Another (1927)
* Time to Love (1927)
* The Spotlight (1927)
* Love and Learn (1928)
* Something Always Happens (1928)
* Easy Come, Easy Go (1928)
* Varsity (1928)
* His Private Life (1928)
* Marquis Preferred (1929)
* The Canary Murder Case (1929)
* The Studio Murder Mystery (1929)
* The Greene Murder Case (1929)
* Sweetie (1929)
* Only the Brave (1930)
* Men Are Like That (1930)
* The Benson Murder Case (1930)
* Paramount on Parade (1930)
* True to the Navy (1930)
* Love Among the Millionaires (1930)
* Her Wedding Night (1930)
* It Pays to Advertise (1931)
* No Limit (1931)
* Dude Ranch (1931)
* This Reckless Age (1932)
* This Is the Night (1932)
* The Big Broadcast (1932)
* Dangerously Yours (1933)
* Pleasure Cruise (1933)
* Roman Scandals (1933)
* Ladies Should Listen (1934)
* Springtime for Henry (1934)
* Here Is My Heart (1934)
* All the King's Horses (1935)
* The Glass Key (1935)
* Two for Tonight (1935)
* College Holiday (1936)
* Waikiki Wedding (1937)
* Doctor Rhythm (1938)
* Paris Honeymoon (1939)
* I Stole a Million (1939)
* Charlie McCarthy, Detective (1939)
* Lucky Jordan (1942)
* This Gun for Hire (1942)
* Hostages (1943)
* The Hour Before the Dawn (1944)
* Don Juan Quilligan (1945)
* The Great John L. (1945)
* Suspense (1946)
* Swell Guy (1946)
* Gunman in the Streets (1950)
* The Magic Face (1951)
* Hell on Frisco Bay (1955)
* A Cry in the Night (1956)
* Island of Lost Women (1959)

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