I post reviews (Film Noir Flashback) of movies from Hollywood’s Golden Age of Noir, the 1940s and 1950s. I am a film noir enthusiast. Maybe, like me, you are looking to enjoy films that are different, or of a different era. Films you may not have seen, ones encompassing cynical detectives, seductive femme fatales, flawed sidekicks all tossed together into intricate plots. Not forgetting the snappy dialogue too.

Backstory: Film Noir has its roots in German expressionist cinematography and American crime fiction. During the 1930s Hollywood became a perfect storm of film artists fleeing the threat of Nazi Germany, emigrating to America, and specifically to the Film studios of Hollywood. This included great directors such as Fritz Lang, Jaques Tourneur, Michael Curtiz and Robert Siodmak.

This new dramatic visual style combined with American hardboiled crime stories (noir fiction), emerged during the Great Depression and produced many classic noirs. Some of these writers include: Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain, Dashiell Hammett, Patricia Highsmith, Jim Thompson and Mickey Spillane.

I hope to showcase some of these memorable noir movies here for you. And advance apologies for a mixture of British and US English occasionally and potential spoilers, although I will always try to avoid revealing the full ending. I have applied the link below, to the Amazon.com DVD of today’s featured film. (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases).

Inspired by hardboiled detective stories and film noir, I have written the Sterling Private Investigator Series, set in present-day London. I have also posted a link to my books at the bottom of the page. For more of my Film Noir Flashback blogs: https://johnkempauthor.com/blog-film-noir-reviews/

 

Today’s Film Noir Flashback is: 

This Gun for Hire

USA DVD: https://amzn.to/4jhkEHV   Blu-ray: https://amzn.to/4iRjN0M

UK link DVD: https://amzn.to/3FYRajN    Blu-ray: https://amzn.to/4j6rcJN

 

“Keep your dirty hands off me!”

 

Film Studio: Paramount Pictures B&W 1942

Director: Frank Tuttle

Original Music: David Buttolph

Cinematography: John Seitz

Film Editor: Archie Marshek

Story: “A Gun for Sale” by Graham Greene

Screenplay: Albert Maltz, W.R. Burnett

Main Actors: Veronica Lake, Alan Ladd, Robert Preston, Laird Cregar

Produced by: Richard Blumenthal

Run time: 81 minutes

 

Preview

Courtesy of Wikipedia:

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).

 

Synopsis

This Gun for Hire begins with an alarm clock ringing; it’s just after 2.00 p.m. Phillip Raven (Alan Ladd), fully dressed, gets up from the bed. He pulls out an envelope from inside of his jacket hanging by the bedside. On the outside of the envelope is a typed name: Albert Baker with his San Francisco address below. A small note is clipped to the top with the words: “At home alone – between three and four p.m.” Albert Baker is in fact, a chemist and as we later learn, a blackmailer.

Nothing too unusual yet, but then, Raven picks up a gun, cocks it, and then places the gun and envelope into a satchel. Things are ratcheting up.  Upon hearing the purring of a stray/adopted cat outside, Raven lifts the sash window to the balcony. A moment later, the cleaner – Annie (Pamela Blake) comes in, “It’s after two,” she calls out, looking around but not seeing the lodger. She grabs the cat, berating it. Hearing this, Raven returns from the bathroom, spinning the woman around and in turn, ripping her dress, he then slaps her in the face. Indignant, she leaves. He bends down and strokes the undernourished cat. In these introductory moments we see the protagonist’s ruthless aggression and the next instance, his humane and caring side, a man of contradictions. The strong silent type. And likely, a killer.

Raven goes to the address to carry out a hit on Albert Baker. Upon entering, he heads upstairs and is invited in. (For a more detailed sequence, see “must-see scene” below). The man gives up the stolen secret formulae and waits expectantly for a cash trade. Instead, Raven shoots him, and kills the woman who is there too. This being his not so caring side on display.

Cut to the pay off, Raven is in a tearoom together with an oily rotund man named, Willard Gates (played by Laird Cregar). A man who has a big, but rather weak stomach for violence….He hands over the contract payment (for the assassination), in marked $10 dollar bills. Gates is doing a number on Raven and will later report the bills as stolen from the Nitro Chemical Corporation to the L.A. Police Department.

Detective Lieutenant Michael Crane (Robert Preston) is assigned to the case while vacationing in San Francisco. His girlfriend is none other than, Ellen Graham (played by Veronica Lake), who has been hired by Willard Gates to play a stint at his L.A. nightclub, The Neptune Club. On her way, she encounters Senator Burnett who asks for her help. Gates and The Nitro Chemical Corporation are under investigation as suspected traitors to the US government. “Our nightclub angel?” she queries in surprise. The senator tells her that daytime, he is an executive, and at night-time, in touch with foreign agents who would sabotage American defences. She agrees to spy on Gates. And come to think of it, she really would make a great spy, with that soft smile and display of wide-eyed innocence…Who wouldn’t believe anything she says or question anything she does.

On the train, and by chance, Raven takes a seat next to the songstress. Also on the train is Gates, who when passing the next morning, sees the pair seated together (and a sleeping Raven’s head innocently nestled on Graham’s shoulder). Gates wires ahead to the police that Raven is on the train. Upon arrival, Raven eludes the police however, with Graham by gunpoint. When Ellen Graham is released and attends a dress rehearsal at The Neptune Club, she runs into Gates who reminds her of their dinner date. And he is wondering about the exact relationship between her and Raven…

That night Graham goes to Gates’ large mansion, he asks about her recent train companion; she lies telling him she sat with “a charming old lady”. Realizing she is lying; Gates presumes she is working as a double act (with Raven) in a revenge killing. That double-crossing $10 bill business, presumably. Gates’ servant ties Graham up with the intention of killing her and then disposing of the body. The nervous Gates flees to The Neptune Club, and as his servant suggests, he should, “eat a good dinner and it’ll calm you down.” Presumably, while he takes care of the abhorrent business… After learning of the killing and disposal plan, Gate says, “Such a lovely body. It’s revolting.”

Cane comes to the house looking for Graham but is falsely sent away. Meanwhile, Raven is watching on from the grounds, before capturing the servant and finding Graham bound and dumped at the bottom of a wardrobe. Raven forces her to come with him to the nightclub seeking Gates. When they enter, they are confronted by Crane; Raven flees forcing Graham by gunpoint to go with him. Graham drops her monogrammed playing cards (a sort of trail of breadcrumbs, if you like) for her detective boyfriend to follow… And the manhunt resumes.

 

Things to like

*It’s curious that in a number of noir films – as an interlude to the main action – they have a song or a dance number in them. And sometimes a guest entertainer. Rita Hayworth in Gilda comes to mind. Ida Lupino in Road House, Doris Day in The Man who knew too much and Nat ‘King’ Cole in The Blue Gardenia and The Scarlet Hour. Ava Gardner in The Hucksters too. And there is a wonderful number by Magali Noël in the Jules Dassin directed, French film noir, Rififi. Here is the link if you want to see it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXxNDD5PND8

In This Gun for Hire, Veronica Lake wows in a musical number and magical act: “Now you see it, Now you don’t”. (Actually, sung by Martha Mears). The lightness of the scene contrasts sharply with the rest of the film, but in fact, it is woven into the storyline, an audition for Willard Gates. A whimsical performance that shows off Veronica Lake’s magnetism at the height of her career.

*This scene: Raven starts down the stairs to the hotel reception. He pauses and stops (while remaining unseen), when hearing a conversation between Detective Lieutenant Crane and the hotel employees. The marked bills (Raven used to purchase a dress) have been detected and reported to the police…

“You took a present from him, didn’t you?” the cop suggests to Annie who says, “It wasn’t a present, he tore my dress…” The detective tells the cleaning woman not to leave. “When I can see him in handcuffs? Don’t worry,” she smiles, gleefully.

Seeing a cop outside the front door, and with no escape, Raven secretes himself into the telephone booth across the lobby. The lieutenant goes up to Raven’s room “#9”, to arrest him. Meanwhile, the hotel manager tells Annie to call his wife, “Mrs Stewart”, and share (and crow about) what’s going on. When Annie enters the booth, Raven pushes a gun into her back. He tells her to make a fake call (“don’t put in the nickel”). The lieutenant returns from the vacated room and tells the manager that he’s put “a man in the alley” across the street, and if and when Raven comes back, to send a signal by raising and lowering the shade…

When Lieutenant Crane leaves, Raven locks the manager and Annie in the back office. Then, spotting a man coming into the hotel, Raven quickly pulls the shade up and down. The detective on watch, sees the signal, and follows the man inside. He collars the innocent visitor just inside the lobby, “You’re under arrest”, he says, while Raven slips out the front door. Brilliant.

*When on screen together the cold and calculating Alan Ladd, paired with the alluring Veronica Lake, raise the temperature to something hotter than a Turkish Bath!

 

Quotes

Phillip Raven: “I owe him.”

Ellen Graham: “I don’t get it. If you’re broke, how can you pay him?”

Phillip Raven: “I can pay him. He’s a fat man who likes peppermints.”

Ellen Graham: “You’re going to pay a debt with peppermints?”

Phillip Raven: “Yeah. First, I find you who his boss is, then I pay both of them. See?”

Ellen Graham: “I don’t see.”

***

Willard Gates: “How do you feel when you’re doing (points to the murder headline in the newspaper)...This?”

Phillip Raven: “I feel fine.”

***

Ellen Graham: “Do senators usually have conferences in automobiles?“

Sen. Burnett: “Hotel rooms have walls, and walls sometimes have Dictaphones.”

***

Willard Gates: (Discussing Raven’s fee) “Direct from the bank as I promised. Oh, I see your point, of course. If the bills were bad, you couldn’t very well complain to the police, could you?”

Phillip Raven: “I’m my own police.”

***

Willard Gates: “My one vice: backing leg shows.”

***

Willard Gates: (talking about Ellen Graham after her singing magical act)“Thank you, Mr Fletcher. Thank you very much for digging her up.”

Blair Fletcher: “For 10%, I’d dig up my wife’s mother.”

 

Must-see scene

Raven enters the communal lobby of an apartment block, the location of the proposed hit. He stops in his tracks when seeing a young girl sitting on the stairs wearing orthopedic leg braces. The little girl greets him, but he silently sidesteps her and goes up the stairs to the target’s apartment. He knocks on the door: “Albert Baker?” he queries. “Yes,” the man confirms. Raven gives him an envelope which douses any suspicions. “Come on in, friend,” he offers. Once inside, Raven notices a woman who is casually reclined on the settee. “Don’t worry,” the homeowner says, “my secretary.” Ahem, sure. She gets up and goes to make coffee, leaving the men alone. A deal is supposed to be concluded; Baker gives Raven an envelope expecting money to be forthcoming. Raven reaches into his satchel and pulls out a gun and shoots him.

A moment later, the woman returns from the kitchen in a panic. Standing there, with gun in hand, he says almost apologetically, “They said he’d be alone.” Raven tries to shoot her, but his gun jams. The woman runs back into the kitchen, barricading the door. Raven shoots through the door, killing her.

Raven checks the envelope which is a top-secret chemical formula. He quickly makes his exit, down the stairs, when he sees the little girl, still sitting at the foot of the stairs. The girl asks him for her ball which is laying across the floor and out of reach… he pauses…she’s a witness…. Is he going to shoot her too? He can’t, can he? Surely. Finally, he picks up the ball, giving it back to the girl before leaving.

 

Summary

This Gun for Hire was revised slightly during the filming due to the emerging menace of war, so, an espionage storyline was added. A sort of patriotic rallying call regarding all things: allegiances, secrets and spies.

The film established Alan Ladd as a star in this, his breakthrough film. Just as Richard Widmark scored a slam-dunk for his performance in Kiss of Death, so does Alan Ladd here. Previously, the villain or bad guy could sometimes be a little one-dimensional, but the nature and nuance of Ladd’s performance made this revelatory for the time.

Though malevolent, audiences could still feel sympathy (and even root) for his character, bearing in mind the scenes with the undernourished cat and the little girl. Ladd’s character is mentally scarred from years of childhood abuse (and he has physical scars too, the bent and buckled wrist-bone….). His experiences have made him an emotional recluse. With no friends, he is aloof and estranged. Veronica Lake’s character reaches out to him, however. And at times, you wonder if she has fallen for him.

And talking of Veronica Lake, she sings and charms her way through the film. Smart, streetwise, and sweet with that famous peekaboo hairstyle… She is at her charismatic best and height of her abilities. By chance, her character’s fate is dependent on the villain’s survival… Less a femme fatale, more an amateur detective, escape artist and patriot in the epicentre of the action. And whose detective boyfriend is constantly battling to keep up with her.

Laird Cregar is delightful as a peppermint-popping coward who has little stomach for violence or hearing about how his servant disposes of the bodies. And the servant seems to take great delight in telling him anyway, and likely making him choke on those peppermints.

Frank Tuttle runs an excellent and steady hand over the direction with many exciting action scenes (witness Raven jumping from a bridge onto a train). All in all, a film that keeps you riveted. You won’t be disappointed and one to watch.

For more of my Film Noir Flashback blogs: https://johnkempauthor.com/blog-film-noir-reviews/

 

USA Link: Film Noirs & Pullman Cars (eBook): https://amzn.to/3FYz0ib   (paperback): https://amzn.to/42kGRhk

UK Link: Film Noirs & Pullman Cars (eBook):  https://amzn.to/42wwLv3  (paperback): https://amzn.to/4ciVer4