Review of This Gun for Hire (1942) by Jay K — 13 Oct 2011

A fairly loose adaptation of Graham Greene's novel A Gun for Sale. Alan Ladd's killer barely reacts when Veronica Lake's showgirl puts her hand on his knee, prefering instead to sit there stroking a cat proclaiming he "won't go soft for nobody." All the character's motivations in the film are somewhat obscure, although quite what attracts Ellen to Raven is especially cloudy. Perhaps she just likes murderers, and who wouldn't when they're as cold and clinical (but cat friendly) as Raven? After all, he does save her from a closet. Although he does then kidnap her. But she doesn't cry out or try to escape, so... Ah, but the trail of cards so the police can find them! Cloudy indeed. Similarly the storyline regarding chemical formulas, spying and the Japanese really doesn't make much of an impact. It's easy to forget there even is a storyline behind the manhunt for Raven and his alluring captive-accomplice.

Raven may be the main problem here. In the novel, he is much more interesting three-dimensional character, with many of his idiosyncracies and background simply left out or glossed over in the film. This makes his personal revelations have less of an impact. Should we care about Raven the person or just be entertained by his assassin on the run? If you're not at all familiar with the source material then there is less to object about, and as an example of a noir thriller it's one of the most obvious defining hits of the genre. Lake doesn't play your archetypal femme fatale, more of a passive hostage for most of the action, but the imagery the film used to market itself, the grim industrial settings, and her looks in particular, are undeniably part of noir tapestry.