Surprisingly incoherent and boring

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

'This Gun For Hire (1942)' is a fantastic film-noir that pulls no punches, focusing on a cold-blooded killer who's as merciless as he is efficient. The title role is played with a detached, steely verve in a brilliant starring debut by Alan Ladd. He's never on the moral high-ground, he isn't being framed or anything like that, and in fact is presented with very few redeeming factors. Aside from, that is, a brief but powerful scene detailing his traumatic childhood, which is actually almost as unconventional as having such a blatantly brutal anti-hero in a 1940s piece. Though some war-time patriotism seeps in towards the end, it doesn't betray the tone created up until that point and the exciting climax maintains that violence begets violence unless a choice is made to stop it. 8/10

Graham Greene's entertainment 'This Gun for Hire', in the hands of script writers Albert Maltz and W.R. Burnett, becomes an cog in the U.S. against fascism. The narrative is transposed from the intrigues of pre-world war two Europe to California. Director Frank Tuttle's is fast moving. It is film noir in its early childhood. We're in 1942, a few months after Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl harbor. The narrative moves from San Francisco to Los Angeles, in the early days massive removal of Japanese from principally California, Oregon and Washington, to internment camps. 'This gun for hire' is a tale of murder and political mayhem, of corporate greed and treason. The film is notable for Alan Ladd's first major feature film, and a strong performance it is. He's Philip Raven, a hired killer who performs his craft with a stone-cold sober aplomb. Not a crease in his brow, an ice stare and a voice which betrays no inner emption or doubt. He is betrayed and set up for a fall by the msn who hired his gun. And so in true Greene fashion, Raven is both hunted and hunter, seeking revenge. Although Ladd is given third billing, he is more than ably supported by Veronica Lake as a night club performer who fascinates by her unsentimental singing and her tricks as a quick-handed magician. And although there is a chemistry between her and Raven, it is without romantic passion. That is workman-like indicated by Robert Preston as the police man who is after Ladd. Laid Cregar is oleaginous and slippery as a craven eel who works for the Alvin Brewster who is eager to sell a poison gas formula to the Japanese. The storyline is not difficult to see how everything turns out. Good triumphs, the good fight won;t be poisoned by the gas an American chemist has created; Raven pays for his crime but has redeemed himself by unmasking the internal enemies. In hindsight, three-quarters a century after the film first flashed across the screen, it is easy to see Maltz (one of the Hollywood 10) and Burnett worked in tandem to come up with a script that exposed corruption, greed and in wartime, shone light on pre-war behavior of capitalists who put individual interest before national good in dealing with fascists like Hitler of the Japanese militarists, Franco or Mussolini. And what's more in wartime had not lost that habit. 'This gun for hire' turned Ladd into a major star. It was made for half a million and grossed $12 million. Curiously, in spite of its obviousness, the film has not lost the salt of low-keyed narrative, the darkness of ambiance, and a no nonsense school of film making. And Lake is eye fetching and holds her own.

Alan Ladd stars as Philip Raven, who was hired by Willard Gates(played by Laird Cregar) to pay off two blackmailers. When they try to pull a fast one, Raven kills them both, which is just fine with Gates, except he double-crosses Raven by paying him with hot money. Now wanted by the police, he goes after Gates. Meanwhile, Gates is also wanted by the government, who enlist the aid of Nightclub singer/magician Ellen Graham(played by the sultry Veronica Lake) to ingratiate herself with Gates(who owns nightclubs) in order to gather evidence against him. She agrees, but cannot tell her fiancée, a police detective named Michael Crane(played by Robert Preston) who is after Raven, who manages to meet up with Ellen on a train, where they team up to not only take down Gates, but his traitorous employer Alvin Brewster(played by Tully Marshall).Involved story is still most entertaining and enjoyable, with a fine cast and efficient direction by Frank Tuttle. A Good old-fashioned patriotic film not made anymore, though as a cat lover, Raven isn't so bad at all!(He does redeem himself, and no cornball romance with Ellen either!)

"This Gun For Hire" is a really good noir picture, as well as a triumph for the vertically challenged. Its stars are pint-sized Alan Ladd and tiny Veronica Lake, who try to match wits with Laird Cregar, a huge guy who looks even bigger in scenes with either one of them.You can immediately tell it's a noir film, as Ladd is seen in his hotel room with no lights on (noir hotels always seem to have power problems), and wears a trench coat in most scenes. Ladd himself runs the gamut of emotions from A to B, and is alternately rude or scowling, sometimes both in the same scene. He is a pathological hit man who vows revenge on his employer (Cregar) when he discovers he has been paid off in marked bills. He forms an alliance with Lake, who works as a singer in Cregar's night club. See storyline for more details.It is a limited role for Ladd, who does not smile or evince a shred of humanity throughout the film, except that he likes cats. Veronica Lake is something of an acquired taste but comes off well in this peculiar, offbeat picture. The set design for Nitro, the company run by Tully Marshall (Cregar's boss), looks like a set left over from the Buck Rogers serial. But "This Gun For Hire" is eminently watchable and is a compelling and absorbing entry in the noir genre.