THIS GUN FOR HIRE

Although this 1942 film adaptation of a Graham Greene novel is usually described as a film noir it could equally be described as a wartime espionage thriller.  In fact it doesn't really succeed as either, and I was not surprised to read in Wikipedia that one of the screenwriters later said that "it doesn't stand up at all and I just don't know why it was so successful in the way it was."

Well, the simple reason why it was successful was the performance of Alan Ladd, as the hired killer Raven, and his onscreen chemistry with Veronica Lake.

Ladd had been in small parts in films for eight years, but this was his breakout role, even though nominally he was only fourth billing.  The studio was so excited about his performance during production that they lined him and Lake up together for another film ('The Glass Key') even before this one was released.

Ladd and Lake certainly carry the picture, which has a creaky plot and undistinguished direction from Frank Tuttle (except for some nice location work at a railroad works towards the end), but at least it moves along at a fair lick and has the occasional sharp bit of dialogue.

Nasty Mr Brewster, who owns a chemical company in Los Angeles, has sold the chemical formula for a new poison gas to the Japanese.  Assisting him is senior executive Mr Gates (nicely played by Laird Cregar) who seems ill suited to this treachery since throughout he is a bundle of nerves.

The film starts with Raven, having been hired by Gates, killing a guy who has uncovered what Brewster is up to and is blackmailing him.

Instead of leaving it at that, Brewster and Gates bizarrely set up Raven as someone who robbed their company.   Quite why they would want to draw attention to themselves this way, and risk Raven spilling the beans to the police, makes no sense - it's just a plot contrivance so that for the entire film Raven is trying to get revenge on Gates whilst evading arrest.

Somewhat implausibly Gates is not only a senior executive in the chemical industry but also the owner of a nightclub.  Equally implausibly, a US senator recruits Ellen (Veronica Lake), a female magician/singer whom Gates has taken a shine to, to help uncover the espionage.

Even more implausibly, Ellen's boyfriend is the police detective trying to catch Raven.

And if that wasn't enough by way of coincidences, Ellen and Raven meet accidentally when they happen to be in adjoining seats in an overnight train from San Francisco to Los Angeles (were trains really that slow in 1942?), and who should see them together but none other than Gates himself who also happens to be on the train!

By this stage I decided to let the story wash over me and just enjoy Ladd and Lake together.  She wasn't the world's greatest actress but she had a certain presence which worked well with Ladd's "poignant and desolate ferocity" in this film (to quote John Houseman).  I would demur a little in that Ladd was never exactly ferocious (compared with, say, James Cagney), and he always had a soulful quality which may be why he was a favourite movie star of mine when I was a youngster.

Raven had a very tough childhood, we learn, so he never really had much chance in life, so despite the fact that the film doesn't shy away from the fact that he's a nasty bit of work (he guns down an innocent woman bystander early on, for example) we understand why Ellen is sympathetic to him.

She even helps him escape from her detective boyfriend so that Raven can get a confession out of Brewster and Gates, leading to an exciting finale at the chemical company, where Brewster and Gates get their just desserts, and Raven dies more or less in Ellen's arms.

Although it's very much a minor issue in a plot full of holes I didn't understand the need for Ellen and the police detective (played by the completely overshadowed Robert Preston) to be an item.  It's an unnecessary coincidence but I guess when filming started no one realised that it would be the relationship between Ellen and Raven that would dominate in the way that it ended up doing.