Written by James M. Tate / 6/25/2026 / No comments / film noir or melodrama , forties , harry shannon , laird cregar , marc lawrence , pamela blake , robert preston , veronica lake
ALAN LADD, VERONICA LAKE & LAIRD CREGAR 'THIS GUN FOR HIRE'
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| Year: 1942 Rating: **** |
Then-newcomer Alan Ladd's first and best collaboration with equally diminutive and great-looking Veronica Lake, in THIS GUN'S FOR HIRE he hardly speaks a word... the characterization of paid hit-man Philip Raven's etched upon a narrowed, coolly serious expression while he murders crooked targets while protecting a crippled girl and a kitten...
That alone providing what's a proto-noir ambiguous-criminal template for a bad guy's who's really not that bad... especially compared to genuine antagonist Laird Cregar's scene-stealing overweight middleman Willard Gates, an American traitor assisted by more creatively hands-on-ruthless Marc Lawrence...
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| Laird Cregar in THIS GUN FOR HIRE with Marc Lawrence |
One scene as Gregar deliciously squirms to Lawrence's violent plans, on what to do with the eventually captured/kidnapped Lake... a nightclub performer taking on a senator's request to go undercover... was perfectly featured in Woody Allen's comedy/thriller masterpiece CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS...
Yet nothing's more suspenseful than intensely pensive Alan Ladd's first act shadow-dodging getaways (featuring underused spitfire brunette Pamela Blake) instead of a prolonged, almost-romantic abandoned-warehouse middle sequence with Veronica Lake, whose token stalwart cop/fiance Robert Preston seems befitting a less dark and suspenseful war-time/crime potboiler: that primarily works as (and could have used more scenes involving) an aptly narrowed cat-mouse-cat thriller specifically between Ladd, Lake and Cregar.
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| Veronica Lake and Robert Preston in THIS GUN FOR HIRE |
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| Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd in THIS GUN FOR HIRE |
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| Laird Cregar in THIS GUN FOR HIRE with Alan Ladd |
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| Alan Ladd in THIS GUN FOR HIRE |
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| Veronica Lake and Laird Cregar in THIS GUN FOR HIRE |
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| Pamela Blake in THIS GUN FOR HIRE |
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| Pamela Blake and Alan Ladd in THIS GUN FOR HIRE |
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| Alan Ladd in THIS GUN FOR HIRE |
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| Pamela Blake in THIS GUN FOR HIRE |
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| Pamela Blake and Alan Ladd in THIS GUN FOR HIRE |
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| Pamela Blake and Alan Ladd in THIS GUN FOR HIRE |
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| Pamela Blake and Alan Ladd in THIS GUN FOR HIRE |
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| Robert Preston in THIS GUN FOR HIRE |
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| Laird Cregar in THIS GUN FOR HIRE with Olin Howland |
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| Veronica Lake and Roger Imhof in THIS GUN FOR HIRE |
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| Veronica Lake and Robert Preston in THIS GUN FOR HIRE |
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| Pamela Blake and Alan Ladd in THIS GUN FOR HIRE |
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| Laird Cregar in THIS GUN FOR HIRE with Marc Lawrence |
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| Laird Cregar in THIS GUN FOR HIRE with Marc Lawrence |
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| Veronica Lake and Robert Preston in THIS GUN FOR HIRE |
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| Veronica Lake in THIS GUN FOR HIRE |
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| Laird Cregar in THIS GUN FOR HIRE with Veronica Lake |
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| Marc Lawrence in THIS GUN FOR HIRE with Veronica Lake |
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| Robert Preston in THIS GUN FOR HIRE |
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| Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd in THIS GUN FOR HIRE |
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| Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd in THIS GUN FOR HIRE |
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| Robert Preston in THIS GUN FOR HIRE |
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