Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 3.9 / 5.0

A nice, slick bit of 40s movie-making:

This Gun for Hire was based on the Graham Greene novel A Gun for Sale and was considerably toned down and glammed up for the early 40s movie going public. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I found this movie rather enjoyable, it is easy to see why Ladd and Lake were made into a screen team. They are supported by Laird Cregar as a plotting spy with no stomach for violence and Robert Preston as Veronica Lake's cop boyfriend. Alan Ladd steals the show as Raven, a killer for hire who really only... more info

RAVEN A CHILLING SCREEN CREATION:

"This Gun For Hire" is a watered down, glammed up version of Graham Greene's novel A Gun for Sale. It represents the first of four cinematic outings that teamed sultry Veronica Lake with the stoically handsome Alan Ladd, a potent cocktail of personalities that proved to be much in demand over the next decade. Perhaps a tad heavy on sentimentality than most film noirs, the plot concerns Philip Raven's (Ladd) obsession with Ellen Graham (Veronica Lake) a nightclub dancer with a rough and rumble cop boyfriend,... more info

Over-rated....Lake and Ladd make up for a tired scenario:

This is the movie that made Alan Ladd a star, and his teaming here with Veronica Lake caused quite a stir back in 1942.

Sadly, THIS GUN FOR HIRE is really second-rate noir, a tired melodrama that really doesn't hold up, especially for repeat viewings.

Universal's DVD looks very similar to the old Image laserdisc release from a few years back. Not really any improvement

There's a lot of film-noir available on DVD, but this one doesn't live up to the hype. Skip it.

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