This Gun for Hire
| This Gun for Hire | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Frank Tuttle |
| Produced by |
associate Richard Blumenthal |
| Screenplay by |
Albert Maltz W.R. Burnett |
| Based on | novel A Gun for Sale by Graham Greene |
| Starring |
Veronica Lake Robert Preston Laird Cregar Alan Ladd |
| Music by | David Buttolph |
| Cinematography | John Seitz |
| Edited by | Archie Marshek |
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Production
company |
Paramount Puctures
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| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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80 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | less than $500,000 |
| Box office | $1 million (US rentals) |
This Gun for Hire is a 1942 film noir, directed by Frank Tuttle and based on the 1936 novel (published in America with the same title, and in Britain with the title A Gun for Sale) by Graham Greene. The film stars Veronica Lake, Robert Preston, Laird Cregar, and Alan Ladd. The movie made a star of Alan Ladd.
In wartime San Francisco, chemist and blackmailer Albert Baker (Frank Ferguson) is killed by hit man Philip Raven (Alan Ladd), who recovers a stolen chemical formula. Raven is double-crossed by his employer, Willard Gates (Laird Cregar), who pays him with marked bills and reports them to the Los Angeles Police Department as stolen from his company, Nitro Chemical Corporation of Los Angeles. Raven learns of the set up and decides to get revenge. LAPD detective lieutenant Michael Crane (Robert Preston), who is vacationing in San Francisco to visit his girlfriend, nightclub singer Ellen Graham (Veronica Lake), is immediately assigned the case. He goes after Raven, but the assassin eludes him.
Meanwhile, Gates hires Ellen to work in his LA nightclub. She is taken to a clandestine meeting with Senator Burnett (Roger Imhof), where she learns that Gates and Nitro Chemical are under investigation as suspected traitors, and is recruited to spy on Gates. She and Gates board a train for Los Angeles, followed by Raven. By chance, Raven and Ellen sit next to each other. The next morning, Gates is alarmed when he sees them asleep with Raven's head on her shoulder. He wires ahead to alert the police, but Raven forces Ellen at gunpoint to help him elude them again. He is about to kill her but is interrupted by workmen, allowing Ellen to flee. She tries to contact Crane, but he has left San Francisco to return to LA.
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Wikipedia