From the Wayback Machine (Turner Classic Movies, actually) we had 1942’s This Gun for Hire queued up on TiVo. This film noir thriller is most notable for giving Alan Ladd his big break after a decade of bit parts and hanging around. He matched with Veronica Lake and their chemistry was easily noticed, leading to several further teamings though the ’40s in such hits as The Blue Dahlia.
The other memorable character in Gun was main bad guy Willard Gates (though no one called him Bill), played by Laird Cregar. Cregar was a large man (I was strongly reminded of David Schramm who played Roy on the TV show Wings) and this film was more or less than midpoint of his short career as he died three years later when his body couldn’t take an intensive diet; here he gives a performance that’s a sinister combination of creepy and enticing, nearly trapping both Ladd and Lake in his web.
In the end, of course, all the bad guys die and the good guys kiss. Okay, the good guys are Lake and her fiancee/police detective who’s investigating the case (a very young Robert Preston) but this was 1942 Hollywood and moral ambiguity was considered very bad for the box office. Preston wasn’t really there during the filming, if you know what I mean, looked like he was getting fed his lines from someone standing just offstage. Tully Marshall had a nice supporting role as an ultra-cranky war criminal corporate chietain, which resonated nicely with recent real life events.
While I enjoyed the movie, I didn’t care much for whatever director Frank Tuttle contributed–give credit to Graham Greene, who wrote the novel on which the movie is based–but to be fair Tuttle’s bread and butter were apparently musical comedies and the producers must have thought that he was a good choice since Lake had to sing two or three numbers to be convincing as a nightclub singer/magician.
Moderately recommended
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