{ "id": "epmaa6b5jk", "slug": "this-gun-for-hire", "title": "This Gun for Hire", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.film-noir-and-neo-noir-films", "label": "Film noir and neo-noir films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.film-noir-and-neo-noir-films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.film-noir-and-neo-noir-films.yr-1940-1975", "label": "Released 1940 to 1975", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.film-noir-and-neo-noir-films.yr-1940-1975" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "United States · 1800 to 1945: Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "path": [ { "id": "geo.us", "label": "United States", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800", "label": "United States · 1800 to 1945", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" } ] } ], "excerpt": "This Gun for Hire is a 1942 Paramount film noir directed by Frank Tuttle, starring Alan Ladd as hitman Philip Raven and Veronica Lake, adapted from Graham Greene's A Gun for Sale; an early, influential noir that launched Ladd's stardom.", "snippet": "This Gun for Hire is a 1942 Paramount film noir directed by Frank Tuttle, starring Alan Ladd as hitman Philip Raven and Veronica Lake, adapted from Graham Greene's A Gun for Sale; an early, influential noir that launched Ladd's stardom.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.film-noir-and-neo-noir-films.yr-1940-1975", "markdown": "# This Gun for Hire\n\n**This Gun for Hire** is a 1942 American film noir directed by Frank Tuttle for Paramount Pictures, starring [Alan Ladd](https://www.edgepedia.org/alan-ladd) as the hired killer Philip Raven and [Veronica Lake](https://www.edgepedia.org/veronica-lake) as the entertainer Ellen Graham, adapted from [Graham Greene](https://www.edgepedia.org/graham-greene)'s 1936 novel *A Gun for Sale*.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/27508) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1021269-this_gun_for_hire) Released on May 13, 1942, it is regarded by many modern sources as one of the first important pictures in the film noir genre, and it made a star of Alan Ladd while beginning his screen partnership with Lake.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/27508) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1021269-this_gun_for_hire)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Release | May 13, 1942 (theatrical, Paramount Pictures); runtime about 80 minutes[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1021269-this_gun_for_hire) |\n| Director and writers | Frank Tuttle; screenplay by Albert Maltz and W. R. Burnett from Graham Greene's novel *A Gun for Sale* (1936)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/27508) |\n| Principal cast | Alan Ladd (Philip Raven, credited \"and introducing\"), Veronica Lake (Ellen Graham), Robert Preston (Michael Crane), Laird Cregar (Willard Gates), Tully Marshall (Alvin Brewster)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/27508) |\n| Key crew | Cinematography John F. Seitz; editing Archie Marshek; production design Hans Dreier and Robert Usher; music David Buttolph[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/27508) • [3](https://classicnoir.com/films/this-gun-for-hire) |\n| Cost | Final production cost $512,423, which was $63,423 over budget[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/27508) |\n| Genre standing | Described as one of the most important early films noir, establishing conventions including the hard-boiled for-hire killer and the overlapping double-cross[4](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2000/cteq/gun/) • [5](https://www.dbu.edu/mitchell/the-third-spring-resources/_documents/thisgunforhireandnoir.pdf) |\n| Ladd–Lake pairings | The first of their films together; AFI lists three further Paramount teamings, *The Glass Key* (1942), *[The Blue Dahlia](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-blue-dahlia)* (1946), and *Saigon* (1948)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/27508) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nIn San Francisco during World War II, Philip Raven, a cold-blooded professional killer, carries out a contract job for Willard Gates, an executive of the Los Angeles chemical firm Nitro Chemical, and is paid off in marked bills (Banknotes with recorded serial numbers, traceable to the payer), setting him up for a police manhunt.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/27508) • [3](https://classicnoir.com/films/this-gun-for-hire) Gates works for the wheelchair-bound munitions magnate Alvin Brewster, who wants no loose ends connecting him to a plot to sell poison gas to a foreign enemy power, and hopes the police will dispose of Raven.[3](https://classicnoir.com/films/this-gun-for-hire)\n\nOn the train south to Los Angeles, Raven sits beside Ellen Graham, a nightclub singer and magician who has been hired to perform at Gates's club and, at a senator's request, is spying for the government on Gates's suspected traitorous activities.[3](https://classicnoir.com/films/this-gun-for-hire) • [6](https://www.universalpicturesathome.com/movies/this-gun-for-hire-1942) Ellen is also the girlfriend of Detective Michael Crane, the police lieutenant hunting Raven for the double murder in the film's opening.[3](https://classicnoir.com/films/this-gun-for-hire) When Gates spots Raven and Ellen together he assumes they are working against him and wires the police to meet the train; Raven takes Ellen hostage and escapes to the freight yards.[7](https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/thisgunforhire/) During the night she talks him into acting patriotically and obtaining a confession from the corrupt businessmen rather than simply killing Gates, and the two join forces before the case is wrapped up.[7](https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/thisgunforhire/) • [6](https://www.universalpicturesathome.com/movies/this-gun-for-hire-1942)\n\n## Production history\n\nParamount bought Greene's novel for $12,000 in London and intended to produce the film as early as May 1936, while the book was still titled *A Gun for Sale* in England; the title was changed to *This Gun for Hire* for American publication.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/27508) The project stalled repeatedly. Producer A. M. Botsford assigned Dore Schary to write a script and considered Peter Lorre for Raven, feeling at one point that Lorre might deliver a \"one-key performance\"; directors E. A. Dupont and Robert Florey were interested, but when costs appeared prohibitive Botsford abandoned the project and left Paramount.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/27508) The film was taken up again in 1939 and 1940, at one point considered for production in Great Britain, and a 1940 script version by [Anthony Quinn](https://www.edgepedia.org/anthony-quinn) and Lester Koenig was rejected. In June 1941 Albert Maltz began the story outline that became the final screenplay with [W. R. Burnett](https://www.edgepedia.org/w-r-burnett), and modern sources note the film was rushed into production to capitalize on Veronica Lake's growing popularity.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/27508)\n\n**A wartime interruption.** On December 5, 1941, Alan Ladd, whose blonde hair was dyed black to match the novel's description of Raven, collapsed on the set with pneumonia and was hospitalized for a week; during that interval Japan bombed [Pearl Harbor](https://www.edgepedia.org/pearl-harbor) and the United States entered World War II.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/27508) The film was made at the height of the war and, like most Hollywood films of the time, carried anti-fascist propaganda and moments of patriotic activism.[8](https://www.tcm.com/articles/436785/this-gun-for-hire)\n\nThe Production Code Administration had reservations about several sequences. It asked that Raven's motive for killing Gates be changed from revenge, and conditioned its certificate of approval on deleting the scene of the policeman dying at the criminal's hands and Robert Preston's final line, \"He did all right by all of us.\" The shooting of the policeman remained in the film, and the closing exchange was altered so that Raven asks Ellen, \"Did I do all right for you?\" and she nods silently.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/27508)\n\n## From Greene's novel to the screen\n\nThe film stays moderately close to Greene's original but moves the setting from England to 1940s America and adds a fifth-column traitor subplot.[5](https://www.dbu.edu/mitchell/the-third-spring-resources/_documents/thisgunforhireandnoir.pdf) In the novel, Raven is hired to kill the Czech Minister for War, an assassination that tilts the world toward war; in the 1942 film, with the war already underway, Raven instead murders a chemist for a secret formula that his employer intends to sell to the enemies of the United States.[9](https://patricktreardon.com/book-review-this-gun-for-hire-by-graham-greene/) Character details changed as well: Raven's hair-lip in the book became a disfigured wrist, and Ellen, a dancer in the novel, became a singing magician.[5](https://www.dbu.edu/mitchell/the-third-spring-resources/_documents/thisgunforhireandnoir.pdf) Greene did not approve of Burnett's script, and reviewers have noted his particular objection to the imposition of a singing girl magician on his bleak story.[10](https://grahamgreenebt.org/robert-macfarlane-graham-greenes-a-gun-for-hire/) • [11](https://theartsdesk.com/film/blu-ray-gun-hire)\n\n## Style and noir significance\n\n*This Gun for Hire* has been described as one of the most important early films noir and one that helped establish conventions of the genre, particularly the figure of the lone, embittered assassin.[4](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2000/cteq/gun/) • [5](https://www.dbu.edu/mitchell/the-third-spring-resources/_documents/thisgunforhireandnoir.pdf) Its visual authority rests largely on John F. Seitz's low-key lighting, which predates his celebrated work on *[Double Indemnity](https://www.edgepedia.org/double-indemnity)* and *Sunset Blvd.* for Billy Wilder; the film uses chiaroscuro effects in which shadows sometimes form bars, and the climactic factory sequence is staged in deep industrial shadow among pipes, catwalks, and steam.[3](https://classicnoir.com/films/this-gun-for-hire) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1021269-this_gun_for_hire)\n\n[The Raven](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-raven) character became a template for the hired-killer protagonist whose violence the audience is asked to understand without endorsing, a figure that reverberates through [Jean-Pierre Melville](https://www.edgepedia.org/jean-pierre-melville)'s *Le Samouraï* (1968), [Luc Besson](https://www.edgepedia.org/luc-besson)'s *The Professional* (1994), and Jim Jarmusch's *Ghost Dog* (1999).[4](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2000/cteq/gun/) • [3](https://classicnoir.com/films/this-gun-for-hire) Time Out's review calls Ladd's unsmiling performance \"the prototype of the killer as angel of death\" and notes that Melville and Alain Delon drew heavily on the film for *Le Samouraï*.[12](https://www.timeout.com/movies/this-gun-for-hire)\n\n## Reception and legacy\n\nAlthough Robert Preston received headliner billing, he quickly took a backseat to Ladd's performance, which was a breakthrough role.[5](https://www.dbu.edu/mitchell/the-third-spring-resources/_documents/thisgunforhireandnoir.pdf) Contemporary reviews affirmed the launch: the *Daily Variety* review wrote that the story elevates Ladd \"to the status of stardom,\" and *The New York Times* called him \"really an actor to watch.\" According to a 1946 *Saturday Evening Post* interview, Ladd chose Raven as his favorite role and credited the film with launching his career as a major star.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/27508) Reviews also praised Laird Cregar, borrowed from Fox, as \"masterly.\"\n\nIn December 1947, according to *The New York Times*, the MPAA banned the re-release or reissue of the film, along with a number of other pictures produced between 1928 and 1947, due to its objectionable criminal content.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/27508) European audiences saw it late: the film went unseen there during World War II and finally premiered in Paris in 1947 under the title *Tueur à gages* (\"Hired Killer\").[13](https://pulpinternational.com/pulp/entry/Three-vintage-French-posters-for-This-Gun-for-Hire-and-promo-photos/) The film has since circulated on home video, including a 2020 Eureka Classics Blu-ray with a 4K scan of the original film elements and radio adaptations featuring Ladd with [Joan Blondell](https://www.edgepedia.org/joan-blondell) and with Lake.[14](https://blueprintreview.co.uk/2020/09/this-gun-for-hire-eureka-classics/)\n\n## References\n\n1. [This Gun for Hire (1942), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/27508)\n2. [This Gun for Hire, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1021269-this_gun_for_hire)\n3. [This Gun for Hire (1942), Classic Noir](https://classicnoir.com/films/this-gun-for-hire)\n4. [Rose Capp, \"This Gun for Hire,\" Senses of Cinema, July 2000](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2000/cteq/gun/)\n5. [\"This Gun for Hire (1942): Noir and War I,\" Dallas Baptist University](https://www.dbu.edu/mitchell/the-third-spring-resources/_documents/thisgunforhireandnoir.pdf)\n6. [This Gun for Hire (1942), Universal Pictures At Home](https://www.universalpicturesathome.com/movies/this-gun-for-hire-1942)\n7. [Dennis Schwartz, review of This Gun for Hire](https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/thisgunforhire/)\n8. [Jeff Stafford, \"This Gun for Hire,\" Turner Classic Movies, July 29, 2011](https://www.tcm.com/articles/436785/this-gun-for-hire)\n9. [Patrick T. Reardon, book review of This Gun for Hire by Graham Greene](https://patricktreardon.com/book-review-this-gun-for-hire-by-graham-greene/)\n10. [Robert Macfarlane, \"Graham Greene's A Gun for Sale,\" Graham Greene Birthplace Trust](https://grahamgreenebt.org/robert-macfarlane-graham-greenes-a-gun-for-hire/)\n11. [Graham Fuller, \"Blu-ray: This Gun for Hire,\" The Arts Desk, September 20, 2020](https://theartsdesk.com/film/blu-ray-gun-hire)\n12. [This Gun for Hire, Time Out film review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/this-gun-for-hire)\n13. [Pulp International, vintage French posters for This Gun for Hire](https://pulpinternational.com/pulp/entry/Three-vintage-French-posters-for-This-Gun-for-Hire-and-promo-photos/)\n14. [Blueprint: Review, This Gun for Hire, Eureka Classics Blu-ray](https://blueprintreview.co.uk/2020/09/this-gun-for-hire-eureka-classics/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Film noir and neo-noir films › Released 1940 to 1975*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/this-gun-for-hire", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/this-gun-for-hire.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"This Gun for Hire\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/this-gun-for-hire. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[This Gun for Hire](https://www.edgepedia.org/this-gun-for-hire)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/this-gun-for-hire](https://www.edgepedia.org/this-gun-for-hire). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"This Gun for Hire\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/this-gun-for-hire. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "This Gun for Hire is a 1942 Paramount film noir directed by Frank Tuttle, starring Alan Ladd as hitman Philip Raven and Veronica Lake, adapted from Graham Greene's A Gun for Sale; an early, influential noir that launched Ladd's stardom." }