This Gun for Hire

"A Lone Wolf…dynamite with a girl or a gun!"

1942 1h 21m EN

👍

7.0

SOLID

★7.0TMDB · 198

CrimeThrillerMystery

Synopsis

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Sadistic killer-for-hire Philip Raven becomes enraged when his latest job is paid off in marked bills. Vowing to track down his double-crossing boss, nightclub executive Gates, Raven sits beside Gates' lovely new employee, Ellen, on a train out of town. Although Ellen is engaged to marry the police lieutenant who's hunting down Raven, she decides to try and set the misguided hit man straight as he hides from the cops and plots his revenge.

“A Lone Wolf…dynamite with a girl or a gun!”

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Cast

Alan Ladd
Philip Raven
Veronica Lake
Ellen Graham
Robert Preston
Det. Michael Crane
Laird Cregar
Willard Gates
Tully Marshall
Alvin Brewster
Marc Lawrence
Tommy
Olin Howland
Blair Fletcher
Roger Imhof
Senator Burnett

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Frank Tuttle
Writers: W.R. Burnett, Albert Maltz
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

81 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $0.5M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

84 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Frank Tuttle, shot by John F. Seitz. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by David Buttolph. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Archie Marshek shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake and Robert Preston carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "A Lone Wolf…dynamite with a girl or a gun!".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Frank Tuttle directs. John F. Seitz behind the camera. David Buttolph scores. Archie Marshek cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

181 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
2Shot for just $0.5M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
384 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
4Directed by Frank Tuttle, shot by John F. Seitz. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by David Buttolph. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Archie Marshek shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake and Robert Preston carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "A Lone Wolf…dynamite with a girl or a gun!".
9IMDB entry: tt0035432 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 15 themes, including "police", "hitman", "propaganda", "cat".
11Released under 24 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: John F. Seitz
Original score: David Buttolph
Editing: Archie Marshek
Production design: Lynd Ward
Costume design: Edith Head
Makeup / hair: Wally Westmore
Runtime: 81 min · 1h 21m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $512,423
Box office: $1,000,000
Return: 195% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: This Gun for Hire (1942)

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Frank Tuttle

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2019-01-10
★ 9/10
I like Cats! So says the icy cold broken wrist killer! Phillip Raven is a hit man of no obvious moral fibre, he literally will kill anyone for the right price. After fulfilling a contract for the chocolate munching Willard Gates, he finds himself pursued by the law on account that he was paid by Gates with stolen money. Raven sets out for the ultimate revenge and dovetailing towards the explosive finale with him is sultry conjurer Ellen Graham and honest cop Michael Crane. Based on the Graham Greene novel "A Gun For Sale", this is not a straight out adaptation, the plot has been re-jigged with very impressive results. The most enlightening thing I found when reading up on the film was that the studio were so blown away by the efforts of Alan Ladd as Raven, they turned the script around to make him the film's chief axis, and boy what a smart move that was for this is Alan Ladd's show all the way. Ladd plays Raven with brilliant icy veneer, he's cold and devoid of emotion, his only trip to anything resembling caring is an affinity to cats - because in his own words, "cats don't need anyone, they are on their own, just like me", the result is one of the most unnerving killers put on to the 40s cinema screens. Veronica Lake is the stunning female of the piece, she glides through the picture with ease as Ellen, a character with her own issues, but thankfully she's integral outside of any sort of romantic plot, even though she is the only one who gets close enough to Raven to learn anything about what makes him tick. Robert Preston as Michael Crane was to be the pics focus but he becomes a mere side part thanks to Ladd's barnstorming show, and unsurprisingly Laird Cregar is suitably shifty as Gates. It's a fine film in its own right, it's tightly filmed, wonderfully scripted and contains a great noir ending, but ultimately it's all about the cold as death hit-man Raven - and of course the great performance by the man who played him. 8.5/10
CinemaSerf2026-02-09
★ 7/10
“Raven” (Alan Ladd) is a meticulously capable contract killer whom we meet bumping off not just a blackmailer, but an innocent girl who just happened to be with him at the time. His boss, “Gates” (Laird Cregar) rather foolishly pays him off with dodgy cash and that earns him the enmity of his former employee. Meantime, the authorities are suspicious of “Gates" and his own wheel-chair bound industrialist boss “Brewster” (Tully Marshall) and so they ask chanteuse "Ellen” (Veronica Lake) - who just happens to be dating the already interested detective “Crane” (Robert Preston) - to help then entrap him via a nightclub he owns. When “Raven” and “Ellen” meet on a train, the dynamic between them gradually changes from cat and mouse to cat and cat - with revenge, a little espionage and perhaps even treason on the cards. What chance “Raven” can get to the bottom of the mystery before the police close in on him? Cregar can always be relied upon to ham things up nicely and he is true to form here, especially as events close in on his cowardly character. Ladd is also quite impressive as he takes Graham Greene's cold and ruthless character from a menacing start and gradually humanises him through his association not just with “Ellen” but through his love of cats and his realisation that his erstwhile employers are potentially traitors - and that is one line no amount of cash is going to induce him to cross. On that last front, you can readily imagine it’s subliminal effect on patriotic wartime audiences along the line of “careless talk costs lives” or that there could be fifth columnists anywhere preparing to sabotage the efforts of the USA, and this packs a lot of story into eighty minutes.