This Gun for Hire

Based on a novel by Graham Greene, this moody, morbid wartime noir has Alan Ladd, in his breakthrough role, as Phillip Raven, a San Francisco assassin-for-hire in the employ of devious Nazi fifth columnists. Raven is a cold-blooded killer without a trace of human kindness; ever-vigilant against “going soft,” his sole weakness is for his cat — at least until luscious Veronica Lake, as nightclub entertainer/femme fatale Ellen Graham, begins to melt his icy heart. The film marked the felicitous first screen pairing of Ladd and Lake; they became one of Hollywood’s most popular on-screen couples of the 1940s, and starred together in two other important noirs, The Glass Key and The Blue Dahlia (both featured in previous Film Noir seasons at Pacific Cinémathèque). The dialogue is aptly laconic, while the mix of studio sets and locations displays an excellent feel for atmosphere and offbeat exoticism. Ladd’s seminal performance as the stoic, unsmiling protagonist is “the prototype for the killer as angel of death . . . no wonder Melville and Delon lifted so much of this film for Le Samourai" (Chris Petit, Time Out). “Outstanding film noir . . . One of the most disturbed (and disturbing) killers ever to cross the screen” (James Monaco). B&W, 35mm. 80 mins.