Movie Reviews
Book reviews

This Gun for Hire Movie Review

Read a book review online (click here to search reviews)
Books  Movies  
Sci-Fi/Fantasy Comedy & Personal Dramas Action Dramas
Actors: Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Robert Preston , Laird Cregar, Tully Marshall
Review Summary and Plot Commentary about This Gun for Hire
Based on Graham Greene's "A Gun for Sale", THIS GUN FOR HIRE was directed by Frank Tuttle in 1942.

Philip Raven is a hitman hired by Willard Gates to kill a blackmailer. Gates pays Raven with marked $10 bills hoping that the killer will soon be caught. Raven manages to escape the police and takes the train to L.A. in order to take revenge on Gates. During the journey, Raven meets Ellen Graham, a singer who's been just engaged by Gates to perform in his night-club.

Ellen Graham is in fact working for the Senator Burnett who suspects Gates to be a traitor. Ellen will persuade Raven to help her prove that Alvin Brewster, the boss of the Nitro company and Gates's employer, is actually selling poison gas to the Japanese. Won over by Ellen's patriotism, Raven promises to the young woman that he'll try to obtain a written confession of Gates and Brewster before thinking about his own wish for revenge.


--Daniel Staebler, Resident Scholar




17 FREE Sci-Fi Ebooks!
FREE "How to be happy" Ebook!

Analysis of This Gun for Hire
Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about
books by breaking them down into many different literary
elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Movie
Actual chase scenes or violence - 30%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 50%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 20%



Time/Era of Movie: - 1930's-1950's
Spying & Terrorists Yes
Cloak & Dagger Plotlets: - finding a spy/saboteur - finding an assassin
The terrorist enemy is... - billionaire/big corp

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status: - killer
Age: - 20's-30's
Hair style - short/standard straight (man)
Body type - average (man)
Events of movie makes character more... - sensitive
Ethnicity/Nationality - White (American)
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - average physique

Secondary Main Character
Identity: - Female
Hair style - (woman) long wavy
Body type - ample bosom & buttocks (woman)
How much in movie? - 60%
Ethnicity/Nationality - White (American)

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 20's-30's
Profession/status: - businessman, big
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - 60%
Hair type - (man) short/standard straight
Body type - fat (man)
Ethnicity/Nationality - White (American)
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - very athletic
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged

Setting
United States Yes
The US: - California
City? Yes
City: - Los Angeles - San Francisco
Misc setting - moving train

Style
Accounts of torture and death? - non-gory references to death/punishment
Movie makes you feel... - frustrated
How many deaths in film? - 4-8
Sex/nudity in movie? Yes
What kind of sex: - kissing
How much use of techno gadgets? - 1 ()
Kind of violence: - guns
Unusual forms of death - perforation--bullets
Check here if B&W Yes
Any profanity? - None
If Soundtrack VERY NOTICEABLE... - Broadway musical
Is this movie based on a - book
Most similar reviews by Gordonator ranking
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) starring James Stewart, Doris Day, Daniel Gélin, Brenda De Banzie, Bernard Miles
Ministry of Fear starring Ray Milland, Marjorie Reynolds, Carl Esmond, Hillary Brooke, Alan Napier, Erskine Sanford, Dan Duryea
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse starring Oscar Beregi Sr., Gustav Diessl, Karl Meixner, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Otto Wernicke
Panama Patrol (1939) starring Leon Ames, Charlotte Wynters, Adrienne Ames, Abner Biberman, Weldon Heyburn, Sidney Miller, Harry Bradley, Donald Barry, Philip Ahn.
Marie Gallante starring Spencer Tracy, Ketti Gallian, Leslie Fenton, Robert Loraine, Sig Ruman




This Gun for Hire Message Board (click here)
Movie talk: favorite scenes, what to buy, favorite online
posters, movies for sale on dvd v. rentals.

Search for another movie

Resident Scholar Profiles

TOP SCHOLAR:
  
Daniel Staebler  

SCHOLARS:


Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).