This Gun For Hire

Transposing Graham Greenes London entertainment A Gun for Sale to characteristic noir territory in L.A. and San Francisco, Frank Tuttle makes This Gun for Hire a resonant ex-ploration of the last days of hitman Philip Raven (Alan Ladd). Another disturbing, hard-boiled, solitary and embittered figure, he is hired to kill a blackmailer, and sets out to do so with cold-blooded efficiency. The femme fatale he links up with is the devastatingly charismatic Ellen Graham (Veronica Lake), who does what a seductive leading lady is supposed to do, only more so.