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This Gun for Hire (1942)

Rate: 5
Viewed: 11/15

GunHire
11/15: This Gun for Hire has all of the qualities I look for in a noir picture but lacks the oomph to make an impression.

Veronica Lake appears beautiful at first glance, but she's rather ordinary when I look at her for a long time. Worse, she can't act and never tries hard enough to be special. Here, her performance is average although she has a nice magic act show.

This Gun for Hire marks Alan Ladd's screen debut in a leading role, and he isn't that bad. In fact, he looks like a perfect substitute for Alain Delon in Le Samouraï. As linear as it gets, the story is stupid and commonplace as compared to other films noirs. Hence, there are no surprises with a predictable finish whereas Orson Welles did it a thousand times better in The Lady from Shanghai.

All in all, This Gun for Hire is a minor league film noir with a nice performance by Alan Ladd.