This Gun for Hire 1942 DvdRip Avi Lee1001

This Gun for Hire 1942 DvdRip Avi Lee1001



http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035432/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Gun_for_Hire

Raven is a man who kills for one motive. Money. When nightclub manager Will Gates hires him to kill a man and then pays him in stolen banknotes he isn’t pleased. He feels betrayed. Now he has another motive for killing. Revenge. With the police on his tail, Raven follows Gates to Los Angeles. The authorities are also interested in Gates and have sent an agent, Ellen Graham, to investigate his suspected involvement in a plot with a foreign power...



The film which catapulted Alan Ladd to stardom at the age of 28 was this respectable adaptation of the popular Graham Greene novel A Gun for Sale. One of the best of the early film noir thrillers, it had an enormous influence on subsequent films of the genre. The moral ambiguity of police and outlaws, the solitude and ruthlessness of a marginalized killer, notions of honour, betrayal and revenge – these are all themes which would provide the bedrock for the classic film noir crime thrillers of the 1940s and ’50s. French director Jean-Pierre Melville drew heavily on this film for his existential 1968 policier Le Samourai, in which Alain Delon plays a lone hit man who is virtually a carbon copy of Alan Ladd’s character in this film.



Interestingly, Alan Ladd was not Frank Tuttle’s first choice for the part of Raven. Originally, Robert Preston was considered for the role, before Tuttle decided to take a gamble and gave the part to the comparatively unknown Alan Ladd. The actor was required to dye his blond hair black, to match his character’s name. Whilst the film was being shot, Ladd was suffering from pneumonia – something which adds greatly to his character’s chilling lack of emotion and a sinister aura of repressed malice.



Although he received fourth billing for the film’s initial release - after Veronica Lake, Robert Preston and Laird Cregar – Alan Ladd dominates the film throughout. In some sequences, when the psychotic nature of his character becomes apparent, he is terrifying; in others, a gentler persona can be glimpsed, making Raven a sympathetic yet genuinely disturbing anti-hero.

The bear-like Laird Cregar gets to play the second most interesting character in the film, the peppermint chomping villain Gates, who, with his gutless immorality, infantile cowardice and chubby appearance, looks suspiciously like a comic book caricature of Mussolini.



May 14, 1942

'This Gun for Hire,' Seen at The Paramount, Introduces a New 'Tough Guy' -- 'Suicide Squadron' at the Criterion

By BOSLEY CROWTHER

One shudders to think of the career which Paramount must have in mind for Alan Ladd, a new actor, after witnessing the young gentleman's debut as a leading player in that studio's "This Gun for Hire," which came to the Paramount yesterday. Obviously, they have tagged him to be the toughest monkey loose on the screen. For not since Jimmy Cagney massaged Mae Clarke's face with a grapefruit has a grim desperado gunned his way into cinema ranks with such violence as does Mr. Ladd in this fast and exciting melodrama.



Keep your eye peeled for this Ladd fellow; he's a pretty-boy killer who likes his work. "How do you feel," asks Laird Cregar, "when you are doing a job like this?"—the reference being to the slaughter of a certain party on a commission from Mr. Cregar. "I feel fine," Mr. Ladd mutters, without a twitch of his handsome face. And that should have been a warning to Mr. Cregar, representing a chemical concern, not to double-cross Mr. Ladd on the payment of his killer's fee.



But Mr. Cregar does double-cross him, and thereby hangs the tale. For Mr. Ladd then goes gunning for his erstwhile employer, who happens to be engaged in the manufacture of poison gas for "the enemy." And, during his obstinate stalking, he falls in with Veronica Lake, who is also shadowing Mr. Cregar for a Senate investigating committee. And together they have some truly hair-raising adventures and close shaves until Mr. Cregar and his boss are finally filled full of assorted holes.



Melodrama, straight and vicious—that's what this picture is. But it is a good cut above the average, both in its writing and its tensile quality. Frank Tuttle, the director, has paced it with morbid prowling and headlong bursts, and has kept his actors within fairly reasonable bounds. Miss Lake is a competent customer, and handles her men with cool disdain. Mr. Cregar is a double portion of deceit and cowardice, edging his characterization with a touch of elegance. And Robert Preston is what he should be as a cop who also participates in the chase. But Mr. Ladd is the buster; he is really an actor to watch. After this stinging performance, he has something to live up to - or live down.



VIDEO

Size.... 1.05gb

Duration.... 01:25:46

Codec.... divx

Frame Width..... 720

Frame Height.... 576

Data Rate.... 1815kbps

Frame Rate.... 25 F/S

AUDIO

Bit Rate.... 128kbps

2 Channel Stereo

Audio Sample Rate.... 44 KHz

Bits Per Sample 16 Bit/Sample