This Gun for Hire (1942)| Presenting Hitchcock Podcast

Gooooood evening. In this month’s episode of Presenting Hitchcock, Cory and Aaron escape thru inner turmoil as they discuss This Gun for Hire.

Written by: Albert Maltz and W.R. Burnett

Based on the novel “A Gun for Sale” by Graham Greene

Starring: Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Robert Preston, Laird Cregar, Tully Marshall, and Marc Lawrence

Directed by: Frank Tuttle

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Hitchcock comparisons

• The 39 Steps
• The Man Who Knew Too Much
• Sabotage

The original book was published in the UK with the title “A Gun for Sale” in 1936 and published in the US with the title “This Gun for Hire” also in 1936. Changes from the novel include changing the setting from England to America, and the original theme of revenge and retribution given a political slant since the film was made at the height of World War II and, like most Hollywood films of that time, contained anti-fascist propaganda and patriotic activism. Also, Raven’s psychological motivation for becoming a killer was that his mother disfigured his face. Paramount could not mess up Ladd’s handsome mug, so it was changed to his aunt disfiguring his wrist with a red hot flatiron.

This Gun for Hire was one of the earliest American films released in the years of World War II which specifically takes place in wartime – the film opened barely five months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor plunged America into the conflict.

This was Alan Ladd’s first appearance in a major motion picture. He and Veronica Lake ended up making seven movies together: This Gun for Hire (1942), The Glass Key (1942), The Blue Dahlia (1946), and Saigon (1947), as well as appearing as themselves in Star Spangled Rhythm (1942), Duffy’s Tavern (1945), and Variety GIrl (1947).

During production, Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake were interviewed on set during a live broadcast from Paramount’s experimental television station W6XYZ. There were fewer than three hundred television receivers in Los Angeles at the time.

Alan Ladd married his talent agent, former silent picture star Sue Carol, the same year this film was released. They were married for 22 years, until his death in 1964, and had two children, producer David Ladd and Alana Ladd.

Dickie Jones and Hermine Sterler are listed in studio records as members of the cast, playing Raven as a Boy and his aunt, but those scenes were cut before the film’s release. Studio records also indicate a running time of about 93 minutes, indicating about 12 minutes were eventually cut from the film.

The MPAA objected to the revenge killing. So, in the film however, Raven kills Gates because he hurt Ellen and then lied. In 1947, they banned the re-release or reissue of This Gun for Hire (1942) and a number of other films produced between 1928 and 1947 due to its objectionable criminal content. The ban was part of a recent move by the MPAA to introduce new, stronger regulations “to prevent the glorification of crime and criminals on the screen.”

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Next up, we’ll be discussing The Birds II: Land’s End

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