Veronica quilligan
In contemporary wartime San Francisco, chemist and blackmailer Albert Baker is killed by hitman Philip Raven, veronica quilligan recovers a stolen chemical formula. Meanwhile, Gates hires Ellen to work in his Los Angeles nightclub after an audition wherein she sings and performs magic tricks. Then, she is taken to a clandestine meeting with Senator Burnett, where she learns that Gates and Nitro Chemical are under investigation as suspected traitors, and is recruited to spy on Gates.
Unknown to each other, Gates and she board a train for Los Angeles, followed by Raven. By chance, Raven and Ellen sit next to each other. That evening, the suspicious Gates invites Ellen to his Hollywood mansion, where his chauffeur Tommy knocks her unconscious to set up a fake suicide. Tipped off by Ellen’s friend at the club, Crane goes to the mansion looking for Ellen, but Gates has already left. Tommy tells Crane that Ellen has been gone for two hours. Raven reveals to Ellen that he was orphaned at a young age and raised by an abusive aunt. Raven arrives as Nitro Chemical conducts a gas attack drill and its employees wear gas masks, obscuring their faces.
Gates orders Tommy to guard his door. Tommy spots Raven and gives chase, but Raven knocks him out. Raven disguises himself in Tommy’s uniform and gas mask to surprise Gates, forcing him to take him to company president Alvin Brewster, the mastermind of the treasonous Nitro sale. Graham Greene’s novel was published in the U.
This Gun for Hire in 1936, and several movie studios considered obtaining rights to the book. These included 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures. 1941, with Frank Tuttle assigned as director. The book’s plot line was kept essentially unchanged, though moved from the original European and British setting to an American one. Robert Preston was given the other main role, replacing Carey.
Lake and Preston were given above-the-title star billing, with Ladd given an “and introducing” credit. However, during filming, Ladd clearly would be the breakout star. Tuttle and the studio are showing more than a passing enthusiasm for Ladd. Sue Carol, the former silent star who is now an agent, undertook to advance the youth’s career two years ago and only recently could she locate an attentive ear. Before This Gun for Hire was even completed, Paramount announced that their next film for Ladd would launch him as a star. The film features Yvonne de Carlo in an early role.
She has one line, “Cigarette, sir? Making the film caused her to be fired from her job dancing for Earl Carroll. Although Ladd only received fourth billing, the film made him a star, due to fan reaction and critical praise. 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 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. The Los Angeles Times wrote, “to say the film is a success is an understatement. Albert Maltz, who worked on the script, later said “it was a very creaky melodrama – in my opinion, pretty second rate. It doesn’t stand up at all and I just don’t know why it was so successful in the way it was. John Houseman later wrote Ladd played “a professional killer with a poignant and desolate ferocity that made him unique, for a time, among the male heroes of his day. James Cagney, his only directorial effort.
In 1978 Tony Richardson announced he intended to remake the film, however, no movie resulted. Each copy bears the respective studio’s file copy library stamps, and the Paramount copy includes the film’s original studio project number. Akim Tamiroff A New Sherlock for the Screen”. Screen Tests All or Nothing, According to Circumstances”. Hedda Hopper Picks the Stars of 1947″.
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