This Gun for Hire

Philip Raven is a hired gunman who carries out a killing for a chemical company and is then paid off in marked bills. Realizing he has been set up to take the fall, he turns on the middleman who hired him, the nightclub owner Willard Gates, and sets out to settle the score while evading the police. On a train out of town he falls in with Ellen Graham, a nightclub performer who has been enlisted by a senator to look into Gates's dealings. Though she is engaged to the detective leading the manhunt for Raven, she tries to steer the killer away from his path as he hides from the authorities and plans his revenge.

Frank Tuttle directed the film, which followed the musicals Roman Scandals and Waikiki Wedding in his filmography. Albert Maltz and W.R. Burnett wrote the screenplay, and the cast is led by Alan Ladd as Raven, Veronica Lake as Ellen, Robert Preston as Detective Michael Crane, Laird Cregar as Gates and Tully Marshall as Alvin Brewster, with 74 credited performers in all.

Released by Paramount in April 1942 and running 81 minutes, the film took in about 1 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.3 out of 10 from roughly 12,000 votes, and on TMDB 7 out of 10 from around 197 votes. A critics' rating of 7.5 out of 10 from 17 reviews places it slightly above the audience scores.