Tonight I saw a fantastic Noir called "This Gun For Hire"(1942) starring Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake and Robert Preston. Man, was it ever Hard Boiled! I can't believe I'd never heard of it before, but anyway, Ladd - in his motion picture debut - stars as a tougher-than-nails hitman who's been contracted to take out a blackmailer on behalf of Laird Cregar, the suave, plus size villain in such classics as "The Lodger" and "Hangover Square". Cregar was a great actor and original screen presence who unfortunately only lived to be 30. He is 28 in this movie, a year younger than Alan Ladd, but he looks much older. Cregar is terrific as the middleman in the payoff scheme. After Ladd shoots the blackmailer, Cregar double-crosses him by paying him in marked bills, then reporting him to the police as a thief who has stolen the money from the payroll department where Cregar works : a chemical factory that makes poison gas for the Defense Department.
You're gonna hafta pay attention here, because this is One Convoluted Plot.
Cregar works as an executive at the chemical factory, second in charge to the owner, a Snivelling Old Fogey in a space age wheelchair played by actor Tully Marshall, whom we've mentioned before as possibly The Oldest Actor We've Encountered (born in 1864). In fact it was Tully Marshall who was actually the target of the blackmailer; Laird Cregar was merely his go-between, the guy who hired Alan Ladd to get rid of him. Laird Cregar also has a side business. He owns a fancy nightclub, which is his real enjoyment in life. He makes enough dough as a chemical exec to pursue his nightclub interest almost full time, and in that pursuit he meets Veronica Lake, a talented magician with a dazzling act. She also sings and is quite beautiful, so Cregar hires her on the spot to perform at his club. What he doesn't know is that Lake - a sharp cookie - has been recruited by a U.S. Senator to spy on Cregar and Marshall, who the government suspects of a treasonous plot involving their chemical products. Keep in mind that a war is on (WW2), and that there were US companies in real life that were investigated for "trading with the enemy". In the movie, what Cregar and Marshall are doing is even worse. Veronica Lake will use her charm and magic skills to get close to Cregar, but by sheer screenwriter's chance, she also winds up next to Alan Ladd. They meet on a train (where else), and each discovers the other is connected to Cregar. Besides being a hitman, Ladd is basically a sociopath who talks with his mouth closed - probably because he gargles with razor blades - and is on a mission to "pay back" Laird Cregar for framing him with the marked bills. He also wants to find the man Cregar has been working for, which is of course the senile Tully Marshall in a great role near the end of his long career.
So, if you've been following so far, you now have Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd teaming up, for different reasons, to shut down the treasonous chemical operation of Marshall and Cregar. In addition to all of this, there is a police detective on the case (Robert Preston), whose involvement was instigated by Cregar, when he tried to frame Alan Ladd for the payroll robbery. Preston is now on the case, trying to track down Ladd while at the same time discovering that Lake - his girlfriend! - is involved with the hitman.
Man, I hope you can follow all of this. Better you should just see the movie. When we talk about jam packed scripts of 90 minutes or less, this is a prime example. "This Gun For Hire" runs 81 minutes, and there are characters and subthemes I haven't had time to mention. Holy smokes was this ever the watershed era of screenwriting.
Alan Ladd is terrifying as the cold blooded killer "Raven", who we find out was horribly abused as a child, adding some psychodrama to the story. Ladd had a very hard life in reality, and died at 50 of a drug overdose, after a successful career playing remote tough guys in Noirs and Westerns. His son Alan Ladd Jr. became one of the greatest executives and producers in motion picture history, heading up 20th Century Fox and MGM for a time, and having a hand in gigantic movies from the first "Star Wars" to "Alien" and "Braveheart".
Veronica Lake, a great actress who we loved in such varied fare as "I Married A Witch" and "So Proudly We Hail" was - like Alan Ladd (and so many others) - a tragic figure in real life. Like Ladd, she also died at 50, from alcoholism. But she's perfect here as the classy magician who just happens to be a spy. And, she is only twenty years old! Lake was one of the true greats, as intelligent as she was beautiful.
Robert Preston could do it all, from comedy to musicals to Noir. With his Tailored Moustache, he looks tougher here than we're used to seeing him, but then he is playing a gumshoe. And he has to deal with Ladd, a total psycho.
So you've got a great cast, you've got a very complex story, you've got extra characters I haven't mentioned, you've got some dark-cornered b&w photography, and, as a special bonus, you've got some very cool location photography in Downtown Los Angeles in 1942, mostly near the trainyards and also inside an old factory that is spectacularly lit up.
"This Gun For Hire" is one of the best Noirs I've seen. I can't recommend it highly enough, therefore it gets my highest rating : Two Gigantic Thumbs Up. ////
Speaking of intelligence and beauty, Elizabeth, are you there? Even though the clip was brief, I was glad to see you playing your guitar on FB yesterday. I'm referring to your post in the "story" section. Am I to assume it means you are writing more songs? I hope so, of course. That is a very nice guitar you have. I want to eventually acquire a nylon string acoustic for myself. I've gotten pretty good at adjusting to the Dupuytren's condition in my hands, and in some respects I can play better than before believe it or not. I can't play barre chords anymore, but it's forced me to focus on smaller voicings and two or three string combinations, so I've gotten to know the neck a lot better as a result. And like you, I enjoy fingerpicking. If you are working on a batch of songs, I definitely can't wait to hear 'em! I liked your picture with the Civil War piano, too, taken by your brother. I seem to recall a similar photo that you posted a few years ago, maybe it was the same one, but I think it had that piano in it. :):)
I am glad as always to see all of the awesome things you are doing and/or working on. I've gotta start posting some pictures, too; I haven't even started a 2020 photo album yet on FB. The year started off on the wrong foot, you might say, and things were pretty hectic there for a while, but I hope to get out on some Santa Clarita hikes soon, where the scenery is more abundant (and less photographed by me, haha).
Well, that's all for now. I'm gonna head out to the store for chips, salsa (the necessities, lol) and other supplies, and then maybe to Aliso. See you tonight at the Usual Time.
Tons of love! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
No comments:
Post a Comment