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| Are you kidding me? Damn! Five feet of sexy fury. |
(The great Veronica Lake story is that her peek a boo haircut was so popular amongst US women during war time that many were getting their hair caught in the machinery. The studio asked Lake to cut her hair for all future pictures. Those are the days when Hollywood cinema was king.)
This Gun for Hire is much better than Dahlia. Dahlia is bigger, faster, more complicated, and has a better-known cast, but suffers from some v silly melodrama involving William Bendix's character, Buzz. Plus, we barely get to see the ravishing Ms Lake, at all.
This Gun for Hire, on the other hand, is dirty, moody, dark, and features a v bleak (happy) Hollywood ending, which is astonishing for 1942. Yeah, I know, Raven is a bad dude but he is our hero, nonetheless, and it is surprising, to say the least, to see what happens to him at the end.
Ah, now I ruined it for you?
Nah. Cause if you have not seen the film, you have not seen the cat scene, which is a splendid, gripping, yet v sad Hollywood moment. Or, Gates. Gates is a fascinating character, a pusillanimous yes man, wealthy, spoiled, and, shall we say (for 1942, at least), fey. Laird Cregar played Gates and one of his scenes with his hired goon, Tommy (played by Marc Lawrence), is fascinating, rich film making. Woody Allen used that scene in Crimes and Misdemeanors, brilliantly.
If it took four years to reunite Ladd and Lake for The Blue Dahlia, that is a shame. According to my boy, David Thomson, Ladd and Lake never got along, even though the public adored them together. Both ended up drunk, desperate, lonely, and miserable. Ladd killed himself, eventually.
This Gun for Hire comes highly recommended by Ardent Henry. "Check it out, Syd." (h/t to Spalding Grey, Swimming to Cambodia, and The Killing Fields.)
Mwah, ...
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