PHOTO 1: Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake and Laird Cregar in ‘This Gun for Hire’PHOTOS 2-5: Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake co-starred in four films:-- 1942: This Gun for Hire [Blu-ray] - reviewed on this page-- 1942: The Glass Key [Blu-ray]-- 1946: The Blue Dahlia [Blu-ray]-- 1948: Saigon - not yet on DVD or Blu-rayPHOTO 6: 1942 newspaper ad: “24 hours in an abandoned shack with a professional killer … a guy with ice where his heart should be.It’s dramatic dynamite … with a new star who’s romantic dynamite.Girls, mark down this name, because you’re going to hear it plenty: Alan Ladd!When he looks at you, a girl just can’t call her heart her own.Take my tip, that Ladd’s going places, so better see him first in This Gun for Hire!”Sorry girls, but the Paramount publicity department was not being straight with you.‘This Gun for Hire’ was not your first chance to see Alan Ladd.Ladd had already appeared in 43 films between 1932 and 1941, usually in small roles, often uncredited.But he became an overnight sensation in 1942 when Paramount cast him as a professional killer in the film noir ‘This Gun for Hire’.Alan Ladd was billed fourth, but stole the film, which caused Paramount to revise their advertising campaign.The film’s star and ostensible hero was Robert Preston - on the left in photo 2, smooching Veronica Lake.[Preston is best remembered today as Prof. Harold Hill in ‘The Music Man’ on Broadway in 1957, filmed in 1962.]Third-billed Laird Cregar’s career was tragically brief - he died of a heart attack, allegedly brought on by crash-dieting, at age thirty-one in 1946, two years after ‘This Gun for Hire’.New York Times review:“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.”-- Bosley Crowther (May 14, 1942)For a time in the 1940s, Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake were Paramount’s answer to Warner Brothers’ Bogart and Bacall.Veronica Lake was cast as Alan Ladd’s co-star for a practical reason:Veronica Lake was 4’ 11” tall.Alan Ladd was 5' 6¼" tall (according to the IMDB - Internet Movie Data Base).Paramount groomed Ladd for stardom, fine-tuning the characters he was assigned.In each successive film, Alan Ladd’s character became less menacing and more sympathetic:-- in ‘This Gun for Hire’ (1942) he’s a cold-blooded killer (but gets audience sympathy when double-crossed by his boss who is even more despicable).-- in ‘The Glass Key’ (1942) he’s the right-hand man of an unscrupulous but likeable politician.-- in ‘The Blue Dahlia’ (1946) he’s a war hero who is framed for a crime he did not commit.Three film noir classics.But ‘Saigon’ (1948) was a flop.I’ve never seen ‘Saigon’, so I can’t comment. Nice poster though.Paramount (unfairly?) blamed Veronica Lake for the film’s box office failure and dropped her contract.‘This Gun for Hire’ was issued on DVD in 2004 by Universal Home Video with no bonus features.The new Blu-ray from Shout has:-- 4K scan of the original film elements – really beautiful black and white picture.-- Audio Commentary with film historians Alan K. Rode and Steve Mitchell-- Theatrical Trailer-- Still Gallery-- English SDH subtitles