This Gun for Hire

This Gun for Hire is a 1942 film noir, directed by Frank Tuttle and based on the 1936 novel published in America with the same title, and in Britain with the title A Gun for Sale by Graham Greene. The film stars Veronica Lake, Robert Preston, Laird Cregar, and Alan Ladd. The movie made a star of Alan Ladd.

Meanwhile, Gates hires Ellen to work in his LA nightclub. She is taken to a clandestine meeting with Senator Burnett Roger Imhof, where she learns that Gates and Nitro Chemical are under investigation as suspected traitors, and is recruited to spy on Gates. She and Gates board a train for Los Angeles, followed by Raven. By chance, Raven and Ellen sit next to each other. The next morning, Gates is alarmed when he sees them asleep with Ravens head on her shoulder. He wires ahead to alert the police, but Raven forces Ellen at gunpoint to help him elude them again. He is about to kill her but is interrupted by workmen, allowing Ellen to flee. She tries to contact Crane, but he has left San Francisco to return to LA.That evening the suspicious Gates invites Ellen to his Hollywood mansion, where his chauffeur Tommy Marc Lawrence knocks her unconscious to set up a fake suicide. Crane goes to the mansion looking for Ellen but Gates has already left. While Crane questions Tommy, Raven arrives and hides outside, where he sees Tommy discard Ellens purse, to keep Crane from spotting it. Raven realizes that Ellen is in danger. After Crane leaves, Raven knocks Tommy down a flight of stairs when the chauffeur denies Ellen is still there. Raven searches the house and rescues her. Tommy recovers and warns Gates at his club, where Crane has caught up with him. Raven and Ellen are confronted as they enter the club, so Raven takes her hostage as he flees. She surreptitiously drops monogrammed playing cards as a trail of breadcrumbs. The police corner them in a railroad yard but wait for daylight to move in. ........

Source: Wikipedia