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Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Preston may get top-billing, but it's clearly Ladd's picture. It's Raven's (Ladd) twisty redemption from bad guy to almost good that dominates both the screenplay and the screen. Actually, most any handsome man could have played Preston's conventional cop. My guess is Paramount used his billing to buttress the then unknown Ladd. For sure, pairing Ladd with Lake was a touch of casting genius. Not only are their diminutive blond looks in sync but their styles also jibe. Thus, Raven's emotionless demeanor's a perfect fit for the famously self-doubting actor. Still, both here and in later career, Ladd's distant presence spoke much more than his acting.Five-years later and the movie would have been full-blown noir. Here, the screenplay has to blend in what appears a last minute patriotic theme. Likely the 1942 script had to make a quick adjustment to 1941's Pearl Harbor, thereby removing noir's background ambiguities. There's one really unexpected event that singles out the movie in my book, at least. It's shockingly abrupt and outside the norms of of even noir protagonists . My favorite parts are the chase scenes through LA's industrial sites, which are occasionally nightmarish, despite Tuttle's generally uninspired direction. Likely, he was hampered by an awkward script, which may be a key reason the narrative fails to build overall tension despite the many promising ingredients. Those include a deliciously effete Laird Cregar whose character is probably too flighty to furnish needed bad guy menace. At the same time, tough guy Marc Lawrence is largely wasted in a semi-comical role. Also, don't look for Lake's trademark forelock, though her natural appeal shines through anyway.Overall, the drama's a precursor of post-war noir with a cast the has proved more memorable than the movie itself.

Philip Raven (Alan Ladd) is a harden killer hired by Gates to kill Baker who was a blackmailer. Raven recovers a chemical formula for Gates but he is double-crossed when he is paid with marked bills that have been reported to the police. LAPD detective Michael Crane (Robert Preston) has traveled to San Francisco to track down the bills for Gates and his boss Brewster who runs Nitro Chemical. Meanwhile Crane's girlfriend Ellen Graham (Veronica Lake) is a magician/singer who auditions for Gates's nightclub. She is approached by Senator Burnett who tells her about a plot to sell a deadly toxic gas formula to Japan. He asks her to spy on Gates and his boss after getting the nightclub job in LA. By coincidence, Ellen Graham happens to sit right next to Raven as he travels by train to LA to track down Gates and find out who is behind his double-cross.I love some of the hardboiled dialog. Overall, it's a compelling fun thriller noir. I love Veronica Lake although she has an unusual job as a magician in this movie. Maybe it's in the Graham Greene's novel, but they should have just changed her into a simple singer. Also the story has a few too many coincidences. The gas masks in the last act are a bit too much. Alan Ladd is a little too babyfaced to be that hard character. Even with all of these minor problems, the overall sense is one of thrills and spills.

Alan Ladd stars as Philip Raven, who was hired by Willard Gates(played by Laird Cregar) to pay off two blackmailers. When they try to pull a fast one, Raven kills them both, which is just fine with Gates, except he double-crosses Raven by paying him with hot money. Now wanted by the police, he goes after Gates. Meanwhile, Gates is also wanted by the government, who enlist the aid of Nightclub singer/magician Ellen Graham(played by the sultry Veronica Lake) to ingratiate herself with Gates(who owns nightclubs) in order to gather evidence against him. She agrees, but cannot tell her fiancée, a police detective named Michael Crane(played by Robert Preston) who is after Raven, who manages to meet up with Ellen on a train, where they team up to not only take down Gates, but his traitorous employer Alvin Brewster(played by Tully Marshall).Involved story is still most entertaining and enjoyable, with a fine cast and efficient direction by Frank Tuttle. A Good old-fashioned patriotic film not made anymore, though as a cat lover, Raven isn't so bad at all!(He does redeem himself, and no cornball romance with Ellen either!)

By coincidence, the cop's girl gets involved with the mad-dog killer that he is pursuing. Alan Ladd is the killer, and by film's end you're given the liberal line about his poor upbringing and brutality that led to his life like this. Let's not forget that he gunned down a man and the woman who witnessed the murder in cold, ruthless blood. Stop the sympathy angle already.The fact that espionage is part of the story could have been made more interesting, but the writers chose that merely as a by-line. Too bad. Ladd is appealing, but the script basically isn't. How come Lake didn't have her hair covering her one-eye? She was known for that?