1942. This Gun for Hire is popular with audiences and critics alike. Norbert Lusk, writing in the May 25, 1942 edition of The Los Angeles Times is a fan: “To say the film is a success is an understatement.” Bosley Crowther, in his review published in in the May 14, 1942 edition of The New York Times describes the movie as:
Melodrama, straight and vicious – that’s what this picture is. But it is a good cut above the average, both in its writing and its tensile quality. Frank Tuttle, the director, has paced it with morbid prowling and headlong bursts, and has kept his actors within fairly reasonable bounds. Miss Lake is a competent customer, and handles her men with cool disdain.