Wordiezett So much average

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Cem Lamb This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

bkoganbing Robert Ivers and Georgeann Johnson never quite had the careers that were predicted for them in the introduction to this film by their director. But both give a reasonably competent road show adaption of the Paramount classic This Gun For Hire. Short Cut To Hell also stars William Bishop in the role of the San Francisco cop played originally by Robert Preston who is on the trail to Los Angeles looking for a killer.The whole wartime angle in This Gun For Hire is dropped for this 1957 film. Instead it's a contract killing of civil servant Peter Baldwin who is about to expose some shady dealings in building contracting. But as in the original he's paid off in hot money from a faked robbery with serial numbers duly recorded and reported to the police.For the most part the film follows the plot of This Gun For Hire even using a lot of the same lines. Jacques Aubuchon plays the Laird Cregar part of the fixer and he has the same aversion against seeing any of the violence he pays for.A.C. Lyles who later became famous for producing all those B westerns with past their prime players produced this film and got none other than James Cagney to direct it in his only credit in that department. Cagney never went behind the camera again.But I doubt even with the original cast of This Gun For Hire that he could have improved on what Frank Tuttle did in 1942.

filmalamosa Story about an antisocial hired killer who goes after an employer who double crosses him. While tracking down the men who hired him he gets involved with the female lead a night club singer on her way to Los Angeles. In the end revenge is extracted.It is fast paced and keeps your interest especially the first hour. When the action moves to LA it starts to bog down a bit and get a little squirrelly. There is a long scene in an air raid shelter of some huge giant factory that is completely implausible...dozens of police scour the plant for hours but overlook an obvious staircase to the airraid shelter??Still it is worth a watch I give it a 6.The other reviews are by people much more knowledgeable about the actors and period than I...am reviewing it as a naive uninformed viewer.RECOMMEND

T Y Jimmy Cagney directs a movie! ...and proves that he should stay in front of the camera. Here he remakes the respected though troubled hybrid (half noir, half thirties) This Gun for Hire. Why would he do that? Beats me. The cast is second-rate, and it looks like Cagney didn't have the patience for any complicated set-up. The anti-hero and his quarry mount a ladder in one shot and in the next shot, they've exchanged positions. How do you do that on a ladder? Lazy. Cagney settles for very lousy takes, and he hasn't any interest in logic. The bad guy lets his girl don his hat and jacket, and act as a decoy; to be shot at by police. Yeah, that's a great ruse.The female lead is some doughy-faced nobody who would captivate no one. You've seen better acting at your local high school. There might be one good shot in the whole movie. A gratuitous intro by Cagney is tacked on to persuade you you're seeing something of merit. But it's a B picture from start to finish.

dbdumonteil Robert Ivers ,mainly in the first part ,gives an impressive performance:impassive ,deadpan,cold as ice ,he will make you shiver with his robotic swagger.When he kills the secretary after her boss,the directing(and performance) seems years ahead of its time.Ditto for the scene in the restaurant where his "client" is savoring mint chocolates or later in the train where he meets the chanteuse.The problem lies in this singer's character:the courageous young girl,who feels for the unfortunate killer who's got a raw deal,whose drunkard of a father treated him so bad he could be nothing but an outlaw etc etc etc.After an offbeat and intriguing first part,the movie turns predictable and the "moving" ending is business as usual.