Hollywood has a cute trick for booming a rising young star in his first picture. The credits for the film begin by listing all the established stars, and then add at the end the by-now hallowed phrase, "and introducing Abuer Yokum." It was used when Deanna Durbin, Veronica Lake, and John Garfield were "introduced" to cinema audiences. If there's any good luck charm attached to tacking a new star's name on at the end, instead of at the beginning of his starting venture, it has proved its validity in Paramount's "introduction" of Alan Ladd in "This Gun For Hire."

Ladd doesn't really "steal" the show, as newcomers often do. That would be somewhat difficult, since he is the whole show himself. Appearing in nearly every scene, and dominating every other character in the story, Ladd neatly pulls a weak and often aimless story up by his own bootstraps into the realm of first-rate escapist filmfare. As Raven, the grim and psychopathic gunman who doesn't even bother to blink when he polishes off his daily quota of victims, he glides easily through a part that in other hands might well have degenerated into another "boy-from-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks" role.

No picture is complete today without its ring of sinister saboteurs, and "This Gun For Hire" has its share of them, headed by hulking Laird Cregar, who again manages to turn in an effective characterization of a refreshingly unstereotyped villain. There's a love interest, too, with Preston Foster and Veronica Lake as the involved parties. Ladd doesn't win the girl-he doesn't even try-but he does win a whopping head-start as Hollywood's best discovery in years.