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This Gun For Hire
''This Gun for Hire'' is a 1942 American film noir crime film directed by Frank Tuttle and starring Veronica Lake, Robert Preston (actor), Robert Preston, Laird Cregar, and Alan Ladd. It is based on the 1936 novel ''A Gun for Sale'' by Graham Greene (published in America with the same title as the film). Plot In contemporary wartime San Francisco, chemist and extortion, blackmailer Albert Baker is killed by hitman Philip Raven, who recovers a stolen chemical formula. Raven is double-crossed by his employer, Willard Gates, who pays him with marked bills and reports them to the Los Angeles Police Department as stolen from his company, Nitro Chemical Corporation of Los Angeles. Raven learns of the setup and decides to get revenge. Police Detective Lieutenant Michael Crane, who is vacationing in San Francisco to visit his girlfriend, nightclub singer and Magic (illusion), stage magician Ellen Graham, is immediately assigned the case. He goes after Raven, but the assassin eludes him. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Tuttle
Frank Wright Tuttle (August 6, 1892 – January 6, 1963) was a Hollywood film director and writer who directed films from 1922 (''The Cradle Buster'') to 1959 ('' Island of Lost Women''). Biography Frank Tuttle was educated at Yale University, where he edited campus humor magazine '' The Yale Record''."Frank Wright Tuttle". ''The twelfth general catalogue of the Psi Upsilon Fraternity''. New York: Psi Upsilon. May 1917. p. 203. After graduation, he worked in New York City in the advertising department of the Metropolitan Music Bureau. He later moved to Hollywood, where he became a film director for Paramount. His films are largely in the comedy and film noir genres. In 1947, his career ground to a temporary halt with the onset of the first of the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings on Communist infiltration of the movie industry. Tuttle had joined the American Communist Party in 1937 in reaction to Hitler's rise to power. Unable to find work in the United Stat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Extortion
Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, although making unfounded threats in order to obtain an unfair business advantage is also a form of extortion. Extortion is sometimes called the " protection racket" because the racketeers often phrase their demands as payment for "protection" from (real or hypothetical) threats from unspecified other parties; though often, and almost always, such "protection" is simply abstinence of harm from the same party, and such is implied in the "protection" offer. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime. In some jurisdictions, actually obtaining the benefit is not required to commit the offense, and making a threat of violence which refers to a requirement of a payment of money or property to halt future violence is sufficient to co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gas Attack
Chemical warfare (CW) involves using the toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons. This type of warfare is distinct from nuclear warfare, biological warfare and radiological warfare, which together make up CBRN, the military acronym for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (warfare or weapons), all of which are considered "weapons of mass destruction" (WMDs), a term that contrasts with conventional weapons. The use of chemical weapons is prohibited under customary international humanitarian law. Definition Chemical warfare is different from the use of conventional weapons or nuclear weapons because the destructive effects of chemical weapons are not primarily due to any explosive force. The offensive use of living organisms (such as anthrax) is considered biological warfare rather than chemical warfare; however, the use of nonliving toxic products produced by living organisms (e.g. toxins such as botulinum toxin, ricin, and saxitoxin) ''is'' considered ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dragnet (policing)
A dragnet is any system of coordinated measures for apprehending criminals or suspects; including road barricades and traffic stops, widespread DNA tests, and general increased police alertness. The term derives from a fishing technique of dragging a fishing net across the sea bottom, or through a promising area of open water. It is also an aspect of trench warfare. Meaning that prolonged engagements like those during WW1 could produce a battlefield that looks and interlocks with situations that are virtually indistinguishable from dragnets set up by regular police. While a dragnet can refer to any kind of focused police presence, the traditional definition involves defining an area (such as a building or a city block) and/or category (such as those of a specific ethnic group within an area) and conducting at least a brief investigation of each person within. Thus, if a criminal is traced to a specific location, everyone in that location might be searched for incriminating evide ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Imperial Japan
The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent formation of modern Japan. It encompassed the Japanese archipelago and several colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories. Under the slogans of and following the Boshin War and restoration of power to the Emperor from the Shogun, Japan underwent a period of industrialization and militarization, the Meiji Restoration, which is often regarded as the fastest modernisation of any country to date. All of these aspects contributed to Japan's emergence as a great power and the establishment of a colonial empire following the First Sino-Japanese War, the Boxer Rebellion, the Russo-Japanese War, and World War I. Economic and political turmoil in the 1920s, including the Great Depression, led to the rise of militarism, nationalism and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reform School
A reform school was a penal institution, generally for teenagers mainly operating between 1830 and 1900. In the United Kingdom and its colonies reformatories commonly called reform schools were set up from 1854 onwards for youngsters who were convicted of a crime as an alternative to an adult prison. In parallel, " Industrial schools" were set up for vagrants and children needing protection. Both were 'certified' by the government from 1857, and in 1932 the systems merged and both were 'approved' and became approved schools. Both in the United Kingdom and United States, they came out of social concerns about cities, poverty, immigration, and vagrancy following industrialization, as well as from a shift in society's attitude from retribution, punishing the miscreant to reforming. They were distinct from borstals (1902-1982 UK), which were enclosed juvenile prisons. History Social reformers in America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries almost invariably found faul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Child Abuse
Child abuse (also called child endangerment or child maltreatment) is physical, sexual, and/or psychological maltreatment or neglect of a child or children, especially by a parent or a caregiver. Child abuse may include any act or failure to act by a parent or a caregiver that results in actual or potential harm to a child and can occur in a child's home, or in the organizations, schools, or communities the child interacts with. The terms ''child abuse'' and ''child maltreatment'' are often used interchangeably, although some researchers make a distinction between them, treating ''child maltreatment'' as an umbrella term to cover neglect, exploitation, and trafficking. Different jurisdictions have different requirements for mandatory reporting and have developed different definitions of what constitutes child abuse, and therefore have different criteria to remove children from their families or to prosecute a criminal charge. History As late as the 19th century, cruelty t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hansel And Gretel
"Hansel and Gretel" (; german: Hänsel und Gretel ) is a German fairy tale collected by the German Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 in ''Grimm's Fairy Tales'' (KHM 15). It is also known as Little Step Brother and Little Step Sister. Hansel and Gretel are a brother and sister abandoned in a forest, where they fall into the hands of a witch who lives in a house made of gingerbread, cake, and candy. The cannibalistic witch intends to fatten Hansel before eventually eating him, but Gretel pushes the witch into her own oven and kills her. The two children then escape with their lives and return home with the witch's treasure. "Hansel and Gretel" is a tale of Aarne–Thompson–Uther type 327A. It also includes an episode of type 1121 ('Burning the Witch in Her Own Oven'). The story is set in medieval Germany. The tale has been adapted to various media, most notably the opera (1893) by Engelbert Humperdinck. Origin Sources Although Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm credited "vario ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hollywood, Los Angeles
Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Columbia Pictures, Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., and Universal Pictures, are located near or in Hollywood. Hollywood was incorporated as a municipality in 1903. It was consolidated with the city of Los Angeles in 1910. Soon thereafter a prominent film industry emerged, having developed first on the East Coast. Eventually it became the most recognizable in the world. History Initial development H.J. Whitley, a real estate developer, arranged to buy the E.C. Hurd ranch. They agreed on a price and shook hands on the deal. Whitley shared his plans for the new town with General Harrison Gray Otis, publisher of the ''Los Angeles Times'', and Ivar Weid, a prominent businessman in the area. Daeida Wilcox, who donated land to hel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magic (illusion)
Magic, which encompasses the subgenres of illusion, stage magic, and close up magic, among others, is a performing art in which audiences are entertained by tricks, effects, or illusions of seemingly impossible feats, using natural means. It is to be distinguished from paranormal magic which are effects claimed to be created through supernatural means. It is one of the oldest performing arts in the world. Modern entertainment magic, as pioneered by 19th-century magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, has become a popular theatrical art form. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, magicians such as Maskelyne and Devant, Howard Thurston, Harry Kellar, and Harry Houdini achieved widespread commercial success during what has become known as "the Golden Age of Magic." During this period, performance magic became a staple of Broadway theatre, vaudeville, and music halls. Magic retained its popularity in the television age, with magicians such as Paul Daniels, David ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world's most populous megacities. Los Angeles is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Southern California. With a population of roughly 3.9 million residents within the city limits , Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic and cultural diversity, being the home of the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, and its Greater Los Angeles, sprawling metropolitan area. The city of Los Angeles lies in Los Angeles Basin, a basin in Southern California adjacent to the Pacific Ocean in the west and extending through the Santa Monica Mountains and north into the San Fernando Valley, with the city bordering the San Gabri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-largest municipal police department in the United States, after the New York City Police Department and the Chicago Police Department. The LAPD has its headquarters at 100 W. 1st St., in the Civic Center district, not far from the demolished Parker Center it replaced in 2009. The organization of the department is complex, including 21 divisions (stations) grouped in four bureaus in the Office of Operations; multiple divisions within the Detective Bureau in the Office of Special Operations; and specialized units such as SWAT, K-9, mounted police, air support and the Major Crimes Division all within the Counterterrorism and Special Operations Bureau. Further offices support the chief of police in areas such as constitutional policing and profe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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