Even Alan Ladd’s biggest fans wouldn’t claim he was a great screen actor – great star, maybe – but he was a great radio actor. Fantastic voice, with menace and culture, and he is of course perfect reprising his part as Raven. It helps that Laird Cregar returns too as a villain - the squeamish Gates, who is evil but can't handle violence, and seems to have a crush on Raven. Cregar is superb.The wisecracking Joan Blondell is fun and gives a decent enough performance but she just isn't Veronica Lake.
It’s a decent story, where the best thing about it is Ladd and Cregar – there is probably too much action for radio. The story has been tweaked so that it focuses very heavily on Ladd/Raven with Blondell and Cregar prominent - the part of Blondell's cop boyfriend, played by Robert Preston in the film, is almost entirely sidelined.
At the end of this de Mille announces that Ladd was about to enter the army as a private – that didn’t last long! He doesn't sound very enthusiastic about it.
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