desperate journey 1942 movie

Desperate Journey

• Photos & Videos

Film Details

• Articles & Reviews

Brief Synopsis

Cast & crew, raoul walsh, errol flynn, ronald reagan, nancy coleman, raymond massey, photos & videos, technical specs.

A unit of the British Royal Air Force is assigned to bomb a German railway. Although they are ordered to fly at a high altitude, their bomber is spotted by the Germans, who attack them from both air and land. After the squadron leader is shot, Flight Lt. Terrence Forbes takes charge and rashly flies the plane beneath the cloud cover, causing the plane to be shot down. The plane crashes in the woods and the survivors--Forbes, an Australian; Flying Officer Johnny Hammond, an American; Flight Sergeant Kirk Edwards, a Scot; Flying Officer Jed Forrest, a Canadian; and Flight Sergeant Lloyd Hollis, the wounded son of a famous World War I flyer--hide hurriedly. The plane explodes in flames, and the Germans assume that everyone perished in the crash until a German soldier spots blood from one of the wounded flyers. After they are captured, the flyers are sent to a prison camp, where camp commander Major Otto Baumeister interviews them. Johnny pretends to cooperate, but at the first opportunity, knocks the major unconscious. Terry, who speaks German, then tricks the other soldiers inside. Once they have subdued the Germans, the men search the office and find papers relating to a hidden Messerschmidt factory. They then begin their dangerous trip across enemy territory. Believing that his wounds imperil the group, Lloyd decides to give himself up to the Germans, but the other men stop him before he gets very far. They then overpower enough German soldiers to provide them all with Nazi uniforms and board a train. When Baumeister learns of the attack, he flies to meet the train in Berlin, but as the men had earlier been discovered and ejected from the train, Baumeister fails to capture them. While searching for provisions, Terry learns that they are near an important chemical plant and suggests that the men sabotage it. Jed tries to stop them, but the men override his objections and successfully destroy the plant. Lloyd is wounded again and Terry searches for a doctor. With the help of Kaethe Brahms, a member of the underground, he finds one who is anti-Nazi, but Lloyd's agonized moans are overheard by one of the doctor's patients, and she summons the Gestapo. The men overpower the police, but despite the doctor's best efforts, Lloyd dies. Kaethe sends them to her parents' house near the Dutch border. When they arrive, they are warmly welcomed by the Brahmses, but Kaethe later reveals that they are impostors and that her real parents are in a concentration camp. Kirk is killed during their escape over the roof, and the others steal Baumeister's car and drive to the border, where Kaethe leaves the men to carry on in Germany. Across the border, the men run out of gas and follow a passing gasoline carrier, which leads them to a camouflaged airplane. It turns out to be a captured English bomber destined for a surprise attack on the Battersea waterworks in England. As the three remaining flyers board the plane, Jed is shot, leaving Terry and Johnny to fly the plane to England. There they learn that Jed will recover from his wounds.

Arthur Kennedy

Ronald Sinclair

Albert Basserman

Patrick O'moore

Felix basch, ilka gruning, else basserman.

Charles Irwin

Richard fraser, davis roberts, henry victor, bruce lester, lester matthews, walter brooke, harry lewis, don phillips, hans schumm, robert stephenson, william yetter, gene garrick, dewolfe hopper.

Douglas Walton

Harold daniels, carl harbaugh, rudolf steinbeck, philip van zandt, hans twardowski, rolf lindau, henry rowland, walter bonn, ferdinand schumann-heink, otto reichow, rex williams, sigfried tor, frank alten, lester sharpe, charles flynn, william vaughn, ludwig hardt, elsa basserman, victor zimmerman, rudolf myzet, richard ryen, fred vogeding, hans von morhart, carl ekberg, fred giermann, erno verebes, john banner, james harker, roland varno, peter michael.

Helmut Dantine

Leslie denison, pat o'hara, barry bernard, milo anderson, squadron leader o. cathcart-jones, edwin a. dupar, leo f. forbstein, hugo friedhofer, bert glennon, byron haskin, arthur t. horman, nathan levinson, hugh macmullan, c. a. riggs, russ saunders, max steiner, perc westmore, carl jules weyl.

Award Nominations

Best special effects.

Errol Flynn Adventures - OBJECTIVE, BURMA! & 4 More in the New ERROL FLYNN ADVENTURES DVD box set

Errol flynn adventures - objective, burma & 4 more in the new errol flynn adventures dvd box set, ronald reagan, 1911-2004 - tcm remembers ronald reagan.

"Now for Australia and a crack at those Japs!" - Flight Lieutenant Terrence Forbes

News items in Hollywood Reporter add the following information about the production: Some scenes were shot on location at Sherwood Lake, CA, the Warner Ranch in Calabasas, CA and Metropolitan Airport in Los Angeles. Nancy Coleman replaced Kaaren Verne in the role of "Kaethe Brahms." Byron Haskin and Nathan Levinson received an Oscar nomination for Best Special Effects.

Miscellaneous Notes

Released in United States 1942

Sign Up now to stay up to date with all of the latest news from TCM.

Your Browser is Not Supported

To view this content, please use one of the following compatible browsers:

Safari v11+

Firefox Quantum

Microsoft Edge

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

• Upcoming Movies and TV shows
• Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
• Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

• What's the Tomatometer®?
• Login/signup

Movies in theaters

• Opening this week
• Top box office
• Coming soon to theaters
• Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

• Fandango at Home
• Netflix streaming
• Prime Video
• Most popular streaming movies
• What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

• Hit Man Link to Hit Man
• Am I OK? Link to Am I OK?
• Jim Henson Idea Man Link to Jim Henson Idea Man

New TV Tonight

• Star Wars: The Acolyte: Season 1
• Ren Faire: Season 1
• Clipped: Season 1
• Queenie: Season 1
• Sweet Tooth: Season 3
• Mayor of Kingstown: Season 3
• Criminal Minds: Season 17
• Becoming Karl Lagerfeld: Season 1
• Power Book II: Ghost: Season 4
• Erased: WW2's Heroes of Color: Season 1

Most Popular TV on RT

• Eric: Season 1
• Dark Matter: Season 1
• Tires: Season 1
• Evil: Season 4
• Star Wars: Ahsoka: Season 1
• Trying: Season 4
• Best TV Shows
• Most Popular TV
• TV & Streaming News

Certified fresh pick

• Star Wars: The Acolyte: Season 1 Link to Star Wars: The Acolyte: Season 1
• All-Time Lists
• Binge Guide
• Comics on TV
• Five Favorite Films
• Video Interviews
• Weekend Box Office
• Weekly Ketchup
• What to Watch

All 73 Disney Animated Movies Ranked

Star Wars TV Shows Ranked by Tomatometer

What to Watch: In Theaters and On Streaming

6 TV and Streaming Shows You Should Binge-Watch in June 2024

The Acolyte First Reviews: A Familiar but New Vision of Star Wars , Packed with Stunning Action

• Trending on RT
• The Acolyte First Reviews
• Vote: 1999 Movie Showdown
• The Watchers

Desperate Journey

Critics reviews, audience reviews, cast & crew.

Raoul Walsh

Errol Flynn

Flight Lt. Terrence "Terry" Forbes

Ronald Reagan

Flying Officer Johnny Hammond

Raymond Massey

Major Otto Baumeister

Nancy Coleman

Kaethe Brahms

Flight Sergeant Kirk Edwards

More Like This

Letterboxd — Your life in film

Forgotten username or password ?

• Start a new list…
• Add all films to a list…
• Add all films to watchlist

Add to your films…

Press Tab to complete, Enter to create

A moderator has locked this field.

Add to lists

Where to watch

Desperate journey.

Directed by Raoul Walsh

Man alive, Just picture this excitement!

During WWII, when an allied bomber is shot down over Germany, the five surviving crew are captured but cleverly escape detention after learning German secret information and knocking out a Nazi major. With the angry major in hot pursuit, aided by military personnel, Gestapo agents and Hitler-loyal citizens, the five wend their way across perilous Germany, intent on reaching the UK with the secrets they have learned.

Errol Flynn Ronald Reagan Arthur Kennedy Alan Hale Ronald Sinclair Raymond Massey Rudolph Anders Nancy Coleman Albert Bassermann Sig Ruman Patrick O'Moore Ilka Grüning Elsa Bassermann Charles Irwin Richard Fraser Henry Victor Walter Brooke Kurt Katch Harry Lewis Otto Reichow

Director Director

Raoul Walsh

Producer Producer

Hal B. Wallis

Writer Writer

Arthur T. Horman

Editor Editor

Cinematography cinematography.

Bert Glennon

Composer Composer

Max Steiner

Costume Design Costume Design

Milo Anderson

Warner Bros. Pictures

Primary Language

Spoken languages.

German English

Releases by Date

21 sep 1942, 25 sep 1942, 26 sep 1942, 29 may 1945, releases by country.

• Theatrical M/12
• Premiere Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
• Premiere New York City, New York
• Theatrical NR

107 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by comrade_yui ★★★ 4

it's so bizarre to watch a young ronald reagan and realize that he was at one point considered a serious movie star. the arch-deco absurdism of the warners war film becomes national policy in the white house -- every american president after nixon has been either a performer or a tycoon, reality receding into the studio backlot. reagan went from fighting fictional nazis in the 1940s to placing floral wreathes on their real graves in the 1980s; i doubt he ever stopped acting.

Review by 📀 Cammmalot 📀 ★★★½

”The iron fist has a glass jaw”

When an allied bomber is shot down over Germany the surviving crew, including Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan, start rampaging their way through occupied Europe trying to get back home while still taking the time to give the Nazi’s all kinds of hell along the way.

Leave it to Raoul Walsh to create a World War II film right in the midst of World War II that somehow manages to have all the energy and attitude of an 80’s action movie.

Viewer results may vary, but this was so tonally different than every other movie I’ve seen from this era that it totally sucked me in. And I was completely fascinated by the…

Review by AJ ★★★½

A non-stop men behind enemy lines film from the exact classic director you want helming this kind of picture: Raoul Walsh. Extremely solid core cast of Errol Flynn, Ronald Reagan, Alan Hale, Arthur Kennedy with Raymond Massey as the obsessed Nazi commander chasing them.

The tone is all over the place, feels more like a "the zany adventures of Errol Flynn behind enemy lines! watch as he kills and fools Nazis who may as well not have brains!" Maybe zany is a little too extreme, but it's very lighthearted in parts and plays for laughs in a lot of situations. As long as you can sync up with the strange tone and you like men on a mission films then it's a great time! Not a lost classic but definitely a hidden gem.

Review by mrbalihai ★★★★ 2

More Errol Flynn Adventure Time with this gung-ho, two-fisted WWII action film about a downed Allied bomber crew who fight their way out of Germany with guns, physical prowess, and sheer wit, to carry critical intelligence back to Blighty.

Raoul Walsh directs a not-yet totally debauched Flynn paired up with his evergreen onscreen pal, Alan Hale Sr., and young Ronnie Raygun. The pace never lets up for a second as they're chased across Hitlerland by an increasingly frustrated Nazi Major (Raymond Massey sporting an excellent command auf Deutsch ). Walsh intersperses witty dialogue, especially with the scene of Reagan bamboozling the Major with rapid-fire technobabble, and some humorous spitball action courtesy of Hale with the gritty action scenes, but never lets…

Review by Glenn Kenny ★★★★½

In a 1963 roundtable for "Cahiers," while reassessing AMerican cinema, Jacques Rivette observed "Generally speaking, it's the ambitious films you feel appallingly let down by, and the frankly commercial films you're very happily surprised by." Truffaut responds, "That's absolutely right. 'Desperate Jurney,' which was shown again on television, is tremendous." He's right.

Review by LeeJK54 ★★★★ 2

Really enjoyed this 1942 war film directed by Raoul Walsh with performances by Errol Flynn, Arthur Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and Alan Hale. Hale provides comedic relief, as a bomber crew goes on a solitary mission over Germany to knock out a strategic target. Misfortune ensues, and the team must find a way back home by crossing back through enemy territory. This film has everything, escapes, boat rides, train rides, car chases, intrigue, suspense, and action. Especially notable is Ronald Reagan double-talking a Nazi. The opening scene shows spy intelligence being shared via carrier pigeon, showing that every means was used to gather intelligence against the enemy. Fairly good pacing as the movie moves along in a spirited manner.

Review by Jandy Hardesty ★★★★

Me when I started up this movie: "Okay, fine, lesser-known probably middling Errol Flynn war movie, should be an okay diversion."

Me the whole time I was watching this movie: "THIS IS AWESOME WHY DOES NO ONE TALK ABOUT THIS MOVIE."

This movie has everything. Errol Flynn, Ronald Reagan, Alan Hale, Raymond Massey, Arthur Kennedy, and some others are on a one-bomber RAF mission to take out a railyard in eastern Germany, almost to the Polish border. They get shot down, and then have to make their across just about the whole of Germany (including the middle of Berlin) to get safely back to England, doing what damage they can along the way.

There's aerial battles, a plane crash, capture,…

Review by Patrick Delmore ★★

I preferred Reagan when he was punching Nazis in the movies to when he was President and putting wreaths on their graves.  My mom’s review ‘Ridiculous, and I don’t think they’re actually speaking German’.

Review by hellohildy ★★★★

A popcorn action-adventure war movie made early in the US entry into WWII.  Warners let Errol be Errol, playing a jovial, risk-taking Aussie, this time in uniform(s)!  He and his gang of flyers find themselves behind enemy lines, and make their way across Germany out-smarting those dumb Nazis. Much of it is far-fetched, but it’s good fun and ably directed by Raoul Walsh.

Review by RKO_Chester ★★★

Entertaining WW2 film made during WW2 to be entertaining .

In this rollicking adjective action adventure the crew of an Allied bomber shot down in National Socialist Germany gets into precarious situations one after another. Is it realistic? No, it isn't and it wasn't written to be. It does have its merits, though:

Nancy Coleman plays is serious and is captivating in several scenes. Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan have their moments, too, but tack back and forth between being serious soldiers and adventurers.

There's a fine, very unexpected, twist in the middle to the 2nd half of this. Allan Hale puts in a respectable performance, too.

Adding the period atmosphere of this movie, most of the Germans only speak German…

Review by Lowbacca ★★★

This does feel like a fairly standard WWII propaganda film, though making an anti-Nazi film does come with a bit of a deference to the filmmakers for being relatively heavy-handed as I'm not going to be bothered with the Nazis not getting treated 'fairly'. Though I do also think it's rather interesting that this movie has an in-film reason why there's Germans speaking English with one another, and using German extensively otherwise. It's decently convincing.

While the plot here doesn't strike me as particularly stand-out, and the same largely can be said for much of the films other elements, I do think the casting does help sell this a bit. I'm always a fan of Alan Hale, Errol Flynn puts…

Review by Adriana Scarpin ★★★★

Ôpa, esse é filmaço! Dá até para arriscar um palpite de que este trabalho é o pai de certos filmes cultuados dos anos 60, tais como Os Doze Condenados e Fugindo do Inferno, é mantido o mesmo clima, sobretudo o bom humor, mas o que o faz ainda melhor é um distanciamento temporal que poucos os filmes de guerra dos anos 40 possuíam e que o gênero só reconquistaria a partir dos anos 50. Também é a prova do porquê Walsh é o maior diretor de cinema de aventura desde os anos 20, a ação não deixa de nos empolgar um só minuto, a dinâmica dos atores é perfeita, as situações são engraçadíssimas e não há o ranço propagandista emotivo que se via usualmente nos filmes da época. Desperate Journey mostra também o quanto Spielberg foi influenciado pelo cinema de Walsh, mas este é um assunto para uma outra hora…

Similar Films

Select your preferred poster

Desperate Journey (1942)

Directed by raoul walsh.

• AllMovie Rating 6
• User Ratings ( 0 )
• Your Rating
• Overview ↓
• User Reviews ↓
• Cast & Crew ↓
• Awards ↓
• Related ↓

Description by Wikipedia

Desperate Journey is a 1942 American World War II action and aviation film starring Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan, directed by Raoul Walsh. The supporting cast includes Raymond Massey, Alan Hale, Sr., and Arthur Kennedy. The melodramatic film featured a group of downed Allied airmen making their way out of the Third Reich, often with their fists.

Alternate Titles

Desperate Journey (1942)

Stream & Watch Desperate Journey

Cast & Crew

Movie details, similar movies.

Movie Reviews

Follow Moviefone

Latest trailers.

We will keep fighting for all libraries - stand with us!

Internet Archive Audio

• This Just In
• Grateful Dead
• Old Time Radio
• 78 RPMs and Cylinder Recordings
• Audio Books & Poetry
• Computers, Technology and Science
• Music, Arts & Culture
• News & Public Affairs
• Spirituality & Religion
• Radio News Archive

• Flickr Commons
• Occupy Wall Street Flickr
• NASA Images
• Solar System Collection
• Ames Research Center

• All Software
• Old School Emulation
• MS-DOS Games
• Historical Software
• Classic PC Games
• Software Library
• Kodi Archive and Support File
• Vintage Software
• CD-ROM Software
• CD-ROM Software Library
• Software Sites
• Tucows Software Library
• Shareware CD-ROMs
• Software Capsules Compilation
• CD-ROM Images
• ZX Spectrum
• DOOM Level CD

• Smithsonian Libraries
• FEDLINK (US)
• Lincoln Collection
• American Libraries
• Canadian Libraries
• Universal Library
• Project Gutenberg
• Children's Library
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• Books by Language
• Additional Collections

• Prelinger Archives
• Democracy Now!
• Occupy Wall Street
• TV NSA Clip Library
• Animation & Cartoons
• Arts & Music
• Computers & Technology
• Cultural & Academic Films
• Ephemeral Films
• Sports Videos
• Videogame Videos
• Youth Media

Search the history of over 866 billion web pages on the Internet.

Mobile Apps

• Wayback Machine (iOS)
• Wayback Machine (Android)

Browser Extensions

Archive-it subscription.

• Explore the Collections
• Build Collections

Save Page Now

Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future.

Please enter a valid web address

• Donate Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape

Desperate Journey ( 1942) TV Rip

Video item preview, share or embed this item, flag this item for.

• Graphic Violence
• Explicit Sexual Content
• Hate Speech
• Misinformation/Disinformation
• Marketing/Phishing/Advertising
• Misleading/Inaccurate/Missing Metadata

plus-circle Add Review comment Reviews

2,050 Views

7 Favorites

DOWNLOAD OPTIONS

In collections.

Uploaded by kevincsirlepra22 on February 6, 2022

SIMILAR ITEMS (based on metadata)

Classic Movie Hub

• Biographies
• Facts By Person
• Facts By Film
• Astrological Signs
• Birth Locations
• Death Locations
• Knights & Dames
• Military Service
• National Film Registry
• Radio Hall of Fame
• TV Hall of Fame
• More Topics
• Hollywood Blvd.
• Film Festivals
• Movies & Screenings
• TCM/Fathom Events Movies
• Contests & Giveaways
• Create Your Profile
• Events Calendar
• Events: Add Event
• Lists: Create a List
• Lists: My Lists
• Offers and Promotions
• Rate Blog Posts
• Search Birthday Database
• TCM Schedule
• Browse Blog Posts
• Submit Blog
• Get a Badge!
• Top 100 All Time Movies
• Top 100 Movies by Genre
• Top 100 Movies by Decade
• Top Movies by Topic
• Birth Dates
• Death Dates

Featured Cast: See Full Cast

Errol flynn (as flight lt. terrence 't...), ronald reagan (as flying officer johnny ...), nancy coleman (as kaethe brahms), desperate journey overview:.

Desperate Journey (1942) was a Action - Adventure Film directed by Raoul Walsh and produced by Hal B. Wallis.

BlogHub Articles:

Desperate journey (1942).

Desperate Journey Directed by Raoul Walsh Written by Arthur T. Horman 1942/USA Warner Bros First viewing/Errol Flynn Adventures DVD What with the banter among the air crew and some incredibly?stupid Nazis, this journey was less desperate than entertaining. An RAF bomber crew led by Flight Lt. Terry ... Read full article

Quotes from

Facts about.

They Died with Their Boots On

The thief of bagdad, the adventures of robin hood, captain blood, now, voyager, the black swan, the pride of the yankees, von richthofen and brown, 633 squadron, a boy, a girl and a dog.

• Coming Soon Theaters • Online
• Advanced Search
• Collections Top 500
• Film Awards
• Recommendations Movies • TV Shows
• Search by Name
• Popular Top 500
• My TV Shows
• My Calendar
• Coming Soon Premieres

Movie's ratings

• IMDb 6.8 2592

Awards and Nominations

• Cast & Crew
• Technical Data

Desperate Journey

• Black and White

Related Movies There are no related titles yet, but you can add them:

Raoul walsh — top rated movies.

Add a short review

280 characters

Sign up and you will see here friends impressions of the movie.

Friends comments and ratings, movies by warner bros..

Trending movies

The best website for movie search and thoughts sharing with friends

• Browser extension

"We waste our money so you don't have to."

"We waste our money, so you don't have to."

Movie Review

Desperate journey.

US Release Date: 09-26-1942

Directed by: Raoul Walsh

Starring ▸ ▾

• Errol Flynn ,  as
• Flight Lt. Terrence Forbes
• Ronald Reagan ,  as
• Flying Officer Johnny Hammond
• Nancy Coleman ,  as
• Kaethe Brahms
• Raymond Massey ,  as
• Major Otto Baumeister
• Alan Hale ,  as
• Flight Sergeant Kirk Edwards
• Arthur Kennedy ,  as
• Flying Officer Jed Forrest
• Ronald Sinclair ,  as
• Flight Sergeant Lloyd Hollis
• Albert Bassermann ,  as
• Sig Ruman as

Alan Hale, Ronald Reagan, Errol Flynn, and Arthur Kennedy on a desperate journey.

Sometimes I find myself enjoying films with the simplest of plots. Scott can attest, that sometimes I get confused if there are too many characters and scene changes. I know that is not something a film critic should mention, but some movies can be too damn complicated.

Desperate Journey follows a bomber on a mission over Nazi Germany. It gets shot down after bombing their target. They get captured by the Nazi's, but in the process discover a hidden German aircraft factory. They escape and try to make their way back to England. Not only do they want to make it back to friendly territory, but they need to let the powers that be know of the secret factory.

On their journey across Germany, Lt. Forbes decides that he and his men should try to cause as much damage to German interests as possible. This sounds heroic, but it comes with a cost as his men start dying along the way. Like Tom Hanks' character ordering his men to take the German position they could have just as easily walked around in Saving Private Ryan (1998), Forbes makes decisions here that I am sure he would question the rest of his life.

Desperate Journey works as an action adventure film. The men steal vehicles and get into car chases. They run over roof tops being pursued by Nazis. They get shot at and never know who to trust. This all makes for a fairly exciting film. Alan Hale provides some levity along the way. He is good for a couple of laughs, but his antics of spitting seeds at everyone, including Nazi guards, threaten to erase the tension.

The story line rarely leaves the men on their escape. This keeps the movie focused, and the plot driven. The men are a smorgasbord of nationalities. There is a Brit, an Aussie, a Yank and a Canadian in the flight crew. I do not believe there were actually too many international crews, but for the sake of the viewing audience of 1942, it demonstrated international solidarity against Nazi oppression.

Errol Flynn, Ronald Reagan, Alan Hale and Ronald Sinclair hitch a ride in Goring's personal train car in Desperate Journey .

An overly complicated plot is certainly not a problem for this movie. A child could follow this old fashioned Boy's Own adventure story. It's a straightforward rousing action tale that remains almost as entertaining today as it must have been to audiences of the day.

The story plays out like a fantasy. This small group of international allies are dropped behind enemy lines where they wreak havoc with impunity, outwitting the dimwitted Nazis at every turn. Yes, some of the good guys die, but they're all clean and noble deaths with the men gladly sacrificing their lives for the cause. This small group of commandos are so effective that it's a wonder they don't single-handedly win the war all on their own.

Flynn, as usual, is terrific as the charming, rogue adventurer. The term dashing should have a picture of his face next to the definition in the dictionary. His light hearted bantering is even more impressive when you learn that during filming he was diagnosed with Tuberculosis. Flynn, worried about taking unpaid time off to recover, chose to conceal his condition from the studio.

Although Flynn and Reagan share a nice chemistry on the screen, reportedly there was some friction behind the scenes when Reagan was given the scene where he lulled Massey's Nazi into a false sense of security with some rapid-fire double talk before slugging him unconscious. Flynn is said to have sulked and lobbied to be given the scene, but to no avail.

Reagan received his real life call-up papers during filming and while the studio lobbied for him to be given a 30-day extension, the Air Force was only willing to offer him an extra week, forcing director Walsh to shoot Reagan's scenes first. This film marked the highlight of Reagan's career as his post-war career, in Hollywood at least, would never again burn as bright.

Something that does stand out about this film is the way that not all Germans are portrayed as evil. Very often in war movies of the day, everything is kept very much in terms of black and white, good vs evil. Here though, there are several Germans shown to be fighting against the Nazis and willing to help Flynn and company along on their journey.

A Desperate Journey is a rip roaring adventure story. It might not be very realistic, but it is entertaining.

Errol Flynn, Alan Hale, and Ronald Reagan in Desperate Journey .

Desperate Journey is such a product of its time. Take the last scene, which is pure propaganda. As the surviving heroes fly into the setting sun over England, Flynn says, “Now for Australia and a crack at those Japs!” You have to admire the spirit behind this movie. It was 1942 and the outcome of the war was far from certain but America, and Hollywood, were confident enough to make this picture. There isn't a cowardly moment in it.

Sure the action is unrealistic, and old fashioned in style, but in the experienced hands of director Raoul Walsh this remains gripping entertainment. The comic book ease with which these downed Allied soldiers outwit, out maneuver, and out fight the Nazis borders on self parody. Just check logic at the door and go with it and you're certain to enjoy this exciting WWII adventure yarn.

It wastes no time on unnecessary exposition or periphery characters. As Eric said, the focus never strays from Flynn and Company as they do damage behind enemy lines. The formula becomes clear early in the picture. They are forever hiding just in the nick of time to elude capture only to overpower the enemy and steal their uniforms. This setup is repeated several times in various forms until the riveting climactic battle where they steal the plane intended to bomb London.

Not only are there different nationalities represented but it also includes two of the most common war movie character cliches; the grizzled old veteran (Hale) who fought in the last war, and the young rookie (Sinclair) who's the son of a war hero. Flynn is the impossibly heroic leader, Reagan the wisecracking Yank, and Arthur Kennedy the serious, levelheaded one, against taking unnecessary chances. Together this band of soldiers form a classic war picture trope.

Ronald Reagan really shines as the lone American in the outfit. His doubletalk scene with Raymond Massey (boy he made a great villain) is his best moment. There is also an inside joke that audiences of the day would have found amusing. After being awakened, he complains, “Why do you have to wake me up every time I got a date with Ann Sheridan?” Reagan had played opposite Sheridan three times, including in his two previous pictures.

It's been said before many times but it's worth repeating in regards to Desperate Journey ; they sure don't make movies like this anymore!

Photos © Copyright Warner Bros. Pictures (1942)

© 2000 - 2017 Three Movie Buffs. All Rights Reserved.

• Movies & TV
• Featured Categories

Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime Try Prime and start saving today with fast, free delivery

Amazon Prime includes:

Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.

• Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
• Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
• Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
• A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
• Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
• Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access

Important:  Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.

Buy new: #buybox .a-accordion .a-accordion-active .a-price[data-a-size=l].reinventPriceAccordionT2 .a-price-whole { font-size: 28px !important; } #buybox .a-accordion .a-accordion-active .a-price[data-a-size=l].reinventPriceAccordionT2 .a-price-fraction, #buybox .a-accordion .a-accordion-active .a-price[data-a-size=l].reinventPriceAccordionT2 .a-price-symbol { top: -0.75em; font-size: 13px; } $14.99 $ 14 . 99 FREE delivery Wednesday, June 12 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35 Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com

Return this item for free.

Free returns are available for the shipping address you chose. You can return the item for any reason in new and unused condition: no shipping charges

• Go to your orders and start the return
• Select your preferred free shipping option
• Drop off and leave!

Save with Used - Good #buybox .a-accordion .a-accordion-active .a-price[data-a-size=l].reinventPriceAccordionT2 .a-price-whole { font-size: 28px !important; } #buybox .a-accordion .a-accordion-active .a-price[data-a-size=l].reinventPriceAccordionT2 .a-price-fraction, #buybox .a-accordion .a-accordion-active .a-price[data-a-size=l].reinventPriceAccordionT2 .a-price-symbol { top: -0.75em; font-size: 13px; } $13.49 $ 13 . 49 FREE delivery June 18 - 21 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35 Ships from: Amazon Sold by: Bryan's Online Store

Image unavailable.

• Sorry, this item is not available in
• Image not available
• To view this video download Flash Player

Desperate Journey (1942)

• VHS Tape from $5.90

Purchase options and add-ons

Frequently bought together.

Customers who bought this item also bought

Product Description

They're downed but not out. Five Allied airmen shot down after a bombing run over Germany set out to fight and finagle their way back to England in this rousing World War II spirit lifter. From the opening frames to Errol Flynn's famed parting verbal salvo, Desperate Journey teems with excitement. A factory is blasted to smithereens, one narrow escape is topped by the next, and an enemy bomber is swiped and used against the pursuing Nazis. The airmen plunge into their adventures with swashbuckling elan -- exactly as Raoul Walsh (White Heat) intended. With Walsh's fast-paced handling, Flynn's bravado and Reagan's boy-next-door gumption, this Journey is a mission accomplished!

Product details

• MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ NR (Not Rated)
• Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches; 2.47 ounces
• Director ‏ : ‎ Raoul Walsh
• Media Format ‏ : ‎ NTSC, Subtitled
• Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 48 minutes
• Release date ‏ : ‎ April 28, 2020
• Actors ‏ : ‎ Errol Flynn, Ronald Reagan, Nancy Coleman, Raymond Massey, Alan Hale
• Subtitles: ‏ : ‎ English, Spanish, French
• Producers ‏ : ‎ Hal B. Wallis
• Studio ‏ : ‎ Warner Bros.
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B085RVPVQL
• Writers ‏ : ‎ Arthur T. Horman
• Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ USA
• Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1
• #37,671 in DVD

Customer reviews

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

• Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

Top reviews from other countries

• Amazon Newsletter
• About Amazon
• Accessibility
• Sustainability
• Press Center
• Investor Relations
• Amazon Devices
• Amazon Science
• Sell on Amazon
• Sell apps on Amazon
• Supply to Amazon
• Protect & Build Your Brand
• Become an Affiliate
• Become a Delivery Driver
• Start a Package Delivery Business
• Advertise Your Products
• Self-Publish with Us
• Become an Amazon Hub Partner
• › See More Ways to Make Money
• Amazon Visa
• Amazon Store Card
• Amazon Secured Card
• Amazon Business Card
• Shop with Points
• Credit Card Marketplace
• Reload Your Balance
• Amazon Currency Converter
• Your Account
• Your Orders
• Shipping Rates & Policies
• Amazon Prime
• Returns & Replacements
• Manage Your Content and Devices
• Recalls and Product Safety Alerts
• Conditions of Use
• Privacy Notice
• Consumer Health Data Privacy Disclosure
• Your Ads Privacy Choices

Desperate Journey (1942)

• User Reviews

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews

• User Ratings
• External Reviews
• Metacritic Reviews
• Full Cast and Crew
• Release Dates
• Official Sites
• Company Credits
• Filming & Production
• Technical Specs
• Plot Summary
• Plot Keywords
• Parents Guide

Did You Know?

• Crazy Credits
• Alternate Versions
• Connections
• Soundtracks

Photo & Video

• Photo Gallery
• Trailers and Videos

Related Items

• External Sites

Related lists from IMDb users

Recently Viewed

• Movies & TV Shows
• Most Popular
• Leaving Soon
• Descriptive Audio
• Documentary
• Browse Channels

Featured Channels

• Always Funny
• History & Science
• Sci-Fi & Action
• Chills & Thrills
• Nature & Travel
• Black Entertainment
• Kids & Family
• International
• Gaming & Anime

Desperate Journey

• There are no locations currently available for this title

• Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews Dennis Schwartz A rousing Hollywood propaganda World War II adventure film.
• Chicago Reader Dave Kehr Instinctive existentialism of a very high order, and a very entertaining adventure (1942).
• Cine-Mundial Aurelio Pego If I summarize the plot, the movie may seem mediocre, but it has enthusiastic performances and it is very pleasant. [Full Review in Spanish]
• Classic Film and Television Michael E. Grost Lively adventure.
• TV Guide Desperate Journey was viewed at the time of its release as a ludicrous, comic-strip war adventure. That view has only been strengthened over the years.

Take Plex everywhere

Things you buy through our links may earn  Vox Media  a commission.

A Murderers’ Row of Hit Men on Film

It’s nothing if not familiar: The archetype of the sleek hit man looms large in movie history. Be it a calm professional in a suit, a machine-gun-wielding mob tough, or a slinky secret agent, the role of the hired killer is par for the course in much of crime and action cinema. Yet it remains fascinating psychological and narrative terrain for a variety of directors. In The Killer , David Fincher’s most recent film, starring Michael Fassbender, the hit man is reduced to a dead-eyed corporate shill even as he self-mythologizes about how great he is at his job. And in Richard Linklater’s new charming romantic caper — the aptly titled Hit Man — an enterprising young sociopath (Glen Powell) goes undercover as a hired gun to catch local criminals. Fake mustaches and all, it’s a hilarious and smart deconstruction of the old tough-guy stories movies usually tell about contract killers; it even features a brief montage of other hit-man movies. From ’60s Japan to John Wick, see how many from our list of essential hired-gun movies you can spot in Hit Man .

This Gun for Hire (1942)

Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake starred in a series of stone-cold classic crime thrillers during World War II and just after — a period when shadows grew more jagged and anti-heroes more complex, giving birth to the rise of film noir. Ladd’s character of the Raven was one of the most iconic hit men committed to celluloid, coolly masculine and rather elegant in mien, when prior to that most contract killers depicted by Hollywood were thugs and oafs.

Ladd and Lake are often lesser celebrated these days in favor of those other steamy co-stars of the 1940s, Bogie and Bacall, but the Ladd-and-Lake noirs together are generally darker and sexier. They’re often based vaguely on real cases of L.A. seediness. Co-written by former Chicago crime reporter W.R. Burnett, there’s an air of the genuine to This Gun for Hire and, with the brief discussion of the Raven’s history of childhood abuse and deprivation, a sense of basic criminal psychology, to boot.

Blast of Silence (1961)

A sleek 77-minute New York City ode to the disaffected, the glum, and the criminal on the most wholesome night of the year — Christmas Eve — Allen Baron’s Blast of Silence is a cut above most cult movies of its type and regularly makes lists of the great alternative (or anti-) festive movies . Starring the director himself as a hit man who miserably wanders the twinkling, snow-filled streets, Blast of Silence feels like a pointed rejoinder to the capitalist fervor of American life, when you can even buy a murder on the free market. Its jazzy, deeply misanthropic voice-over about the suckers and idiots of the world feels like a howl of rage from the underside of a prosperous city.

Lady Snowblood (1974)

Decades before La Femme Nikita or the glut of female-assassin films that came in its wake, Japanese cinema had its fair share of women killers for hire. Set in turn-of-the-century Japan, a young woman seeks vengeance for the torture of her imprisoned and murdered family. Meiko Kaji cuts a striking figure, slicing through her enemies with elegantly choreographed bloodshed.

The film is utterly defined by Kaji’s performance, who had already starred in the remarkable, stylish rape-revenge series Female Convict Scorpion ; she represented a brand-new kind of female star in an era dominated by yakuza men and masculine samurai epics. From Quentin Tarantino to the women of HBO’s Shogun , her impact was enormous.

The Hit (1984)

This existential and eccentrically British take on the hit-man movie is from Stephen Frears, a man well suited to tackle life on the margins ( My Beautiful Laundrette , Dangerous Liaisons ). A former gangster who turned witness for the government — played by the powerful Terence Stamp — is being chased down to his luxe Spanish retirement. Hot on his heels is an expert killer (John Hurt) and his more junior apprentice (an early-career Tim Roth; it’s hard to fault this cast). As the three men are forced on a possibly deadly hostage-bearing road trip to Paris, power dynamics, insecurities, and lies pass around among them, undercutting the classic action of the hit-man tale and instead asking vicious questions about human nature under duress.

The Killer (1989)

The Killer may well be the daddy of Hong Kong crime flicks of its era — and that is saying something given what a rich period it was for the so-called “Heroic Bloodshed” movie (films that typically focused on violent-crime plots and the honor system among criminals). The beloved John Woo made his reputation with The Killer , starring Chow Yun-Fat as a Triad contract killer who accidentally blinds a pretty nightclub singer (Sally Yeh) on one of his jobs. He’s drawn further into the undertow of her world as he falls for her. Equally, he is drawn into a classic cop-criminal dynamic with a detective he grows to respect. A near-Shakespearean romance amid its HK shoot-’em-up trappings, with all of Woo’s panache and theatricality in full force, this might be the hit-man film you’d choose to bring in the uninitiated.

The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)

God bless Shane Black. The action-comedy screenwriter of films like The Last Boy Scout and Lethal Weapon took his pen to this story of an assassin with amnesia to ingenious results. With a brilliantly lopsided framework on the whole hired-gun tale, director Lenny Harlin and Black craft the story of Samantha (Geena Davis), a beatific, ugly-Christmas-sweater-wearing woman of painfully conventional sensibility. Except that she’s none of these things. She’s an expert CIA killer who knows her way around a knife but has no memory of her past. Her idyllic existence is turned upside down by dangerous intrusions from her previous life, and she joins private detective Mitch (Samuel L. Jackson) in an attempt to understand who wants her dead. The pair’s rapid-fire dialogue and odd-couple chemistry give a real sense of fun to the proceedings.

Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)

The Long Kiss Goodnight was not the only dark comedy about an assassin that came out in the ’90s, and along with that film, Grosse Pointe Blank shares the sense of the fish out of water, placing their killers in wholesome American suburbia. In George Armitage’s 1997 film, John Cusack is a perfect Gen-X hit man: quipping, muttering, and slouching through the movie. He’s brilliant in this ironic little romantic story of an L.A. hit man back in his hometown for a high-school reunion, which is soundtracked by offbeat New Wave and ’80s alt-rock. Hit man as hipster started here.

In Bruges (2008)

Martin McDonagh’s pitch-black comedy is still an oddity the likes of which we rarely get (though you could say that about plenty of his films, in fairness). This is the story of two Irish hit men, played unforgettably by the gruff Brendan Gleeson and the animated Colin Farrell, on the lam after the latter accidentally murders a child in a hit gone awry. In the incongruously beautiful medieval city of Bruges, the pair kill time and try not to kill each other.

They tour landmarks while Farrell drags his feet and grapples with suicidal thoughts; they contemplate God and the many Catholic artworks of the city while cracking jokes about suffering and make deeply un-PC remarks about each other’s sexuality. Ultimately, the two go on a journey of friendship, betrayal, existential musing, and mortality, culminating in an oddly poignant conclusion for a film so darkly violent. With a tone of off-kilter, voluble humor you’ll be familiar with if you’ve seen The Banshees of Inisherin , this is a film both markedly of its time in its often problematic language but curiously timeless as a nasty little cult favorite.

John Wick Series (2014–)

A brilliant combination of influences, from ’90s action flicks to John Woo, stuntman turned filmmaker Chad Stahelski effortlessly weaves together cinema lore to make the self-aware beat-’em-up. What began as a modestly budgeted Keanu Reeves revenge flick was spun into a phenomenon, helped by Stahelski’s visual flair and talent for staging a memorable fight sequence, be it at a gas station or Paris landmark. By creating a universe for the John Wick story — a secret cabal of hit men united by a string of special hotels and an international group known as the High Table — Stahelski has made his idea pay dividends over the course of a four-film franchise. When John Wick goes “ex-communicado,” Stahelski can play with every possible movie trope of the hit man, from brusque Russian arms dealers to sexily feline lady agents. The Wick series is a knowingly heightened, brilliantly postmodern experience of the hit-man flick.

The Irishman (2019)

A towering late-career masterpiece from that great chronicler of American masculinity gone rotten, Martin Scorsese, The Irishman is loosely based on a nonfiction book by Charles Brandt, I Heard You Paint Houses , and the life of Mafia hit man Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro). Sheeran claimed he was the one to have made longtime friend and union leader Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino) “disappear.” Here, Scorsese deglamorizes the mafioso world that he has been accused of romanticizing in his earlier films (see GoodFellas ), revealing Sheeran’s life as a slow trudge toward loneliness and death. The typical organized-crime values of omertà and loyalty are shown as expendable within the hard reality of mob life — and ultimately empty in that context. By the time the film closes, with Sheeran & Co. alienated from friends and family alike, the film lays bare the desperate loneliness of the career hit man.

• vulture homepage lede
• vulture lists
• vulture picks
• glen powell

Most Viewed Stories

• Cinematrix No. 74: June 6, 2024
• Firing Jeff Probst Isn’t Enough
• Can Industry Succeed Succession ?
• Hacks Isn’t a Good Comedy
• Griffin Dunne’s Hollywood-Irish Family Had Its Grudges
• The Love Machine  

Editor’s Picks

Most Popular

What is your email.

This email will be used to sign into all New York sites. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us.

Sign In To Continue Reading

Create your free account.

Password must be at least 8 characters and contain:

• Lower case letters (a-z)
• Upper case letters (A-Z)
• Numbers (0-9)
• Special Characters (!@#$%^&*)

As part of your account, you’ll receive occasional updates and offers from New York , which you can opt out of anytime.

A Murderers’ Row of Hit Men on Film

I t’s nothing if not familiar: The archetype of the sleek hit man looms large in movie history. Be it a calm professional in a suit, a machine-gun-wielding mob tough, or a slinky secret agent, the role of the hired killer is par for the course in much of crime and action cinema. Yet it remains fascinating psychological and narrative terrain for a variety of directors. In The Killer , David Fincher’s most recent film, starring Michael Fassbender, the hit man is reduced to a dead-eyed corporate shill even as he self-mythologizes about how great he is at his job. And in Richard Linklater’s new charming romantic caper — the aptly titled Hit Man — an enterprising young sociopath (Glen Powell) goes undercover as a hired gun to catch local criminals. Fake mustaches and all, it’s a hilarious and smart deconstruction of the old tough-guy stories movies usually tell about contract killers; it even features a brief montage of other hit-man movies. From ’60s Japan to John Wick, see how many from our list of essential hired-gun movies you can spot in Hit Man .

This Gun for Hire (1942)

Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake starred in a series of stone-cold classic crime thrillers during World War II and just after — a period when shadows grew more jagged and anti-heroes more complex, giving birth to the rise of film noir. Ladd’s character of the Raven was one of the most iconic hit men committed to celluloid, coolly masculine and rather elegant in mien, when prior to that most contract killers depicted by Hollywood were thugs and oafs.

Ladd and Lake are often lesser celebrated these days in favor of those other steamy co-stars of the 1940s, Bogie and Bacall, but the Ladd-and-Lake noirs together are generally darker and sexier. They’re often based vaguely on real cases of L.A. seediness. Co-written by former Chicago crime reporter W.R. Burnett, there’s an air of the genuine to This Gun for Hire and, with the brief discussion of the Raven’s history of childhood abuse and deprivation, a sense of basic criminal psychology, to boot.

Blast of Silence (1961)

A sleek 77-minute New York City ode to the disaffected, the glum, and the criminal on the most wholesome night of the year — Christmas Eve — Allen Baron’s Blast of Silence is a cut above most cult movies of its type and regularly makes lists of the great alternative (or anti-) festive movies . Starring the director himself as a hit man who miserably wanders the twinkling, snow-filled streets, Blast of Silence feels like a pointed rejoinder to the capitalist fervor of American life, when you can even buy a murder on the free market. Its jazzy, deeply misanthropic voice-over about the suckers and idiots of the world feels like a howl of rage from the underside of a prosperous city.

Lady Snowblood (1974)

Decades before La Femme Nikita or the glut of female-assassin films that came in its wake, Japanese cinema had its fair share of women killers for hire. Set in turn-of-the-century Japan, a young woman seeks vengeance for the torture of her imprisoned and murdered family. Meiko Kaji cuts a striking figure, slicing through her enemies with elegantly choreographed bloodshed.

The film is utterly defined by Kaji’s performance, who had already starred in the remarkable, stylish rape-revenge series Female Convict Scorpion ; she represented a brand-new kind of female star in an era dominated by yakuza men and masculine samurai epics. From Quentin Tarantino to the women of HBO’s Shogun , her impact was enormous.

The Hit (1984)

This existential and eccentrically British take on the hit-man movie is from Stephen Frears, a man well suited to tackle life on the margins ( My Beautiful Laundrette , Dangerous Liaisons ). A former gangster who turned witness for the government — played by the powerful Terence Stamp — is being chased down to his luxe Spanish retirement. Hot on his heels is an expert killer (John Hurt) and his more junior apprentice (an early-career Tim Roth; it’s hard to fault this cast). As the three men are forced on a possibly deadly hostage-bearing road trip to Paris, power dynamics, insecurities, and lies pass around among them, undercutting the classic action of the hit-man tale and instead asking vicious questions about human nature under duress.

The Killer (1989)

The Killer may well be the daddy of Hong Kong crime flicks of its era — and that is saying something given what a rich period it was for the so-called “Heroic Bloodshed” movie (films that typically focused on violent-crime plots and the honor system among criminals). The beloved John Woo made his reputation with The Killer , starring Chow Yun-Fat as a Triad contract killer who accidentally blinds a pretty nightclub singer (Sally Yeh) on one of his jobs. He’s drawn further into the undertow of her world as he falls for her. Equally, he is drawn into a classic cop-criminal dynamic with a detective he grows to respect. A near-Shakespearean romance amid its HK shoot-’em-up trappings, with all of Woo’s panache and theatricality in full force, this might be the hit-man film you’d choose to bring in the uninitiated.

The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)

God bless Shane Black. The action-comedy screenwriter of films like The Last Boy Scout and Lethal Weapon took his pen to this story of an assassin with amnesia to ingenious results. With a brilliantly lopsided framework on the whole hired-gun tale, director Lenny Harlin and Black craft the story of Samantha (Geena Davis), a beatific, ugly-Christmas-sweater-wearing woman of painfully conventional sensibility. Except that she’s none of these things. She’s an expert CIA killer who knows her way around a knife but has no memory of her past. Her idyllic existence is turned upside down by dangerous intrusions from her previous life, and she joins private detective Mitch (Samuel L. Jackson) in an attempt to understand who wants her dead. The pair’s rapid-fire dialogue and odd-couple chemistry give a real sense of fun to the proceedings.

Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)

The Long Kiss Goodnight was not the only dark comedy about an assassin that came out in the ’90s, and along with that film, Grosse Pointe Blank shares the sense of the fish out of water, placing their killers in wholesome American suburbia. In George Armitage’s 1997 film, John Cusack is a perfect Gen-X hit man: quipping, muttering, and slouching through the movie. He’s brilliant in this ironic little romantic story of an L.A. hit man back in his hometown for a high-school reunion, which is soundtracked by offbeat New Wave and ’80s alt-rock. Hit man as hipster started here.

In Bruges (2008)

Martin McDonagh’s pitch-black comedy is still an oddity the likes of which we rarely get (though you could say that about plenty of his films, in fairness). This is the story of two Irish hit men, played unforgettably by the gruff Brendan Gleeson and the animated Colin Farrell, on the lam after the latter accidentally murders a child in a hit gone awry. In the incongruously beautiful medieval city of Bruges, the pair kill time and try not to kill each other.

They tour landmarks while Farrell drags his feet and grapples with suicidal thoughts; they contemplate God and the many Catholic artworks of the city while cracking jokes about suffering and make deeply un-PC remarks about each other’s sexuality. Ultimately, the two go on a journey of friendship, betrayal, existential musing, and mortality, culminating in an oddly poignant conclusion for a film so darkly violent. With a tone of off-kilter, voluble humor you’ll be familiar with if you’ve seen The Banshees of Inisherin , this is a film both markedly of its time in its often problematic language but curiously timeless as a nasty little cult favorite.

John Wick Series (2014–)

A brilliant combination of influences, from ’90s action flicks to John Woo, stuntman turned filmmaker Chad Stahelski effortlessly weaves together cinema lore to make the self-aware beat-’em-up. What began as a modestly budgeted Keanu Reeves revenge flick was spun into a phenomenon, helped by Stahelski’s visual flair and talent for staging a memorable fight sequence, be it at a gas station or Paris landmark. By creating a universe for the John Wick story — a secret cabal of hit men united by a string of special hotels and an international group known as the High Table — Stahelski has made his idea pay dividends over the course of a four-film franchise. When John Wick goes “ex-communicado,” Stahelski can play with every possible movie trope of the hit man, from brusque Russian arms dealers to sexily feline lady agents. The Wick series is a knowingly heightened, brilliantly postmodern experience of the hit-man flick.

The Irishman (2019)

A towering late-career masterpiece from that great chronicler of American masculinity gone rotten, Martin Scorsese, The Irishman is loosely based on a nonfiction book by Charles Brandt, I Heard You Paint Houses , and the life of Mafia hit man Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro). Sheeran claimed he was the one to have made longtime friend and union leader Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino) “disappear.” Here, Scorsese deglamorizes the mafioso world that he has been accused of romanticizing in his earlier films (see Goodfellas ), revealing Sheeran’s life as a slow trudge toward loneliness and death. The typical organized-crime values of omertà and loyalty are shown as expendable within the hard reality of mob life — and ultimately empty in that context. By the time the film closes, with Sheeran & Co. alienated from friends and family alike, the film lays bare the desperate loneliness of the career hit man.

• If Glen Powell’s Not Already a Star, This Movie Will Make Him One
• The 100 Fights That Shaped Action Cinema
• The 50 Best Spy Movies of All Time