Described as "sultry" and "mysterious", the green-eyed star[2] appeared frequently in crime pictures and film noir, but also in drama, comedy, Westerns, thrillers, and romance.

Among the leading men she starred with were John Wayne, Charles Laughton, William Powell, Randolph Scott, Franchot Tone, Brian Donlevy, George Raft, and Burt Lancaster.

Immediately following her debut in Corvette K-225 opposite Randolph Scott, Raines was cast in the all-female war film Cry "Havoc" (also 1943).

She starred in the film noir Phantom Lady with Franchot Tone,[5] the Preston Sturges comedy Hail the Conquering Hero, and the John Wayne western Tall in the Saddle (all 1944).

Still in 1944 she appeared in the unusual Edwardian noir The Suspect opposite Charles Laughton, then starred in films such as the romantic suspense The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1945) with Geraldine Fitzgerald and George Sanders, the thriller The Web (1947) with Edmond O'Brien, and the prison drama Brute Force (1947) with Burt Lancaster.

On August 11, 1942,[7] a few days after her graduation from the University of Washington, Raines married her high school sweetheart, United States Army Air Forces Major Kenneth William Trout.