Good western scripts are rare. This one is excellent. The acting is very good. Robert Preston delivers his usual complex baddy performance to excellent effect. The character of "Whispering Smith" is tailormade for Alan Ladd. There is great support from all other members of the cast - which means very good direction. The only disappointment is the ending which is something of a let-down.
A Solid, Action-Packed Western With Alan Ladd
If you're a railroad thief in the old West and one night you hear a soft voice behind you, it's already too late to draw. Whispering Smith has found you. He's smarter than you, tougher than you, and faster than you.
Luke "Whispering" Smith (Alan Ladd) is a soft-spoken railroad detective. His best friend, Murray Sinclair (Robert Preston) also works for the railroad. Sinclair is a rough-and-ready crew chief who loves the old ways, and that means taking a cut from the goods in train wrecks. He's married to Marian Sinclair (Brenda Marshall), owns a ranch bigger than he should be able to afford, and finally sounds off once too often to railroad management. It doesn't help things when Murray realizes that Smith has long loved Marian. Lurking around is Barney Rebstock (Donald Crisp), a wealthy thief and rustler who now and then arranges for train wrecks. Rebstock's right hand man is a white-haired, squinty-eyed killer named Whitey Du Sang (Frank Faylen).
And it all comes together when Murray, fired by the railroad, outraged over his treatment, resentful of Smith, jealous of his wife, throws in his lot with Rebstock. The number of train wrecks increases, Du Sang kills a railway guard...and Whispering Smith is brought in to end things one way or another. Now the former best friends have to go up against each other.
This is a pretty good western, maybe not A caliber but a strong B-plus. Preston is his usual dynamic, energetic self, yet once again (as in This Gun for Hire) he's overshadowed by Ladd. Alan Ladd, in my view, was an unlikely major star. He had pretty looks and a small stature, and he wasn't a dominating actor. But he also had a great voice, a kind of passive style that hinted at violence, an agreeable screen personality...and something I can't describe that connected seamlessly with a camera. In this movie, as in all his others, he plays the same person, but it works. Whispering Smith is Alan Ladd's movie.
It was good to see Donald Crisp in a bad guy's role. He usually is the kindly granddad or the tough-minded but well meaning father. As Barney Rebstock, he's an avuncular snake. It's always nice to see William Demarest. And Frank Faylen as the cold-blooded killer Du Sang gives a performance that is just inches from being over the top.
All in all, this is an enjoyable action Western with some psychological tensions. It might not be for everyone's collection, but it would be good to have you like older movies, professionally crafted Westerns and Ladd. There's nothing much by way of extras, but the DVD transfer looks good.
The Best Alan Ladd Western After Shane
By far his next great Western after Shane, Alan Ladd starred in this exciting film about Whispering Smith, a hard-bitten railroad detective know for his grit and tenacity. When his longtime friend Murray is justifiably fired for stealing merchandise from train wrecks, Smith doesn't hesistate to go after his friend when Murray becomes involved with the gang responsbile for the train wrecks. Top-notch performances by Ladd and Robert Preston, who played Murray, plus an excellent script and stellar direction from Leslie Fenton, make this film a classic.
The formula of 'bad guy turned good' works quite well. In spite of the charisma of Randolph Scott and Robert Young, I think that Dean Jagger is the leading light in this whilst, Virginia Gilmore adds the female charm. I liked it but then I am a western lover!!! More Info about this DVD Director(s): Ray Enright DVD Release Date: Released the 01 June 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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As others reviewers have noted, 1959's "No Name on the Bullet" is far from being a typical Audie Murphy western. Under Jack Arnold's expert direction, the focus here is on suspense and tension, rather than action. When gunman John Gant rides into town, most of the local citizens are justifiably nervous. Gant is a hired killer, and he seldom visits a town just to see the sights. Much of the film revolves around the questions--why is he here ? Who is he after ? Which of the town's citizens will die ? Since Gant isn't the talkative type, the suspense keeps building, not to mention the nervous paranoia of the townfolk.
As Gant, Murphy delivers a chilling performance. You never doubt that, behind that baby face and modest build, is a man not to be crossed ( by all accounts, in real life, as... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Jack Arnold DVD Release Date: Released the 01 June 2004 Usually ships within 24 hours
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Just maybe the most shamelessly enjoyable of Cecil B. DeMille's pseudo-historical epics, this rumbustious frontier saga offers a three-for-one Western legends combo--Wild Bill Hickok, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Calamity Jane, all cutting up in the 1870s, with George Armstrong Custer and Abraham Lincoln thrown in for good measure. (Wait a minute, Lincoln was assassinated in 1865--oh, never mind.) Truth to tell, Buffalo Bill doesn't really pull his weight, since (1) he is hopelessly distracted by virtue of having recently married and (2) he's played by James Ellison, an eternal juvenile normally relegated to second-banana duty in Paramount's Hopalong Cassidy series. However, Gary Cooper's Wild Bill and Jean Arthur's Calamity supply enough star power to light up the Dakotas and parts of... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Gary Cooper - Jean Arthur Director(s): Cecil B. DeMille DVD Release Date: Released the 01 June 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Nineteen thirty-nine is often proposed as the movies' halcyon year, and three reasons why were directed by John Ford: Stagecoach, Young Mr. Lincoln, and Drums Along the Mohawk. In that exalted company Drums... would have to be accounted "merely superb"--even if it's the best film ever made about the American Revolution and, oh, only about eighth-best picture of its year.
Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert play newlyweds in New York's Mohawk Valley at the time of the Revolutionary War. That war is more a distant rumor than a direct concern of people with cabins to raise, crops to harvest, and firstborn on the way. When it comes to their valley, in the form of hitherto-peaceable Indians whipped up by a gaunt Tory with an eyepatch (John Carradine), life changes... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Claudette Colbert - Henry Fonda - Edna May Oliver Director(s): John Ford DVD Release Date: Released the 24 May 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Although this western is to be released in June, and I write a month or so in advance, its release is of such importance that note of it needs to be made prior to release date. When the Daltons Rode is a superior little western, and this release, by Universal, is very much welcomed. Although this movie has been available in several variable, generally poor video releases in the past, to finally have it on DVD, presumably well mastered by Universal engineers, will be a delight. Thanks Universal. More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Randolph Scott - Kay Francis Director(s): George Marshall DVD Release Date: Released the 01 June 2004 Usually ships within 24 hours
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