Whispering Smith
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Movie Reviews of Whispering Smith
Movie Review: Seven Men from Now
Summary: 5 Stars
This was a very good western from the 1940's. I also enjoyed the clarity of the DVD. The gunslinger Frank Faylen really knew how to be menacing and fan a gun at the same time. Robert Preston was impressive as the weak minded railroad engineer who goes bad.Movie Review: Whispering Smith
Summary: 5 Stars
I saw both of these as a young man. What was important was the condition of the DVD and package when they were received, and they were in supurb condition.
Movie Review: Whispering Smith
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great movie and Alan Ladd is so good in it. I would highly recommend this movie to western movie lovers.Movie Review: A Solid, Action-Packed Western With Alan Ladd
Summary: 4 Stars
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.
Movie Review: Old friends in collision
Summary: 4 Stars
Soft-spoken railroad detective Luke "Whispering" Smith (Alan Ladd) crosses the mountains in search of the train-robbing Barton Brothers, kills two of them, and is wounded himself. His old friend Murray Sinclair (Robert Preston), in charge of clearing wrecks from that division of his road, takes him home to be nursed back to health. But it soon becomes clear that these two are bound for an inevitable wreck of their own: Murray's wife Marian (Brenda Marshall), though five years married to him, is still desperately in love with Smith, who's never gotten over her either, and Murray has succeeded beyond the bounds of legitimacy by supplementing his railroad work with an alliance with Barney Rebstock (Donald Crisp), a rancher-cum-rustler who also peddles goods "salvaged" from the wrecks Murray works. When Division Super George McCloud (John Eldredge) fires Murray for his light-fingered ways, the furious Murray sees no reason not to go the whole hog in avenging himself, and now it's up to Smith to stop him. This and the sinister, cold-blooded gunman Whitey DuSang (Frank Faylen) give the movie more than a little of the same tragic feel as Ladd's generally-acknowledged masterpiece-Western, Shane, but the presence of bluff, hearty Murray and veteran character actors Crisp and William Demarest (as Bill Dansing) give it a lighter feel and a touch more humor. There's also some beautiful scenery that looks as if it was filmed somewhere in the high Rockies. I don't usually care for Ladd's work, but this is a DVD I was determined to add to my collection.