Whistle Stop is directed by Léonide Moguy and adapted by Phillip Yordan from the Maritta M. Wolff novel of the same name. It stars Ava Gardner, George Raft, Victor McLaglen & Tom Conway. Russell Metty is on cinematography and Dimitri Tiomkin provides the music score.
One look at the people involved in Whistle Stop raises hopes that the film has a lot going for it. From the actors involved: Gardner (The Killers), Raft (Each Dawn I Die), Yordan (The Big Combo), McLaglen (The Informer) and Conway (Cat People), to the technical department: Metty (Touch of Evil) & Tiomkin (High Noon), it's a promising gathering from which to launch a film noir pot boiler featuring a love triangle, robbery and murder. It's as false a hope as a false hope gets.
Maritta Wolff's best selling novel had caused quite a stir, a sizzling tale featuring incest and prostitution. Yordan of course had to tone the story down for the screen, but he maintained that the script he turned in was a good one. Certainly not the dumb final product that has very little rhyme and practically no reason about it. That it doesn't work, he attributes to producer Seymour Nebenzal making some bad choices, most notably the casting of Raft. A statement that carries weight given that Raft is too old, too stiff and totally unbelievable as a love interest for Gardner (who was on loan from MGM). But it's not just Raft that sinks (bad pun I know), everybody else is hamstrung by being unsympathetic characters in a convoluted story. A story that aimed to be a seamy piece with noirish overtones, but ultimately ends up a dull low life melodrama with a ridiculously happy ending. There's a little value in McLaglen's efforts as the muscle, and Metty at least knows how to light the delectable Gardner, but really, all told, this smells bad. 3/10
One look at the people involved in Whistle Stop raises hopes that the film has a lot going for it. From the actors involved: Gardner (The Killers), Raft (Each Dawn I Die), Yordan (The Big Combo), McLaglen (The Informer) and Conway (Cat People), to the technical department: Metty (Touch of Evil) & Tiomkin (High Noon), it's a promising gathering from which to launch a film noir pot boiler featuring a love triangle, robbery and murder. It's as false a hope as a false hope gets.
Maritta Wolff's best selling novel had caused quite a stir, a sizzling tale featuring incest and prostitution. Yordan of course had to tone the story down for the screen, but he maintained that the script he turned in was a good one. Certainly not the dumb final product that has very little rhyme and practically no reason about it. That it doesn't work, he attributes to producer Seymour Nebenzal making some bad choices, most notably the casting of Raft. A statement that carries weight given that Raft is too old, too stiff and totally unbelievable as a love interest for Gardner (who was on loan from MGM). But it's not just Raft that sinks (bad pun I know), everybody else is hamstrung by being unsympathetic characters in a convoluted story. A story that aimed to be a seamy piece with noirish overtones, but ultimately ends up a dull low life melodrama with a ridiculously happy ending. There's a little value in McLaglen's efforts as the muscle, and Metty at least knows how to light the delectable Gardner, but really, all told, this smells bad. 3/10