A woefully miscast mahogany Raft stars in a creaky and ramshackle small town intrigue with flashes of brilliance from Ava Gardner. I started to simply laugh while scratching my head in genuine misapprehension as this movie moved to a disjointed final act, with characters having personality/motivational shifts at breakneck G forces, all to what end exactly remains a mystery. Having said all that, there is a vacuous charm to the ludicrousness of it all, buoyed up by moments of genuine very-OK-ness plus inadvertent comedy, soap opera and melodrama. If you are really bored, and don't mind getting more bored while getting increasingly confused and amused in equal measure, plus Ava Gardner in her near-prime, I almost recommend it; just don't come crawling to me when you need more films recommendations like this.
Review of Whistle Stop
