Whispering Smith

Alan Ladd's first starring western and first film in technicolor is Whispering Smith. I have a funny feeling that someone at Paramount figured out that in boots with a couple of inches of heels on them, Mr. Ladd could get some additional height unnoticed. He certainly did do a lot of westerns after Whispering Smith.

According to the films of Alan Ladd and the biography by Beverly Linet, Ladd had purchased a ranch for his family and enjoyed his time out there and became an expert rider. For someone who arrived late to the western genre, Alan Ladd does sit the saddle well and looks right at home on the range.

The story based on a novel by Frank Spearman had been filmed two times previously as a silent film. Ladd is a railroad detective and we first meet him going after Murvyn Vye and his two outlaw brothers. Ladd's best friend is Robert Preston and his wife Brenda Marshall almost married Ladd back in the day.

Preston is a happy go lucky sort, but a lout none the less. The green eyed monster gets him though as Ladd is hanging around. Preston falls for the line that chief villain Donald Crisp gives him. Especially after he gets fired from the railroad after tangling with new superintendent John Eldredge. With his knowledge about the railroad, Preston becomes invaluable to Crisp.

Whispering Smith is directed by Leslie Fenton, former actor who was gradually getting into A films, but he retired after directing only a few more films after this one. The character he creates for Ladd is a harbinger of the one that George Stevens did for Ladd in Shane. I have no doubt that Stevens cast Ladd in Shane after viewing Whispering Smith.

And Whispering Smith probably would be considered a classic western if someone like George Stevens or John Ford or Anthony Mann had directed it. It's that good.

Donald Crisp is a garrulous, but crafty outlaw leader. William Demarest is fine in the sidekick role. But the portrayal among the supporting cast to watch is Frank Faylen's as the albino killer in Crisp's gang. I also think that George Stevens was influenced in his direction of Jack Palance in Shane from Faylen's portrayal. Faylen has even less dialog than Palance did in Shane, but he will absolutely chill you when you watch the film.

Whispering Smith is an absolute must for western fans and fans of Alan Ladd. It's a turning point film in his career and I'm glad it is finally out on DVD. Only wish a VHS version had been made of it.

This is one of my favorite movies because it has two of my favorite actors: Alan Ladd and Robert Preston.

These two were co-stars in other movies, but they are both used to their best in this one. Preston plays the friend gone bad and Ladd plays the honest cop who also loves his friend.

Actually, this plot is reminiscent of "The Virginian" which has always been so popular.

The vhs tape is very rare, so if you catch it on TV somewhere, TAPE IT!!

Agreeable Western packs drama , thrills , go riding , shootouts and some moving action sequences . Highly watchable Western in which a railway detective resolves conflicts and investigates train assaults . As the legendary railroad detective Whispering Smith (Alan Ladd) becomes convinced that old friend and colleague Murray Sinclair (Robert Preston) has united a criminal band to loot the railroad . But Murray is married to a beautiful wife , Marian Sinclair (Brenda Marshall) , who was Smith's old flame . A new Ladd thrills the Old West ! LADD'S In the West...In Two-Gun Technicolor!here is a Ladd you have always dreamed about quiet gentle-like , but the feared man on the wild frontier ¡ Afraid of nothing but the woman who loved him ¡.

This colorful as well as enjoyable picture contains action , thrills , fights , crossfire and results to be entertaining , being a decent oater . Well crafted and sweeping Western with interesting screenplay , brilliant cinematography and breathtaking production design . Finely starred by Alan Ladd who gives a nice acting in one of his first roles as starring . After a string of bit parts in "B" pictures and an unbilled part in Orson Welles' classic Kane Citizen (1941) he tested for This Gun for Hire (1942) late in 1941. His fourth-billed role as psychotic killer Raven made him a star. He was drafted in January 1943 and discharged in November with an ulcer and double hernia. Throughout the 1940s his tough-guy roles packed audiences into theaters and he was one of the very few males whose cover photos sold movie magazines. His career as Western starring starts in this Whispering Smith (1948) , following Branded (1951) as a captain who joins Quantrill's Confederate army , Red Mountain (1951) the historical Jim Bowie in The Iron Mistress (1952) . In the 1950s he was performing in lucrative but unrewarding films , an exception being what many regard as his greatest role, Shane (1953), his tough-guy roles packed audiences into theaters and he was one of the very few males whose cover photos sold movie magazinesm. And other Western roles as a Sergeant of the brave Canadian Mounted Police in Saskatchewan (1954) , as a goverment agent againt Indians in Drum Beat (1954) , as a cattle drive guide in The big land (1957) , a family man in The proud rebel (1958) , and , furthermore , The Badlanders , Timberland , One foot in hell , among others. Ladd is nicely assisted by an awesome support cast , such as : Donald Crisp , William Demarest , Fay Holden, Murvyn Vye , Ray Teal , and Frank Faylen.

Filmed on a scale to rival the never-to-be-forgotten Union Pacific , including portentous cinematography in Technicolor by Ray Rennahan , shot on location in Sierra Railroad, Jamestown,Cornell Road, Agoura, Paramount Ranch, California . As well as rousing and moving musical score by Adolph Deutsch. The motion picture was directed in sure visual eye by Leslie Fenton . He was a good actor and occassionally filmmaker , including some Westerns such as : The Redhead and the Cowboy , Three Texans ,The Man from Dakota and this Whispering Smith . Rating : 6.5/10. Wellworth watching .

Whispering Smith is directed by Leslie Fenton and co-adapted to screenplay by Frank Butler and Karl Kamb from Frank H. Spearman's novel. It stars Alan Ladd, Robert Preston, Brenda Marshall, Donald Crisp, William Demarest and Frank Faylen. Music is by Adolph Deutsch and cinematography by Ray Rennahan.

Famed railroad detective Whispering Smith (Ladd) becomes conflicted when his latest case pits him up against one of his best pals.

It's somewhat surprising to find Whispering Smith is not more well known, given that it's Ladd's first full length Western feature and that it's really rather good. With its opening scene of Ladd riding towards camera, with glorious landscape in the background, and the thematics of how Smith operates around women and children, this signposts towards Shane five years down the line. In fact this very much works as a tasty appetiser for that superb 1953 picture.

Ladd cuts a fine figure as Smith, giving him the right amount of calm toughness so as to not over play the role, and Preston is on fine form, very ebullient and able to act heaps with only his eyes. Marshall on the surface doesn't impact greatly, in what is a key role, but the character is very shrewdly written and sits in the story as more than a token. The villains headed by Crisp are not very inspiring, while Faylen looks laughably out of place with a blonde wig!, but with Preston erring on the side of badness the good versus bad axis of plotting thrives well enough.

Pic is filled with a number of shoot-outs, banditry and awesome locomotive action, all set to the backdrop of beautiful - Technicolor enhanced - California locales. The running theme of railroad progression in the West is interestingly written, managing to not take sides and let the viewer enjoy both sides of the coin, though a moral equation that Smith ultimately arrives at doesn't quite add up. Add in Fenton's unfussy direction, Rennahan's location photography (see also night sequences) and Deutsch's pleasingly compliant score, and Western fans are good to go.

This doesn't pull up any tress or have the psychological savvy of what many Oaters of the next decade would explore, but it's very well mounted and engages from the get go. 7/10

Alan Ladd's first film in color was also his first Western, a genre with which he would become associated after making 11 of them in all (having previously excelled in noirs during the 1940s and early 50s). Here he plays a character dating back to the Silent era: a soft-spoken (hence the title) but sharp-shooting investigator for a railroad company which also employs his best friends – rugged foreman Robert Preston (who married Ladd's girl Brenda Marshall) and old-timer William Demarest. With Ladd away on company business i.e. chasing a notorious trio of sibling train robbers, Preston falls in with a bad crowd headed by cattle rustler Donald Crisp and his albino henchman Frank Faylen and, on whose account, he has been pilfering 'damaged' goods transported by the railroad. Ladd is ordered back home to look into this wave of train wrecks which have been occurring on a regular basis. Suspecting Crisp and his crew, he pleads with Preston to pull out in time but the latter is too deeply involved by now to listen and an eventual shootout between the two childhood friends is inevitable. An ordinary, unpretentious Western to be sure but one that is well acted, competently staged and provides consistent entertainment for the undiscriminating viewer and Western film buffs in particular.