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Watching The Black Whip I saw elements of Key Largo, Suddenly, and Rawhide in this independent film released by 20th Century Fox. It was a decent if not outstanding mix.

One of four saloon girls Coleen Gray, Angie Dickinson, Dorothy Schuyler, and Adele Mara put on a veil and sprung a prisoner, a member of the notorious black legs, former Confederate raiders who learned their trade under Quantrill and now operate on their own. The sheriff puts them in a wagon driven by Strother Martin and says dump them anywhere someone will have them. Not so easy as word gets out, no one wants to mess with Black Legs.

But time and circumstance force them to a stagecoach station in a ghost town operated by Hugh Marlowe and brother Richard Gilden. The Black Legs arrive soon enough and hold them hostage.

The leader is Paul Richards who has some plans of his own, he's not at the stagecoach station by chance. He and Marlowe have some history which makes the waiting interesting.

This is where the title comes from. Richards doesn't even carry a gun. He carries The Black Whip and he's pretty deadly with it. Somehow getting a whipping in many ways is worse than getting killed by a fast draw. Elements of sadism present here in abundance. Even Lash LaRue carried a pistol as well.

Richards is a fascinating villain. He played many a villainous part in his career, some with a touch of madness about them. He had a southern accent that was part of his working equipment as a player. He uses it well here and also in the Alan Ladd-Sidney Poitier film All The Young Men, a war film set in Korea where he plays a bigoted southern redneck resenting Sidney Poitier put in charge of the squad.

The Black Whip is an OK western, but for Paul Richards a career role.

It is one of the rarest Charles Marquis Warren's films, besides of course the forever invisible DESERT HELL, that I despair to see one day. This one stars Hugh Marlow and only with this you know what you deal with. It is not an Indian wars, nor military fort, nor possee, nor sheriff in a small town or even cattle baron - the most common schemes in western - plot but a Civil War topic, that we have also seen many times before and after. Nothing really special, except that I hardly made it because of the pan and scan frame, and also unusual because of the bad guy using a whip instead of a gun. Angie Dickinson is the main interest to watch this movie, in which she played before RIO BRAVO.

I tuned to this movie by mistake, thinking it was something else. (I have Verizon FiOS and their movie descriptions are really bare bones.) But it was so bad that I was curious to see how bad it could be. As an earlier commenter noted, the role of the younger brother was played as an over the top caricature. I don't think that the actor intended that, but I guess the Director didn't care.

The gimmick of this "B" western is that the leader of the criminal gang uses a bull whip instead of a gun.

The script is also ridiculous. At one point the "bad guy" (the leader, well acted by Strother Martins, of one of the criminal splinter gangs that evolved from the Civil War's infamous Quantrill Raiders) tells the "good guys" that he will send 4 of his men out to negotiate, and they will be unarmed. The leader of the "good guys," the Governor takes this known depraved killer's word that they will be unarmed. But there is no reason for them to go outside to negotiate because they have no problem communicating from inside the house they occupy, and there is no reason why so many are needed for the negotiation.

Opening theme is the ONLY reason I retain knowledge of this film. By award winner Raoul Kraushaar, it's a good theme wasted. Opening & first scene after credits offers promise. Rest is like a kid tying a shoe for the first time. Marlowe's no Paul Newman, but even his acting was sub par-his stumbling b4 his flashback is laughable. Paul Richards' 'Man w the Whip' was a villain deserving of a better plot. If I got a recording of the theme, I'd never search 4 this movie again.