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Returning from Chicago swathed in fur, small-town gal Ava Gardner precipitates a crisis for ne'er-do-well George Raft, who stayed behind to moulder. Gardner hadn't yet reached the apex of her insolent sexuality (she looks close to plain in some scenes), and Raft plays, what else, George Raft. Whistle Stop is no masterpiece, but it intermittently sparks into life, generally when Victor McLaghlin shows up, trying to lure Raft into a murderous scheme or taking revenge on his sneering boss. The Madacy video of this movie is recorded at cheap EP speed taken from a scratchy print (standard practice for the firm). But then this movie isn't worth more than the three or four bucks it takes to pick up a copy.

I wanted to see this movie because I had read the novel "Whistle Stop" which was written by Maritta Wolff when she was a college student and was recently republished. The novel gave a great presentation of the Post Depression era and Wolff's beautifully descriptive writing won her a prestigious award. The scriptwriter changed the story significantly. While one part would probably have been too sensitive for the time, I think today's movie writers would portray more of Wolff's imagery of life on both "sides of the tracks". I doubt if an author today would allow his or her book to be an inspiration to a screenwriter who would use some characters and some dialogue yet change the story so dramatically. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the movie AFTER reading the book as it was fascinating to see the similarities and the differences. I'd recommend reading the book and then enjoying the mid-1940's black & white film with the gorgeous Ava Gardner and a young Victor McLaghlin. This certainly isn't the best of '40's crime drama but it was fun to see. If you've already seen the movie, read the book!!

In the late 1930s, George Raft was at the top of the movie business. He had a lot of prestige at Warner Brothers and looked destined for greatness. However, after a very long string of insane career choices (rejecting the lead in such films as "High Sierra" and "The Maltese Falcon"--all of which made Bogart a top star), his clout suddenly vanished and he played out the 1940s in a string of progressively less prestigious and uninteresting films. When "Whistle Stop" debuted, he was already well on the way to becoming a second or third tier actor--and unfortunately, his performances generally looked second or third-rate as well. I've seen quite a few of these later films and can only describe his performances as 'wooden'.

"Whistle Stop" has a major handicap at the onset. Raft is cast opposite Ava Gardner as the love interest--though he was over 20 years older and seemed ill-suited and ill-at-ease in this romantic role. And, frankly, this wasn't all Raft's fault. I especially cringed at the flashback scene where they tried to make Raft and Gardner look like teenagers--his hairstyle was pretty funny and he looked like a 45 year-old man trying to be young and hip (which he was).

The film begins with Gardner returning to the small town where she grew up but had left in order to live in the excitement of Chicago. It soon becomes apparent that she and Raft (oddly cast as a small-town sort of guy) had a past history together...but was distracted by both the lure of Chicago and the tough and rich Tom Conway. And, ultimately, Conway and Raft fought it out for her. Raft won the fight, but she left with Conway...but now, years later, she is back. But can she pick up where she and Raft left off? One thing getting in their way is the directionless way Raft's life has become--as if he didn't care about tomorrow. Can he clean up his act and win the girl? And, will Conway make trouble for Raft now that he's apparently won Gardner? In addition to these actors, Victor McLaglen is on hand to play a bartender and Raft's pal. His character, frankly, is a bit hard to understand. Who his is and why he's there is pretty vague. Fortunately, this all becomes clear at the end--and it is a nifty one--making up for the general blandness of the rest of the film. The film has a few nice twists but also gives Raft a mostly passive sort of role for the leading man--and not a film that would help him regain his past prestige on the screen.

This turkey came as an entry in a set of eight noir DVD's. I almost returned the set on the basis of this single movie. Leonard Maltin's Film Guide charitably characterizes the 82 minutes as "stupid". In my little book, that's too generous. From the cheap sets, to the slack direction, to the incoherent script, the movie's nearly laughable, especially when a zombified 51- year old George Raft deadpans sweet nothings into the luscious ear of 24-year old Ava Gardner. It's enough to make you want to call the cops or check your eyeglasses. And that's when Raft's not playing the wayward son of parents maybe 10 years closer to retirement than he is. If he could show a little emotion, he might get away with it, but you almost have to stick a fork in him to make sure he's breathing. Raft doesn't so much walk through the part as blankly stare his way through. No wonder the script turns to McLaglen to carry the action through the last third. And the miscasting doesn't stop with Raft. The sleekly urbane Tom Conway of British accent fame is cast as a small town hood, no less. It's as if both Conway and Raft got confused about which movie they were supposed to be in, and wandered onto the wrong set. Of course, there's the compensation of a ravishing Gardner for the guys, and in a flimsy dressing gown, no less. Too bad, her ability to do anything with the muddled script sort of comes and goes. The sometimes brilliant Philip Yordan's name is on the screenplay, but I can't believe it's actually his. The plot simply meanders all over the page like a bottle of spilled ink. There's no need to go on. This may be somebody's idea of noir, but the shovel has to scrape bottom to find it. Too bad mine did.

George Raft and Ava Gardner seem like a surefire hit but somehow it just doesn't turn out that way. The relationship between the two seems contrived. I think there may have been screen writing problems or something. Taking a decent plot and a good idea for a story and weighing it down and forcing it. It always seemed like there was something missing. But have no fear, Victor McLaghlin saves the show. His character is not only the only one that is interesting enough to care about but McLaghlin gives a really wonderful performance and one well worth watching. I wish the entire movie had been about him with Raft and Gardner as the peripheral characters.

Without Victor McLaghlin I give the film 3 or maybe 4 out of 10 but his screen time brings it up to a fairly solid 6 out of 10.