Le fouet d'argent

It will not be a mile stone in western history for sure but it presents the advantage to have Dale Robertson, Robert Wagner and Rory Calhoun together. Nothing special to me. But for a B Fox western it is enough for my taste. It is rare, effective, fast but not furious. I prefer more ambiguous, ambivalent characters, as Audie Murphy in NO NAME ON THE BULLET, or Alan Ladd in ONE FOOT IN HELL; here it is a bit too smooth, but entertaining enough to justify the time to waste watching it.

Robert Wagner, thirty years before Hart to Hart. Here, he's young Jess Harker, waiting to leave his quiet little hometown, in one of his early roles. the stagecoach company lets him drive the stage, but of course, there will be obstacles along the way. when they get held up, they go after the gang. co-stars Dale Robertson and Rory Calhoun. Some scenes filmed in the hills east of modesto. GIANT trees on the ponderosa. Directed by Harmon Jones.. his first film as director was As Young As You Feel, with some huge hollywood names; he directed a bunch of big films, but moved into Television pretty quickly. It's good! no real surprises, but it's good.

"The Silver Whip" has a very good cast for a western. Rory Calhoun, Dale Robertson and a very young Robert Wagner star in this one.

Jess (Wagner) is very young but capable...so much so that Race (Robertson) recommends the stage company hire him to be their driver. But on his first run, the stage coach wanders into an ambush. Race yells at Jess to leave him behind to fight off the bandits but Jess refuses and stays to help. In the process, Jess gets himself shot (not badly) but his passengers are killed. Later, when he returns to town, Jess is fired for not listening to Race and not leaving with the coach.

Following this robbery, Race sticks behind and tracks the band of killers...all on his own. Jess goes back to town and after being fired, he's hired by the Sheriff (Calhoun) to be his deputy. Obviously Sheriff Davisson still has confidence in the young guy. Soon, the Sheriff and Deputy set out to find Race and the killers. What's next? See the film.

There's nothing great about this film but the script has some original ideas AND the acting is quite nice. After all, while not exactly A-listers, Robertson and Calhoun made some mighty good westerns during the 50s....and Wagner was just fine in one of his earliest roles. Overall, if you like westerns, you're bound to like this one...and seeing Jess grow and change through the course of the story was quite nice as well.

Western novelist Jack Schaefer's follow-up to SHANE, THE SILVER WHIP is turned into a "shaky A" with Dale Robertson, Rory Calhoun, and Robert Wagner in the lead as an ambitious young stage driver. While this black-and-white effort lacks the visual grandeur of George Stevens' masterpiece, and the cast all right. and.... well, this is a good B western, with some nice outdoor photography by Lloyd Ahern Sr.

Director Harmon Jones doesn't seem to push anyone too hard, but it's a well-told story. It's clear they were feeling ambitious with this one. They screenplay is pretty good. I's simply that they chose to tell the story with melodramatic intentions, rather than the simple way that George Stevens' masterpiece did.

Character-driven western whose guiding idea unfortunately is better than the result. Sheriff Tom, tough guy Race, and young man Jess, are friends in a small frontier town. Jess, however, wants a chance to prove himself a man, so he gets trial run as a stage driver. Trouble is he screws up by not driving off to protect doomed passengers when stage is ambushed at a way station. Instead he stays behind to help his friend Race. Now Jess needs to redeem himself by helping Sheriff Tom and posse track down stage robbers before vengeful Race guns them all down. Climax occurs in town when lynch mob gathers to head for Tom's jail.

It's really Wagner's film. As the untried Jess, he shows his acting chops in a vivid performance still early in his lengthy career. Robertson (Race) and Calhoun (Tom) also get a lot of screen time as self-assured westerners. Oddly, they look so much alike, I got confused at times. The oater's unusual since no bad guy gets focal time, while the girls are strictly peripheral. Instead, the highlight is a well-photographed and lengthy chase scene across scenic rocks and hills. There's one unexpectedly jarring occurrence that I guess Hollywood convention couldn't let stand without smoothing out. Had they instead let it go extreme, the movie would be memorable. One key point, I wish Robertson's ambiguous character (Race) were more intense. That would have injected needed emotion to the movie as a whole There's a dramatic potential in the key conflict between Race and Tom that's unfortunately underplayed.

All in all, it's an interesting western with an unusual plot and some riveting scenery, but drains too much story potential.