5.6/10
716
28 user 8 critic

Whistle Stop (1946)

When beautiful Mary returns home to her "whistle stop" home town, long-standing feelings of animosity between two of her old boyfriends leads to robbery and murder.

Director:

(as Leonide Moguy)

Writers:

(novel), (screenplay)
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Cast

Complete credited cast:
...
...
Mary
...
Gitlo
...
Lew Lentz
...
Fran
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Josie Veech
...
Molly Veech
...
Ernie
...
Sam Veech
...
Estelle
Jimmy Conlin ...
Al - the Barber
Jimmy Ames ...
Mr. Barker
...
Bartender
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Storyline

Beautiful Mary returns to her small hometown after many years from Chicago wearing a mink coat and carrying an expensive cigarette case. Her arrival causes long standing enmities to surface between two of her old boyfriends, Kenny Veech, a loafing gambler, and debonair Lew Lentz, owner of a local nightclub. Their deep-seated animosity repeatedly results in antagonism and fights as they compete for Mary's affections. Kenny's friend Gitlo, a bartender in Lentz' club, enlists Kenny in an aborted plan to rob Lentz of $15,000 in profits from sponsoring a local carnival. Lentz retaliates by framing both men for murder. Written by Gabe Taverney ([email protected])

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

Taglines:

SHE SPELLED TROUBLE FOR EVERY GUY THAT MADE A PLAY FOR HER! (original print ad - all caps) See more »

Genres:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir

Certificate:

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Details

Country:

Language:

Release Date:

25 January 1946 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

Angeloi kai daimones  »

Filming Locations:


Company Credits

Production Co:

 »
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Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

(Western Electric Recording)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1
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Did You Know?

Trivia

At the beginning of the film Ava Gardner gets off a train and goes to a house. She enters the front door and slams the door behind her with enough force to latch it. However, the door does not latch and bounces open a few inches. See more »

Quotes

Josie Veech: Oh, sure, the best time to start looking for a job is 8 o'clock at night, and if you do a good job of looking, you won't get home 'til morning, and the best place for looking is every beer joint and pool hall on Main Street.
See more »

Connections

Featured in The Good Wife: The Dream Team (2012) See more »

Soundtracks

Little Brown Jug
(uncredited)
Written by Joseph Winner
Played at the fair
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User Reviews

 
Noir Just Doesn't Jell
11 December 2006 | by (Buffalo, New York) – See all my reviews

This film is all about Ava Gardner, you have to realize that in writing a review. MGM was about to launch her on her career and Whistle Stop was a low budget independently produced noir film that United Artists released. If it and she flopped it was no loss to MGM who saw their money up front in a loan out fee.

Fortunately Ava was also doing things like The Killers and The Hucksters right around the same time that really launched her career. And she is stunningly beautiful here. So stunningly beautiful that why she was wasting her time with a lummox like George Raft is beyond me.

Raft is a lazy lout who's stuck in a small town who drinks and gambles his time away and is indulged in it by his mother, Florence Bates. Ava purportedly comes back from the big city hoping he'll have changed his ways and is looking to be upwardly mobile. When that doesn't occur she starts taking up with Tom Conway, a local club owner.

Victor McLaglen who is Conway's bartender tries to get Raft in on a scheme to rob and kill Conway. Raft doesn't go through with it, but Conway out of jealousy murders his own bouncer and frames Raft and McLaglen. I'm still not quite sure why Conway just ups and murders an innocent man just to frame these two.

The script leaves a lot to be desired. Some characters are created who quite frankly don't particularly have the audience's sympathy. I certainly can't get worked up over their plight.

Victor McLaglen reaches back to his Oscar winning performance in The Informer. Most of the time he's far more subdued than the McLaglen we've come to expect in John Ford films. Yet in his final moments it's a total ripoff from The Informer.

I don't think the film hurt Ava Gardner's career, but I'm not sure it advanced it all that much.


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