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

That's what Brenda Marshall finds out when her husband Robert Preston has a falling out with life long pal Alan Ladd in this western where enemies of Ladd's seek to hurt him where it really counts: the blood lines of brothers not related through family ties. Ladd plays Whispering Smith, a railroad man who kills several members of the Barton clan, stirring up patriarch Donald Crisp against him, basically stirring Preston up to destroy their ties, and thus get revenge in a more vindictive way. Preston changes as a result of his association with the nefarious Crisp and his associates, lives a loose life while away from Marshall, and eventually finding his way to a life of illegal activities, destroying three people while really only after one.

When taken in a psychological context, this is interesting, if perhaps too analytical a theme for a western. Sometimes a script of too much intelligence can be boring, and this has some moments that are close to snoozefests. William Demarest is there for light comedy relief, with "Ma Hardy" Faye Holden his loving wife who plays welcoming mother figure to everybody she encounters.

There are a couple of key scenes that stand out: the opening scene on a train that sets up Ladd and Preston's past, the scene where Preston and a group of men clearing up the debris from a train crash decide they'd rather get drunk and work (setting up their falling out),and Ladd's attempt to talk some sense into the much changed Preston. It's what's in between that slows this down, although there's some might pretty color scenery along the way.

This was an awfully mediocre Western even though it featured Alan Ladd and Robert Preston--two actors capable of much better films than this. This isn't to say it's bad--just very ordinary and only a time-passer.

Ladd is a special agent that works for the railroad. He comes in town to round up a trio of brothers who have been robbing trains. He makes pretty short work of these three in only the first 10 minutes or so of the film and the focus then is on his renewing an old friendship with Preston--a guy who also works for the railroad and a guy who married the woman who was stuck on Ladd years earlier. Well, the two friends are as happy as two clams, though the fact that Preston is a bit crooked it telegraphed so that everyone in the audience and all the other actors seem to know it long before Ladd. Either Ladd is really dumb or blinded by loyalty. However, as the film progresses, this friendship is in tatters and the inevitable confrontation between them eventually occurs and the movie ends. All this looks like something I've seen before several times and it's too bad the stars weren't given better material, as nothing seemed to occur that wasn't expected.