Whistle Stop (1946)

Intriguing, engrossing, lost love romance drama filled with suspense, crime, blood lust and plenty of misery to go all round. In a small town, things get pretty dicey as no one seems to get along. This is a love triangle film, filled with the usual hospital stays, train statons, meals with Ma, card games... its still good to watch it. 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. This basically is a love triangle story. Old flame Ava Gardner (not a bad looking chic) comes back to her old small town to find her old flame (George Raft) sulking as usual in the bars round town. [Gee, this sound again like a play on my "Casablanca". The old flame comes back into this guy's life (ie Raft's life). How many more films are they going to base on my Casablanca epic?] The title, Monsieur Rick, .... what does it mean?: Well, this is about trains, sort of. You DO know what trains are, don't you? Not really about trains literally so much, but they blow their damn whistles often enough to make everyone in the film think its an air raid siren. Trains come and go, and so do loves. But the title generally refers to the loneliness of a one horse town that relies on the train.... people know what the whistles mean as the bar tender conveys in the film. Whistle Stop refers to one of millions of small towns, just a whistle stop away. This is as much the bartender's film, Victor M. as Gitlo is superb, just as are the then famous George Raft and now famous Ava Gardener. All three play in a spinning, out of control love fest that show friendship can get you a bullit or two. Kenny's (George Raft) 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. See the entire film at: http://www.archive.org/details/Whistle_Stop CAST George Raft ... Kenny Veech Ava Gardner ... Mary Victor McLaglen ... Gitlo Tom Conway ... Lew Lentz Jorja Curtright ... Fran Jane Nigh ... Josie Veech Florence Bates ... Molly Veech Charles Drake ... Ernie Charles Judels ... Sam Veech Carmel Myers ... Estelle Jimmy Conlin ... Al - the Barber Jimmy Ames ... Mr. Barker Mack Gray ... second Bartender Director: Léonide Moguy Writers: Maritta M. Wolff (novel), Philip Yordan (screenplay) NOTES about the film: 1 The big bartender friend of George Raft was a rambunctious British leading man (contrary to popular belief, he wasn't Irish) and later character actor primarily in American films, Victor McLaglen was a vital presence in a number of great motion pictures, especially those of director John Ford. McLaglen (pronounced Muh-clog-len, not Mack-loff-len) was the son of the Right Reverend Andrew McLaglen... Best Actor in a Leading Role for: The Informer (1935). Nominated Oscar Best Actor in a Supporting Role for: The Quiet Man (1952). 2 The villain character in all of this is Lew Lentz, played by a now unknown Tom Conway. But what we don't realize is that because he had a name really as Tom Conway, the comedian of TV's Carol Burnett Show could not use his real name and the very same name Tom Conway. He had to change his stage name to "Tim Conway". REVIEWS of the film: 1 "Whistle Stop is no masterpiece, but it intermittently sparks into life, generally when Victor McLaghlin (the bartender) shows up, trying to lure Raft into a murderous scheme or taking revenge on his sneering boss." 2 "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." 3 "Victor McLaghlin (the bartender) 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. " 4 " Ava Gardner is amazing eye candy, a screen goddess, and steals every scene she is in. Frankly, she is so gorgeous that she is completely miscast in this little melodrama about small town hicks." Runtime:85 min Sound Mix:Mono (Western Electric Recording) Color:Black and White .