Whistle Stop (1946) directed by Léonide Moguy
The movie begins: While George Raft is fighting memories of Ava Gardner, she returns home to a town where trains stop only if signaled (a "whistle stop"). As a small-town girl who makes good, every one is impressed that she is wearing a mink coat. However, its symbolism is deceptive because in reality she needs money.
Raft and his rival (Tom Conway) for her affections are both only too glad to welcome her home. She seems to love Raft, but, as a gambler, he isn't serious enough for her. Nightclub owner Conway has money; and with a generous lifestyle, he seems to win her...at least for a time.
The film is entertaining enough but is not a great dramatic tension film as was intended. It isn't even a very good one as it lacks pacing to the point of almost at times being silly. One minute Ava is making love to Raft, then in that same minute she is mad at his lack of ambition, then she is with Conway and dumps him at the drop of a hat for slugging Raft, then she is back with Raft, etc.
Another nonsensical sequence involves a girl (Jorja Curtright with a slight resemblance to Gardner) who is crazy about Raft. Now that Ava is back, she is rejected by him. She then merrily joins a square dance, breaks through a fence to fall a couple of feet off the dance floor, and goes to the hospital where "she isn't going to make it." She is hanging on for dear life hoping Raft will visit her. When he does, she tells him she is at peace. Suddenly, she gets hysterical, telling him that he is all broken up and nothing good will ever happen to him because he himself is no good. He walks away with her words ringing through his head. We never hear any more about her after that because, well, who cares.
The scene of Raft at the carnival being dared with a small money bet to shoot out a light with Conway under it was tantalizing and suspenseful. Not!
There is a car chase which is short and offers no real sense of anxiety but, as always, those old police cars can bring smiles to the faces of us living in this more sophisticated time. They (Raft and his friend-in-crime bartender Victor McLaglen) elude the coppers by turning into a forest while the police speed on past them down the highway.
Why were they running from the police? Because under Conway's pretense of wanting to be friends with Raft, they were lured to Conway's office where they are then set up for murder.
After Victor McLaglen gets Raft safely hidden away, he returns to tell Gardner where Raft is, then sneaks into Conway's home, is shot, but recovers long enough to strangle Conway and call the police. Victor McLaglen shows once again that he is a great ham and believable character actor in this scene and in a couple of other scenes woven into the movie plot.
Ava Gardner is not a particularly good actress, but her performance is flawless, or the closest thing to it, in this film as a good-girl enchantress; and she never looked lovelier. George Raft, on the other hand, was his usual self--rather boring, uninspired, and lacking charisma. Let's face it, if compared to what Cagney, Bogart, or Mitchum could do for a film noir, he always comes up short in spite of his iconic image as a gangster.
Florence Bates as Molly Veech
One of the delights in Whistle Stop is Florence Bates who plays Raft's mother. Bates is an interesting woman in that she graduated from the University of Texas in 1906 with a major in math. She taught school for a while, got married, had a baby, and left her job. After getting divorced, she studied law and passed the bar at age 26, becoming the first female attorney in Texas.
In 1939, she was introduced to Alfred Hitchcock and won a role in Rebecca as Mrs. Van Hopper. Since that big break, she appeared in more than sixty films over the course of the next thirteen years. She also made guest appearances on TV, including I Love Lucy where she was one of the Society Matrons League members in "Pioneer Women."
The haunting musical score is by Russian-born Dimitri Tiomkin, "one of the giants of Hollywood movie music."
All in all, Whistle Stop is a so-so film worth watching if you enjoy some of the 'B' movies just for the stars themselves. One and 1/2 stars.
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