Whistle Stop (1946)
A woman returns to her small hometown after years away and rekindles old tensions between a former boyfriend and the nightclub owner she has fallen for instead, setting off a robbery plot that ends in betrayal and murder.
Whistle Stop arrived the same year Ava Gardner broke through in The Killers, and gave her a rare change of pace as a small-town temptress torn between two men in a grimier, more provincial world than her usual MGM glamour; produced independently by Seymour Nebenzal’s Nero Films for United Artists release, its atmosphere of old grudges curdling into violence has earned it a modest cult following among noir collectors.
Background
Whistle Stop is a 1946 film noir directed by Léonide Moguy and produced by Seymour Nebenzal’s Nero Films for release by United Artists. George Raft and Ava Gardner star, and the film appeared the same year Gardner broke through in The Killers. Victor McLaglen and Tom Conway are also in the cast. Gardner plays a woman who returns to her small hometown and rekindles old tensions between a former boyfriend and the nightclub owner she has fallen for. The film runs about eighty-five minutes and has earned a modest cult following among noir collectors for its atmosphere of old grudges.
What to watch for
Look for Gardner’s performance as a small-town woman torn between two men, which offers a change of pace from the glamour of her MGM roles. The small-town setting, with its old grudges, sets up a robbery plot that ends in betrayal and murder. Raft’s presence reflects the tough-guy persona he built in earlier crime films. The film’s atmosphere of provincial bitterness separates it from the glossier noirs of its period. Notice how the story’s romantic triangle drives the crime plot, so that jealousy and past loyalties push the characters toward their final choices.
