A Disappointing Continuation

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

"The Silver Whip" was I'm sure, a vehicle for up and coming star Robert Wagner whom 20th Century Fox was grooming for stardom. It co-starred him with two of the studio's top leading men of the day, Dale Robertson and Rory Calhoun.Wagner plays Jess Harker a disgruntled but ambitious stagecoach driver who is not getting his due. He is driving a local run with a mule team. He longs to drive the main line coach. When he threatens to leave for greener pastures, his girl Kathy Riley (Kathleen Crowley) and two-gun shotgun guard Race Crim (Robertson) arrange for him to be transferred to the main line in spite of dispatcher Luke Bowen's (James Millican) apprehensions.The stage is to carry a large gold shipment which outlaw Slater (John Kellogg) overhears in the saloon. He races to the relay station to meet up with his gang and rob the coach. When the stage arrives at the relay station, Race suspects something and tells Jess to move the stage out of harm's way. Jess disobeys and remains. Following a gunfight with the gang, they make off with the loot.When Race's girlfriend Waco (Lola Albright) and Uncle Ben (Bert Mustin) are killed, Rice is filled with rage. He takes off after the outlaws while Jess joins up with Sheriff Tom Davisson's (Calhoun) posse. They catch up with one of the outlaws (Ian MacDonald) and take him prisoner in spite of Race's desire to hang him on the spot. All of the other bandits were killed by Race except for Slater.Later, when Slater is captured, the townsmen form a lynch mob and convince Race to join them. Jess, meanwhile has hired on as Davisson's deputy and is left in charge of the prisoners. The mob storms the jail and..............................................................................The film was not one of the studio's big budget films of the year. It was filmed in glorious black & white just as the wide screen CinemaScope process was coming in. Robertson is quite good as he goes from confident law abiding to hate filled vigilante. Calhoun has little to do and Wagner does OK as the young Jess. Watch for sagebrush veterans George Chesboro, John Doucette and Edmund Cobb as members of the lynch mob.

The script is well written, handling clichés very well. The direction is brisk and orderly. The actors are very professional, even the God-awful Robert Wagner. Watching Dale Robertson I am surprised that he didn't become a bigger star: he is at ease in front of the camera, charming when it is called for, and very realistic in his delivery. Rory Calhoun was quite adequate for an undemanding role. This really seemed to be a vehicle for the young Wagner. I must admit I have only enjoyed him in one movie in his career and generally find him uninteresting and sub-par. Was Zanuck gay and in love with him? I will never understand Fox pushing him; but the 50's did bring on the teenage girls in the audience. I guess that was it. Overall, this movie is a little gem that deserves more recognition. I recommend it.

Harmon Jones' "The Silver Whip" is apt to be forgotten these days, but this horse opera is pretty good. The cast is a stellar one with Rory Calhoun as the stalwart sheriff, Dale Robertson as the vengeance driven stagecoach guard, and Robert Wagner as a young man learning the ropes of responsibility. Apart from its black & white cinematography, this Twentieth Century Fox western foreshadowed one of the studio's best westerns "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" when an outlaw with no place to run leaps off high rocks to plunge into a lake below. "Shane" novelist Jack Schaefer wrote the source novel "First Blood" that this above-average western was adapted from by "North West Mounted Police" scenarist Jesse L. Lasky Jr. penned. The casting of Robertson as the villain distinguishes this otherwise minor western. The last quarter hour of the action foreshadowed the John Wayne movie "Rio Bravo." "You sure never know what a kid's got inside of him," the manager of the stagecoach station observes after the Wagner hero proves his ability to follow orders and live up to his responsibility. Harmon Jones never lets the action slacken in this concise 73-minute western. Good dialogue.

This is a film which is ignored, you do not see it mentioned in books written about westerns. Nonetheless it is very good, it also has three actors that became quite famous: Robert Wagner, Rory Calhoun and Dale Robertson. Wagner is really the central character, a young man who is looking for a chance to prove himself. Robertson and Calhoun are the older men that will give him opportunities to do so. He will be confronted with terrible situations where his mistakes will cost the life of other people, but also if he is right it could be at the expense of somebody's life. There is no way for him of coming out without feeling guilt, but at least there is comfort when you know you took the right decision. Wagner is quite a good actor, the only criticism I have about him is that his hair looks as it took hours to comb, but that was the fashion in the fifties. Robertson, very different from what we are used to, gives a very good performance.