Whiplash (1948)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Lewis Seiler

Writers:

Kenneth Earl (story)
Harriet Frank Jr. (writer)

Release Date:

24 December 1948 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Film-Noir

Plot Keywords:

Melodrama

Cast

Dane Clark	...	Michael Gordon, aka Mike Angelo
Alexis Smith	...	Laurie Durant
Zachary Scott	...	Rex Durant
Eve Arden	...	Chris Sherwood
Jeffrey Lynn	...	Dr. Arnold Vincent
S.Z. Sakall	...	Sam
Alan Hale	...	Terrance O'Leary
Douglas Kennedy	...	Costello
Ransom M. Sherman	...	Tex Sanders (as Ransom Sherman)
Freddie Steele	...	Duke Carney (as Fred Steele)
Robert Lowell	...	Trask
Don McGuire	...	Markus
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Joe Gray	...	Fighter

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:G | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Nitrate prints of this film are held by the UCLA Film and Television Archives.

Routine but good

"Whiplash" was a routine offering from Warner Brothers in the late forties but routine in those days also meant efficient, entertaining and well worth seeing. It is only when you see films like this one which are sixty years old and in black and white to realise that the equivalent does not exist in cinema any more. Television has taken over this sort of story but still cannot do it as well or cover effectively scenes in boxing arenas or large scale venues in their stories. The Warner Brothers rep company was also a very good one: Davis, Crawford and co were, of course, the front runners at this time, but this cast shows how professional and talented the second string actors were in those days. Dane Clark was never a star but here he gives a highly efficient and convincing performance, carrying the film with ease and confidence. Alexis Smith (cruelly underestimated and underused until her later years) is excellent as the unhappy heroine, married to sadistic Zachary Scott but in love with Clark. She had a much wider range than most people gave her credit for (She was to win a "Tony" on Broadway for her performance in Sondheim's "Follies") and was always a welcome actress in anything she did. Scott plays one of his usual villains but always played them with style and panache. The divine Eve Arden has a few good scenes but is wasted - and Jeffrey Lynn, usually a somewhat pallid and passive actor, is here very good as Smith's drunken brother who finally resolves the story by his actions. Not a marvellous film, of course, but thoroughly watchable and carefully made.