Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

ClassyWas Excellent, smart action film.

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

bsmith5552 "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.

dougdoepke Character-driven western whose guiding idea unfortunately is better than the result. Sheriff Tom, tough guy Race, and young man Jess, are friends in a small frontier town. Jess, however, wants a chance to prove himself a man, so he gets trial run as a stage driver. Trouble is he screws up by not driving off to protect doomed passengers when stage is ambushed at a way station. Instead he stays behind to help his friend Race. Now Jess needs to redeem himself by helping Sheriff Tom and posse track down stage robbers before vengeful Race guns them all down. Climax occurs in town when lynch mob gathers to head for Tom's jail.It's really Wagner's film. As the untried Jess, he shows his acting chops in a vivid performance still early in his lengthy career. Robertson (Race) and Calhoun (Tom) also get a lot of screen time as self-assured westerners. Oddly, they look so much alike, I got confused at times. The oater's unusual since no bad guy gets focal time, while the girls are strictly peripheral. Instead, the highlight is a well-photographed and lengthy chase scene across scenic rocks and hills. There's one unexpectedly jarring occurrence that I guess Hollywood convention couldn't let stand without smoothing out. Had they instead let it go extreme, the movie would be memorable. One key point, I wish Robertson's ambiguous character (Race) were more intense. That would have injected needed emotion to the movie as a whole There's a dramatic potential in the key conflict between Race and Tom that's unfortunately underplayed.All in all, it's an interesting western with an unusual plot and some riveting scenery, but drains too much story potential.

Michael Morrison Three of the stars became major television stars as well. And Rory Calhoun, Dale Robertson, and Robert Wagner made an excellent trio.Accompanied by two of the loveliest ladies, Lola Albright and Kathleen Crowley, as well as by some un-credited high-caliber performers such as the great John Doucette, George Cheesbro, and Edmund Cobb, they give us a tense western drama.Anger and revenge for cold-blooded killing always make for drama, and usually the audience, the viewers know which side to take. Here, though, there becomes a question of the right and wrong of lynch law. Who will defend the "official" law, and who will support the old "eye for an eye" law?The denouement is not what we expect.Until then, we are torn, because all the protagonists are good people and it is hard to decide for whom to root.Un-billed is Chuck Connors, but billed is the superb James Millican, as is J.M. Kerrigan in an undemanding but literate and important role."The Silver Whip" is available at YouTube and I highly recommend it.

alexandre michel liberman (tmwest) 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.