Whispering SmithGuy Mitchell (left) and Audie Murphy in the seriesGenreWesternWritten byLawrence MenkinTom SellerFrank H. Spearman (story)Directed byHerbert ColemanEdward LudlumPete LyonsChristian NybyStarringAudie MurphyGuy MitchellSam BuffingtonTheme music composerRichard ShoresCountry of originUnited StatesOriginal languageEnglishNo. of seasons1No. of episodes26ProductionProducersHerbert ColemanRichard LewisJoseph HoffmanRunning time30 minutesProduction companyWhispering Co. Productions Revue StudiosDistributorUniversal Television(2000–2004)NBCUniversal Television Distribution(2004–2011)ReleaseOriginal networkNBCPicture formatBlack-and-whiteAudio formatMonauralOriginal releaseMay 8 –October 30, 1961
The Whispering Star movie reviews & Metacritic score: A feminine android delivers packages to the scattered humans in the galaxy. With years to spare, the android and us have time to contemplate what it is to be hu. Watch truly great cinema. Wherever you are. From new directors to award-winners. Beautiful, interesting, incredible movies — a new film every single day.
Whispering Smith is an American Western television series that originally aired on NBC. It has the same ultimate source material as the 1948 film of the same name (and some other films), but differs in some significant respects.
In the series, Audie Murphy stars as Tom 'Whispering' Smith, a 19th-century police detective in Denver, Colorado. Filming of the series began in 1959, but the program did not air until May 8, 1961, because of unexpected production problems.
Whispering Smith combines elements of CBS's Have Gun – Will Travel starring Richard Boone, NBC's Tales of Wells Fargo starring Dale Robertson, the syndicatedShotgun Slade with Scott Brady, and ABC's The Man From Blackhawk, a Stirling Silliphant production starring Robert Rockwell. While the Western setting of the series is unique,[citation needed] it is otherwise a standard detective program.[1]Program background[edit]
The 1948 film was about a railroad policeman named Luke 'Whispering' Smith in frontier-era Wyoming, pursuing a gang of train robbers loosely modeled on the Hole in the Wall Gang. It was based on a novel by Frank H. Spearman.
The character in the novel and the subsequent film combined elements of real-life railroad detectives Joe Lefors, who was employed by the Burlington line, and Timothy Keliher of the Union Pacific. By contrast, the character on the TV series, whose first name is slightly different, does not seem based on any real-life figure, and neither are the other characters. The series is clearly set sometime after 1874. when Denver's local law enforcement agency transitioned from a town marshal's office to a city police force. Some episodes of the show were said to be based on actual cases from the files of the Denver Police Department.[1]
In the 1948 film Whispering Smith, Alan Ladd starred as the no-nonsense railroad investigator assigned to solve the mystery of a rash of train robberies. He sadly finds that the perpetrator of the crimes is an old friend, Murray Sinclaire, portrayed by Robert Preston. The 1948 film was not the first motion picture to have been based on Spearman's railroad detective. In fact, there were three silent films based on Spearman's novel, in 1916, 1926, and 1927. A sound picture set in modern times, Whispering Smith Speaks, was released in 1935, though, in that film, the titular character was a railroad track walker rather than a detective, who solves a crime on the side. In the first of the silent films, Harold Lloyd served as an assistant director, while the director, J. P. McGowan, also played the lead.[1] In 1951, the film, Whispering Smith Hits London, also set in modern times, starred Richard Carlson as an American detective working on a special case at Scotland Yard in England.Controversy and Conclusion[edit]
After seven episodes of the series were filmed, co-star Guy Mitchell, a recording artist who portrayed detective George Romack, broke his shoulder in a fall from a horse.[2] By the time he recovered, Murphy had a film commitment (Hell Bent for Leather, shot August 17 – September 11, 1959) and production had to be further postponed.[3] Actor Sam Buffington, costarring as police chief John Richards, committed suicide at the age of twenty-eight, and had to be replaced.[4] Once scheduled, the series missed its intended debut date because of an NBC news special.[5] After the premiere of Whispering Smith, the U.S. SenateJuvenile Delinquency subcommittee claimed that the series was excessively violent, and Murphy rushed to its defense.[5]
A hearing before the subcommittee made the front page of The New York Times on June 9, 1961. With the lights dimmed in their meeting room, members of the subcommittee watched the second episode, 'The Grudge'. They saw a story of bloody revenge that included the following: a fistfight, a mother horsewhipping her son, a claim of sexual assault (fabricated) in a hotel room, a story told of a man laughing after shooting another man six times in the stomach, a gunfight ending in injury, and the same mother, at the end, accidentally shooting and killing her daughter instead of the target (Smith/Murphy). The story was set in Denver, Colorado and when the lights came up Senator John A. Carroll of Colorado called the episode 'a libel on Denver'. An executive producer for Revue Studios defended the program before skeptical senators. The committee staff estimated that 2,500,000 children had watched 'The Grudge'.[6] The program was soon discontinued, as Murphy himself lost interest in the project.[1]
Twenty Whispering Smith episodes aired through September 18, 1961, in the time slot following Tales of Wells Fargo. The remaining six segments were never broadcast on NBC. Whispering Smith aired at 9 p.m. Mondays opposite the CBS sitcom The Danny Thomas Show and the second half of the ABC modern detective series Surfside 6.[7]
The budget was $45,000 an episode.[8]Cast[edit]
*Audie Murphy as Tom 'Whispering' Smith
*Guy Mitchell as George Romack
*Sam Buffington as John RichardsNotable guests[edit]
Among current and future stars who appeared on Whispering Smith were
*Robert Redford and Gloria Talbott as Johnny and Cora Gates in 'The Grudge', the second episode of the series
*Harry Carey, Jr. as Sergeant Stringer in 'Safety Valve'
*Richard Chamberlain as Chris Harrington in 'Stain of Justice'
*James Best in starring role in 'The Hemp Reeger Case'
*Edward Platt in 'The Hemp Reeger Case'
*Roscoe Ates (1895–1962), formerly of the 1950 western The Marshal of Gunsight Pass, as a sheriff in the episode entitled 'Three for One'
*Clu Gulager, later co-star of The Tall Man and The Virginian, as Jeff Whalen in 'The Devil's Share'
*Myron Healey as Jim Conley in 'Double Edge'
*Don Keefer as Dr. Johnson in 'The Deadliest Weapon'
*Read Morgan as Hob Tyler in 'The Jodie Tyler Story'
*Forrest Tucker, later star of the western sitcom F Troop, as Gunman Bardot in 'Trademark'[7]
*Elen Willard, as Charlotte Laughlin in 'The Quest'
*Alan Hale, Jr., who starred in the western series Casey Jones, appeared in the series finale, 'The Idol', as Ole Brindessen, the witness to a swindler who commits murder
*Jim Davis of Dallas fame appears in 'Homeless Wind'Episodes[edit]NºTitleOriginal air date1'The Blind Gun'May 8, 1961A blinded outlaw leads Smith in a search for stolen bank money.2'The Grudge'May 15, 1961Ma Gates, an outlaw's widow (June Walker), plans to have her son (Robert Redford) murder Smith. (Gloria Talbott) plays the daughter.3'The Devil's Share'May 21, 1961A loaf of bread ends up leading to the capture of a murderer (Clu Gulager).4'Stake-Out'May 29, 1961Smith is being blackmailed by a pair of old friends who turn out to be outlaws planning a bank robbery.5'Safety Valve'June 5, 1961Smith and Romack investigate the death of officers who've been shot in the back during battle.6'Stain of Justice'June 12, 1961The son (Richard Chamberlain) is suspected of a killing that he didn't commit.7'The Deadliest Weapon'June 19, 1961A ruthless tycoon seeks police protection when his life is threatened on the eve of a gold-mine stock sale.8'The Quest'June 26, 1961A blind pianist provides the only clue to the whereabouts of a missing woman.9'Three for One'July 3, 1961An outlaw gang kidnaps a prisoner in order to determine the location of stolen money.10'Death at Even Money'July 10, 1961A gambler bets $50,000 that Smith won't live another 48 hours.11'The Hemp Reeger Case'July 17, 196112'This Mortal Coil'July 24, 196113'Cross Cut'July 31, 196114'Double Edge'August 7, 196115'Trademark'August 14, 196116'The Jodie Tyler Story'August 21, 196117'Poet and Peasant Case'August 28, 196118'Dark Circle'September 4, 196119'Swift Justice'September 11, 196120'The Idol'September 18, 1961A barman overhears a murder linked to a fraud21'String of Circumstances'September 25, 196122'The Interpreter'October 2, 196123'The Homeless Wind'October 9, 1961While taking in a prisoner who was an old friend of his father both men are captured by 'El Tigre'.24'Trial of the Avengers'October 16, 196125'Prayer of a Chance'October 23, 196126'Hired to Die'October 30, 1961DVD release[edit]
Timeless Media Group released 25 episodes of this series in a 3-disc Region 1 set on April 20, 2010. A bonus feature, Medal of Honor: The Audie Murphy Story, is included.The Whispering Star Full Movie 123movies
On October 20, 2011, it was announced that Timeless Media had located the missing episode, 'The Interpreter', which was not present in the previously released set, and would now re-issue the third disc of that set to include this missing episode.[9]References[edit]
*^ abcd'Whispering Smith: Created by Frank H. Spearman (1859-1950)'. ThrillingDetective.com. Retrieved February 24, 2009.
*^Pitts, Michael R. (2004). Famous Movie Detectives III. Scarecrow Press. p. 262. ISBN0-8108-3690-4.
*^Gossett, Sue (1996). The Films and Career of Audie Murphy. Empire Publishing. pp. 175, 113. ISBN0-944019-22-6.
*^Jackson, Ronald; Abbott, Doug (2008). 50 Years of the Television Western. AuthorHouse. p. 150. ISBN1-4343-5925-5.
*^ abGossett, p. 176.
*^'Delinquency Rise Laid to TV Shows', The New York Times, June 9, 1961, p.1.
*^ ab'Whispering Smith episode guide'. Classic Television Archive. Retrieved February 24, 2009.
*^Don Graham, No Name on the Bullet: The Biography of Audie Murphy, Penguin, 1989 p 284
*^'Whispering Smith DVD news: Update about Whispering Smith – The Complete TV Series'. TVShowsOnDVD.com. Archived from the original on 2012-06-21. Retrieved 2012-08-14.External links[edit]Wikimedia Commons has media related to Whispering Smith.
*Whispering Smith on IMDb
*Whispering Smith at TV.comRetrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Whispering_Smith_(TV_series)&oldid=981932283'
* Is my current romantic partner “the one?”
* What’s the REAL cause of my mysterious health issue?
* What’s my true purpose in life?
* How can I heal from past heartbreak?
* How can I manifest more financial abundance?
It’s like the Universe is now your own personal Google for all of life’s most important questions...
And all the answers you’ll ever need are always at your fingertips.
In fact, “Spirit Whispering” works so quickly, starting today...
You’re Going Call-Forth Your First Message From The Universe Before The Next Moon Rises (Less Than 24 Hours From Right Now)
Oh, and by the way, I also have some VERY special gifts for you...The Whispering Star Full Movie Download
Including my Universe Translator that reveals the EXACT meaning of the signs from the Universe you're going to receive.
I’ll share all the exciting details with you in just a moment.
First though... I need to let you in on something that will change your life... just like it has me and so many others.
You see...
I want to be clear...
The answers from the Universe I’m talking about don’t suddenly materialize out thin air. Free Movies Whispering Smith
Because the truth is...
Your messages already exist... they’re surrounding you as we speak!
Problem is... they’ve gone unseen...
Simply because nobody has ever taught you how to notice and read them.
After all... the Universe doesn’t speak to us in English... or any kind of spoken language at all. Movie Whispering City
Instead... its empowering guidance is communicated to us by...
