Before she left she'd been stepping out with Kenny (Raft) and flirting on the side with local nightclub owner and all-round sadistic smoothie Lew Lentz (Tom Conway), and her reappearance rekindles smoldering passions, driving both men to thoughts of murder.
I describe WHISTLE STOP as having aspirations to film noir because while almost all the elements are there they don't coalesce into the dark, fate driven brew generally recognised as noir. Lew and Kenny and his halfwitted sidekick Gitlo (a miscast Victor McLaglen) are driven not by forces beyond their control but by boneheaded stupidity and minuscule horizons. They're like a pack of hungry dogs fighting over a juicy pork chop being dangled in front of them but - tantalizingly - just out of reach.
As the implausibly named Kenny Raft exudes his usual aura of wooden immobility and is simply way too dull and old to be convincing as the sweetheart Mary left behind when she lit out for the bright lights of Chicago. I've never been a big admirer of Miss Gardner's looks - there's an off-putting porcelain quality about them - but she's absolutely ravishing here. This low budget 1946 production was one of her first starring roles and there's a freshness and innocence to her appearance which was lost once MGM decided to make her into a sultry sex goddess.
Unless, like me, you get a perverse pleasure out of watching George Raft films to wallow in his patent inadequacy as a leading man, Ava's really the only reason for investing time in WHISTLE STOP. It's no great shakes as a drama, melodrama or film noir and most likely played the bottom half of a double bill on it's original release, but it is exciting to see an actress on the cusp of becoming a great star, still learning her craft and giving a very naturalistic performance.
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