I saw this movie 2 days ago, or at least the first half of it. Alan Ladd's character, Luke "Whispering" Smith, is a lone wolf-type character who isn't married but happens to have a friend who has a wife who has a thing for him. Is this movie from a novel by the same guy who wrote Shane?
shareNo. Frank Spearman wrote "Whispering Smith" and Jack Schaefer wrote "Shane".
A bit of trivia that is fun, but doesn't mean anything: the gal in this picture is named Marian, just like Mrs. Starret in "Shane" with Alan Ladd and just like the librarian in "The Music Man" with Robert Preston.
"It's as red as The Daily Worker and just as sore."
As I stated in my review of Whispering Smith (which see), I read the Spearman book when I was a kid (1956 or so). It was published in 1916. I had an original copy, found in a junk shop. The frontispiece illustration was by famous illustrator N. C. Wyeth. It was very long and like most romantic novels of that era had a half dozen or so subplots. They just kept the basics in the movie, which is probably better than the book. I first saw the movie as a re-relase in a theater about 1958.
He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good... St. Matthew 5:45
Alan Ladd acts very similar to Shane on this film.
The unappealing Brenda Marshall, seems to be also attracted to him,
logical, with a husband so thug.....
Smith or Shane ?
http://www.bookscans.com/images/PopularLibrary_NN%28185%29_Prom%20back.jpg
Since my post on this thread, I have watched Shane again for the first time in a long while, and found that I don't particularly like it. Whispering Smith beats it in every way for me.
Brenda Marshall seems plenty appealing to me. But then I'm so old, Fay Holden looked very good, too.
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He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good... St. Matthew 5:45