[1] Away for two years, a woman named Mary (Ava Gardner) returns to her home in a small town (a 'whistle stop').

Gitlo (Victor McLaglen), a friend of Kenny's who works for Lentz, talks Kenny into a scheme to rob and kill Lentz at a train station as he leaves for Detroit, then hide his corpse to make Mary believe he chose not to return.

Seeking vengeance, Lentz tries to pin a murder on Veech and Gitlo, who barely make a getaway.

"He had been a big name around the world and he was on the skids and we could afford him, but he looked like hell and who wanted to see this old man with Ava Gardner?

[6] It was one of a series of popular movies Raft made as a freelancer following leaving Warner Bros.[8] When the film was released, film critic Bosley Crowther, dismissed it, writing, "A slice of sordid life in a small mid-Western town was somewhat faithfully reflected in Maritta Wolff's novel, Whistle Stop, but the same can't be said for the picture, based upon it, which came to the Globe on Saturday.

This plainly remote and artificial concoction lacks flavor, consistency, reason and even dramatic suspense.

Production and playing are excellent and the direction strong, although latter is given to occasional arty tone ... Gardner displays her best work to date as the girl who must have her man.