Whispering Smith vs Scotland Yard
               
Director: Francis Searle
Year: 1952
Rating: 5.0
Aka -Whispering Smith Hits London

 As best as I can tell, this film isn't related to the Whispering Smith film of 1948 starring Alan Ladd or the Whispering Smith TV show in the 1950s starring Audie Murphy or even the Whispering Smith film of 1926 starring H.B. Warner. For one thing, those were all Westerns while this is set in contemporary times - but the Whispering Smith of those films was a detective and so is this one. An American private detective who goes to London to take a vacation. This was produced by Hammer in their pre-horror days and as they often did, they hired an American actor to play the main role. In this instance, that is Richard Carlson who would go on to appear in two cult films - It Came from Outer Space and Creature from the Black Lagoon.  British director Francis Searle seems to have given Carlson one main bit of advice - you are American, so be as abrasive as you can be. British audiences expect that. And he is.


 
His vacation in England lasts about an hour till a pretty-face (Rona Anderson) walks into his hotel room and asks for his help. Her boss in America doesn't believe his daughter Sheila committed suicide and wants Smith to look into it. He refuses till someone tries to run over the pretty-face, Ann. He begins to poke his nose into it and comes across a few suspicious people - the lover of Sheila, puppet-master played by Herbert Lom. Just being a puppet-master puts him at the top of my list of likely killers. There is also Louise (Great Gynt) who was supposedly Sheila's best friend but has femme fatale seeping out of every pore. Smith with his American bravado walks into a few sure traps but comes out unscathed and ready to crack the case. Shot in bland black and white (a TV copy didn't help), it is pretty second-tier stuff.