User reviews

MGM Studio execs. may have have wondered whether Director Sam Wood wasn't taking something of a risk when he hired Spencer Tracy (recently released by Fox, and known primarily for his action-packed B films) to play a tough-guy romantic lead in "Whipsaw" opposite Myrna Loy (fresh off a big success the previous year in "The Thin Man") but Wood knew what he was doing. The result is excellent. Tracy and Loy have terrific screen chemistry together in this 1935 cops-and-robbers movie. It doesn't even matter that the plot isn't particularly fresh, or that the dialogue doesn't always sparkle; the pleasure to be had in "Whipsaw" lies in watching these two screen pros slowly build a portrait of completely disparate characters who overcome their prejudices and their "better" judgments and fall in love. Since Spencer Tracy always played Spencer Tracy (no matter who the character he was portraying may have been) Myrna Loy had the more difficult transformation to accomplish here, and she comes up aces. Her performance is nuanced and understated and she's an elegant, intelligent foil to Tracy's more down-to-earth, beefy, good-guy persona. There's fine supporting work, too, from the secondary characters with John Qualen taking standout honors as a mild-mannered Midwestern farmer; and appropriately "noirish" cinematography from James Wong Howe. But the real story here is the performance by Loy and Tracy. In the flood of terrific movies that the '30's gave to us, "Whipsaw" is often overlooked. It shouldn't be.

Government agent Ross McBride is on the trail of stolen pearls. Pretending to be a crook, he tags onto Vivian Palmer on a cross country trail in the hope that she will lead him to her partners. However, she quickly discovers the truth, which puts each of them in a difficult position.

A film which flows smoothly throughout and one which works on two levels, as a crime drama and a love story, even if an unlikely one at the start. Add in the talents of Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy and it becomes something which is worth watching.

Whipsaw (1935)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Myrna Loy is in with jewel thieves when she runs into another mug (Spencer Tracy) who's actually an undercover cop. Loy, knowing his real identity, plays along and the two hit the road with Tracy hoping she'll lead him to her gang. Considering the talent involve you have to put this one down as a minor disappointment even though there's still a lot of stuff to enjoy. The biggest problem with the film is that it's rather flat and doesn't contain too much energy outside of the performances. It seems the film never knew if it wanted to be a drama, a romantic comedy or perhaps just a romantic melodrama. It doesn't really do any of them things very well as there aren't too many laughs and the drama isn't really there as the story is pretty predictable. What does work is the romantic angle thanks in large part to the wonderful performances by Loy and Tracy. Loy makes for a terrific leading lady and comes off quite sensitive to the point where you have no problem seeing why the agent Tracy would fall for her. Tracy plays it pretty tough and believable but has no trouble sinking into his wonderful charm. The two of them together makes for a great couple and they certainly keep the rather standard screenplay going. John Qualen plays a farmer who the leads meet half way through the film and he delivers nice work as well. While there's no question a stronger screenplay would have done wonders with the film there's also no doubt that Loy and Tracy really shine here. Fans of the stars will probably find themselves enjoying this a lot more due to them.

Myrna Loy play Vivian, a woman who helps a gang of jewel thieves, but not on this particular heist of some pearls. A rival gang knows that Vivian is associated with the thieves, and is watching her so that when she heads off to rendezvous with the gang that they can follow her to the pearls. And this rival gang does not consist of nice guys. They have no problem with killing people who get in their way.

Spencer Tracy is a federal agent pretending to be an ex-con so he can travel along with Vivian and apprehend the jewel thieves when she unwittingly leads him to them. But Vivian realizes he is a cop and is trying to find a way to get away from him without letting him know that she knows.

Then they run into a bad rainstorm out in the middle of nowhere and stop at the house of a man whose wife is having a baby - two of them actually. And it is there that everything changes in a way you could probably write yourself if you:

1. Are familiar with how MGM of the 1930s often shoehorned these rustic scenes into films to get the city slickers to come to their senses.

2. realize the vagaries of the production code.

3. can paint by numbers

The acting is the real reason to hang around. Myrna Loy is playing the elegant person she portrayed in so many films made after The Thin Man. Spencer Tracy is in the final phase of his "tough guy" era which he was in over at Fox and at first at MGM, even if he is just pretending to be a tough guy here. And in fact he is portraying somebody who is acting, which can't be easy to do subtly. It is interesting to see how the two play off of each other and attempt to keep up a believable front.

Spencer Tracy is an FBI man who pretends he's a con man to capture Myrna Loy and her fellow criminals in "Whipsaw," a 1935 film. When Loy's confederates steal valuable pearls, Tracy attaches himself to her so she will lead him to the robbers and the pearls. The only problem is, Loy is onto him.

This is a meandering story and not up the level of either actor. Loy is very beautiful and Tracy is appealing, but they're burdened by a silly plot that has them driving, riding in an airplane, and staying in hotels without much else going on. There is a nice sequence when a horrible rainstorm traps them at a farmhouse where they help an expectant mother give birth to twins. That whole section is the best part of the film.

The stars are very good together and probably in 1935 this went over a lot better. But now we know what Tracy and Loy were capable of, so "Whipsaw" is disappointing.

It's a very complicated story about cross and double-cross. Spencer Tracy is an undercover cop masquerading as a crook. He picks up Myrna Loy to lead him to the the mugs who have stolen some very expensive pearls. She makes him immediately, and tries to use him to throw off the tails. What she doesn't known is that she is carrying the pearls herself.

Sam Wood directs for romance rather than laughs, and it doesn't quite work. Tracy is not a romantic lead, no matter how James Wong Howe lights the leads. Apparently this was intended as a role for William Powell, and you can see the sort of romantic lushness that would have echoed ONE-WAY PASSAGE, but second-rate hotels in Kansas City, whether it's Kansas or Missouri, don't do much for the ambience, nor does Tracy spending much of show talking slang out of the side of his mouth help, no matter how beautiful Miss Loy is.

Ed Dexter and Harry Ames are a jewel thief team. Doc Evans and Steve Arnold lead a rival team. They threaten Ed and Harry over a valuable target. Ed and Harry turn them in with an anonymous call to the cops. Ed and Harry manage to steal the jewels while their rivals are in custody. The cops know that Vivian Palmer (Myrna Loy) is connected to the thieves. Agent Ross McBride (Spencer Tracy) goes undercover as a crook named Danny Ackerman and makes contact with Vivian.

Vivian is too obvious with her disbelief of Danny right from the start. She should hide it a lot better than that. Also I don't buy their romance. That's the biggest issue. It feels forced. The whole story feels a bit forced. I do love Tracy and Loy as individual performers. In another movie, they may be a good pairing.

A trio of thieves plans to steal a set of pearls. They follow them across the Atlantic and abscond with them in New York City. But their actions are being monitored by the Department of Justice and a rival gang.

Vivian Palmer (Myrna Loy), who is one of the jewel thieves, teams up with Ross McBride (Spencer Tracy) to elude the police and their other ruthless pursuers. But neither trusts the other. Circumstances force them to pool their resources and efforts, and they learn more about each other. The term "whipsaw" relates to McBride's feeling of being torn between two opposing allegiances.

Myrna Loy really holds this film together. She displays layers of emotions and confusion as her character attempts to play both sides against the other. This is a good romance; the chemistry between Loy and Tracy is strong.

Whipsaw is the picture that answers that burning question in the title.

This was Spencer Tracy's second film under his new MGM contract when he switched studios from Fox in 1935. With few exceptions Tracy starred in routine action films while at Fox and working in Whipsaw must have made Spence feel he was still at Fox. Other than the fact Louis B. Mayer instead of Darryl Zanuck was signing his paycheck, he wouldn't have known the difference from the quality of material he was being asked to do.

Myrna Loy however had already found her screen persona in The Thin Man a year earlier at MGM. So why she was asked to do Whipsaw is beyond me.

Basically the plot is Myrna is the confederate of jewel thief Harvey Stephens who's just made a big score. Stephens has a problem though, he's got to watch out for the law and for another gang who wanted in on the robbery.

The FBI has decided that the best way to Stephens is through Myrna and they've sent ace G-Man Spencer Tracy to work undercover and gain her confidence. Of course Spence gains more than her confidence.

So how will it work out for our intrepid duo? See the film if you are big fan of both of the stars, but only if that. Myrna and Spence both did much better work.

But big things were breaking for Tracy soon. He got cast as Father Timothy Mullin in San Francisco, got the first of his Oscar nominations, changed his screen image, and the rest as he later said in one of his better films is cherce.

As for Loy, I'm sure she was grateful to get back to working with William Powell in another Thin Man film. In fact she got to work with Powell and Tracy in Libelled Lady one of the best screen comedies from MGM ever. See that film by all means.

There are some good scenes but in general there's a forced contrivance to the playing, and the action scenes are amateurish. The plot of jewel thieves is preposterous and annoyingly depicted. Tracy and Loy are good as always but not enough to overcome a general feeling of lifelessness. However, John Qualen appears about 2/3 through and adds a spark by breathing life into the country-farmer cliche.

Myrna Loy plays against type in this film, as she's a high-class thief working with a gang of jewel thieves. However, the law knows who these folks are and decide to infiltrate them with one of their agents (Spencer Tracy). To do this, Tracy poses as a crook himself and they stage a fight between him and a detective--right in front of Loy. When Tracy makes his getaway, Loy joins him and helps. However, she is NOT taken in by this ruse--and she soon lets her gang know about this staged event.

If you have seen many westerns, you have undoubtedly seen this plot before---many times. I have seen films with Tim McCoy, Roy Rogers, Gary Cooper, Randolph Scott and others--all with the same basic plot! It's all the same down deep--with the hero staging a jailbreak or supposedly committing a crime right in front of gang members. There also is the angle about having the pair stay with a nice country family that leads to the crook vowing to change her ways (copied right from "Hide-Out" which MGM made the year before). It's all very, very familiar AND quite contrived. It's a shame they reused this old plot, as Tracy and Loy were wonderful actors and deserved something better--something FRESHER. Now this is not to say it's a terrible film--with Loy and Tracy, it really couldn't be all that bad and the ending was great--very tense. But you can clearly see why this is not among their more famous films. A decent time-passer and unfortunately nothing more--and it should have been.

By the way, I agree with one of the reviewers that John Qualen's performance as a simple farmer. Unlike many of his films where he puts on a THICK Scandinavian accent, here he underplays the role more--and it worked well.

Far-fetched and overly complicated plot gets in the way of stars Spencer Tracy and Myrna Loy as a cop posing as a thug and a would-be jewel thief on the lam.

Loy is part of a jewel thief gang but she wants to go straight. She's on her last job and doesn't know the jewels have been planted on her. Tracy is a cop posing as a thug who's helping her escape a rival gang that wants the jewels. Of course they fall for each other in the trains, planes & automobiles race across the country.

Not only is a rival gang after the jewels, but so are a gang of cops. Bad casting here as all these middle-aged actors look alike and no one stands out, so you can't keep them straight.

Film only comes to life when the stars get stuck in a storm and seek shelter in a remote farmhouse where a woman is about to give birth. The frantic father (a marvelous John Qualen) can't reach the doctor because the lines are down. Loy and Tracy pitch in and help in the emergency.

Then the film goes back to its ludicrous plot and plays out as expected. Loy and Tracy don't spark any chemistry and plot holes aplenty don't help. William Powell was lucky to have missed out on this clunker.