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''Whispering Smith'' is an American Western series that aired on NBC. Using the same title as a 1948 movie about a railroad policeman named Luke "Whispering" Smith in frontier-era Wyoming, pursuing a gang of train robbers loosely modeled on the Hole in the Wall Gang, and the novel by Frank H. Spearman from which that film derived. In the series Audie Murphy stars as Tom "Whispering" Smith, and, in this incarnation, is a police detective in Denver, Colorado rather than a special agent of the railroad. Filming of the series began in 1959, but the program did not air until May 8, 1961, because of unexpected production problems. ''Whispering Smith'' combines elements of CBS's ''Have Gun – Will Travel'' starring Richard Boone, NBC's ''Tales of Wells Fargo'' starring Dale Robertson, the syndicated ''Shotgun Slade'' with Scott Brady, and ABC's ''The Man From Blackhawk'', a Stirling Silliphant production starring Robert Rockwell. While the setting of the series is unique, it is otherwise a standard detective program.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=''Whispering Smith'': Created by Frank H. Spearman (1859-1950) )〕 ==Program background== The character in the novel, and the subsequent film, combined elements of real-life railroad detectives Joe Lefors, who was employed by the Burlington line, and Timothy Keliher of the Union Pacific. By contrast, the character on the TV series does not seem to have been specifically based on any real-life figures, but the series is set after 1874. when Denver's local law enforcement agency transitioned from a town marshal's office to a city police force. Some episodes were said to be based on actual cases from the files of the Denver Police Department.〔 After seven episodes were filmed, costar Guy Mitchell, a recording artist who portrayed detective George Romack, broke his shoulder in a fall from a horse. By the time he recovered, Murphy had a film commitment (''Hell Bent for Leather'', shot August 17 – September 11, 1959) and production had to be further postponed. Actor Sam Buffington, costarring as police chief John Richards, committed suicide at the age of twenty-eight, and had to be replaced. Once scheduled, the series missed its intended debut date because of an NBC news special.〔Gossett, p. 176.〕 After the premiere of ''Whispering Smith'', the U.S. Senate Juvenile Delinquency subcommittee claimed that the series was excessively violent, and Murphy rushed to its defense.〔 A hearing before the subcommittee made the front page of ''The New York Times'' on June 9, 1961. With the lights dimmed in their meeting room, members of the subcommittee watched the second episode, “The Grudge”. They saw a story of bloody revenge that included the following: a fistfight, a mother horsewhipping her son, a claim of sexual assault (fabricated) in a hotel room, a story told of a man laughing after shooting another man six times in the stomach, a gunfight ending in injury, and the same mother, at the end, accidentally shooting and killing her daughter instead of the target (Smith/Murphy). The story was set in Denver, Colorado and when the lights came up Senator John A. Carroll of Colorado called the episode “a libel on Denver”. An executive producer for Revue Studios defended the program before skeptical senators. The committee staff estimated that 2,500,000 children had watched “The Grudge”.〔"Delinquency Rise Laid to TV Shows," ''The New York Times'', June 9, 1961, p.1.〕 The program was soon discontinued, as Murphy himself lost interest in the project.〔 In the 1948 theatrical release of the same name, ''Whispering Smith'', Alan Ladd starred as the no-nonsense railroad investigator assigned to solve the mystery of a rash of train robberies. He sadly finds that the perpetrator of the crimes is an old friend, Murray Sinclaire, portrayed by Robert Preston. The 1948 film was not the first motion picture based to have been based on Spearman's railroad detective. In fact here were three silent films based on Spearman's novel, in 1916, 1926, and 1927. A sound picture set in modern times, ''Whispering Smith Speaks'', was released in 1935, though, in that film, the titular character was a railroad track walker rather than a detective, who solves a crime on the side. In the first of the silent films, Harold Lloyd served as an assistant director, while the director, J. P. McGowan, also played the lead.〔 In 1951, the film, ''Whispering Smith Hits London'', also set in modern times, starred Richard Carlson as an American detective working on a special case at Scotland Yard in England.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=''Whispering Smith Hits London'' (1951) )〕 Twenty ''Whispering Smith'' episodes aired through September 18, 1961, in the time slot following ''Tales of Wells Fargo''. The remaining six segments were never broadcast on NBC. ''Whispering Smith'' aired at 9 p.m. Mondays opposite the CBS sitcom ''The Danny Thomas Show'' and the second half of the ABC modern detective series ''Surfside 6''.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=''Whispering Smith'' episode guide )〕 The budget was $45,000 an episode.〔Don Graham, ''No Name on the Bullet: The Biography of Audie Murphy'', Penguin, 1989 p 284〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Whispering Smith (TV series)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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