Steve "Whispering" Smith as played by Richard Carlson is a well-known American Private Eye in London for a holiday. His jaunt to Cornwall is cut short when Greta Gynt asks him to investigate the death of her employer's daughter. It's supposed to have been a suicide, but she doesn't believe it. Carlson's investigation leads him into a web of blackmail and murder.
I've no idea why Carlson's character is called Whispering Smith. Originally he was a railroad detective in the 19th Century in a book by Frank Spearman. It became a movie in 1916 with J. P. McGowan in the title role. In the remakes and sequels, the role was taken by McGowan again, then George O'Brien, and in 1948, by Alan Ladd; it would later become a TV series starring Audie Murphy. In all of them, Smith is a character in the Old West. Here, Carlson plays him as a modern man in the archetypal detective's trench coat.
It's a pretty good mystery, with an interesting cast, including Herbert Lom, Rona Anderson, Alan Wheatley, and Stanley Baker in a tiny role. With occasional hints of noirish lighting and, eventually, a femme fatale, it winds up being a typical detective movie, in which everything is set aright by the capture of the murderer.... despite the fact that none of the murder victims come back.
