Trivia

The railhead town site was constructed on the Paramount lot adjacent to the neighboring RKO Pictures studio. It became the basis for what would go on to become Paramount's famous western town set as seen in TV's Bonanza (1959) and numerous other TV shows and movies. Prior to 1948, Paramount didn't have a western set on its studio lot. A short line of track was laid down that allowed a working period locomotive to pull into town.

Filmed in mid-1947, but not released theatrically until February 1949.

Robert Preston appears in very similar roles in 2 films, both with very similar plots: Union Pacific (1939) and Whispering Smith (1948) .Both movies center around railroading; Preston plays a likable but misguided "heavy" in both; in Union Pacific, Joel McCRea plays a lawman to Alan Ladd's title character, Whispering Smith; in Union Pacific, Barbara Stanwyck plays the love interest, married to one, romantically attracted to the other male leads - in Whispering Smith, Brenda Marshal plays a very similar character; in his film, Ladd has William Demarest as his sidekick, while in Union Pacific, McCrea has Akim Tamiroff and Lynne Overman; in both films, the likable but misguided Robert Preston characters die at the end; both films take place in roughly the same era; in both films the heavy (Preston) was a good friend of the leading good guy (McCrea or Ladd) from way back when; in both films the lead (McCrea or Ladd) tries to get their old friend, Preston, back on the track to decency by reasoning with him; in Union Pacific, the arch demon is played by Brian Donlevy, while in Whispering Smith, he's played by Donald Crisp; there are train wrecks galore in both films; both the McCrea and Ladd character work for the railroads. There are other parallels, as well, so many that it would seem that Union Pacific served as a rough template for Whispering Smith to a large extent, with Preston playing essentially the same, or very similar, character roles in both films.

"Screen Director's Playhouse" broadcast a 30 minute radio adaptation of the movie on September 16, 1949 with Alan Ladd reprising his film role.

One of over 700 Paramount productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since. A popular local favorite, it was first telecast in Seattle Sat 1 November 1958 on KIRO (Channel 7); it next aired in Minneapolis Saturday 7 February 1959 on WTCN (Channel 11), followed by Asheville 12 April 1959 on WLOS (Channel 13), by Milwaukee 21 April 1959 on WITI (Channel 6), by Omaha 4 June 1959 on KETV (Channel 7), by Philadelphia Saturday 3 October 1959 on WCAU (Channel 10), by both Boston and by Indianapolis 24 October 1959 on WBZ (Channel 4) (in black and white) and on WFBM (Channel 6) (in color), by Toledo 2 November 1959 on WTOL (Channel 11), by Chicago 20 November 1959 on WBBM (Channel 2), and by Johnstown 9 December 1959 on WJAC (Channel 6). At this time, color broadcasting was still in its infancy, limited to only a small number of high rated programs, primarily on NBC and NBC affiliated stations, so all of these vintage film showings were still in B&W, with the exception of WFBM (Channel 6) (Indianapolis), which, as an NBC affiliate had already ventured into pioneer color broadcasting. Other viewers were not offered the opportunity to see these films in their original Technicolor until several years later. It was released on DVD 12 March 2013 as part of Universal's Classic Westerns Collection, and since that time, has also enjoyed airings on both Turner Classic Movies and the Western Channel.