Release calendarTop 250 moviesMost popular moviesBrowse movies by genreTop box officeShowtimes & ticketsMovie newsIndia movie spotlight
    What's on TV & streamingTop 250 TV showsMost popular TV showsBrowse TV shows by genreTV news
    What to watchLatest trailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb SpotlightFamily entertainment guideIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsEmmysToronto Int'l Film FestivalHispanic Heritage MonthIMDb Stars to WatchSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll events
    Born todayMost popular celebsCelebrity news
    Help centerContributor zonePolls
For industry professionals
  • Language
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Watchlist
Sign in
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Use app
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • FAQ
IMDbPro

Bullwhip

  • 1958
  • Approved
  • 1h 20m
IMDb RATING
5.2/10
553
YOUR RATING
Rhonda Fleming and Guy Madison in Bullwhip (1958)
Classical WesternCrimeDramaRomanceWestern

In order to avoid the hangman's noose, a cowboy agrees to marry a beautiful but fiery redhead.In order to avoid the hangman's noose, a cowboy agrees to marry a beautiful but fiery redhead.In order to avoid the hangman's noose, a cowboy agrees to marry a beautiful but fiery redhead.

  • Director
    • Harmon Jones
  • Writer
    • Adele Buffington
  • Stars
    • Guy Madison
    • Rhonda Fleming
    • James Griffith
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.2/10
    553
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Harmon Jones
    • Writer
      • Adele Buffington
    • Stars
      • Guy Madison
      • Rhonda Fleming
      • James Griffith
    • 20User reviews
    • 5Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos19

    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    + 12
    View Poster

    Top cast20

    Edit
    Guy Madison
    Guy Madison
    • Steve Daley
    Rhonda Fleming
    Rhonda Fleming
    • Cheyenne O'Malley
    James Griffith
    James Griffith
    • 'Slow' Karp
    Don Beddoe
    Don Beddoe
    • Judge Carr
    Peter Adams
    Peter Adams
    • John Parnell
    Dan Sheridan
    • Podo
    Burt Nelson
    • Pine Hawk
    Al Terr
    • Lem Pierce
    Tim Graham
    • Pete
    Hank Worden
    Hank Worden
    • Tex
    Wayne Mallory
    Wayne Mallory
    • Larry
    Barbara Wooddell
    Barbara Wooddell
    • Mrs. Sarah Mason
    • (as Barbara Woodell)
    Rush Williams
    Rush Williams
    • Judd
    Don Shelton
    • Hotel Keeper
    Jack Reynolds
    • Sheriff
    Frank Griffin
    • Keeler
    J.W. Cody
    J.W. Cody
    • Indian Chief
    Jack Carr
    • Trimble
    • Director
      • Harmon Jones
    • Writer
      • Adele Buffington
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews20

    5.2553
    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10

    Featured reviews

    5dinky-4

    Rhonda and Guy past their expiration dates

    Here's an example of Plot #37 -- the couple forced to wed under unusual circumstances who seem to detest each other at first but who slowly, inevitably fall in love. Since the plot holds no surprises, the success of any film using Plot #37 largely depends on its two leads. Do they have the right chemistry? And does the script give them good dialog to toss back and forth?

    Alas, Rhonda Fleming and Guy Madison lack the necessary spark, and both of them seem a bit over-the-hill for this kind of romance. Their lines are without style and wit and the course of their relationship manages to proceed both predictably and unconvincingly at the same time.

    An air of sexism and racism pervades the movie and its depiction of the Old West, but in ways that are more amusing than offensive. Seeing Rhonda Fleming in her Indian maiden outfit, complete with feather, has a campy charm.

    Not surprisingly, Guy Madison gets to take his shirt off in order to display the chest which once adorned the inside door of a thousand high-school lockers. Though slightly faded at age 35 or so, this chest is still easy on the eyes and it's so unshaved as to be downright furry.
    3hitchcockthelegend

    Cheese on my Western sandwich please.

    To be honest I had heard this was pretty bad before I decided to watch it, but I'm never one to let others influence my viewings, in fact I'm more likely to watch something out of defiance! Bullwhip had one thing going for me before the viewing anyway, the fact that Rhonda Fleming and those gorgeous eyes was in it. The picture isn't very good, and it is in fact very morally dubious, all the characters are corrupt and shifty in one way shape or form, all motivated by greed or egocentric victories, which is all well and good if the surrounding film can at least do justice to a bunch of despicable people to create a taut climax. Sadly it doesn't, and as the finale fills your eyes with sugar you can't help shouting out that you have been cheated into watching a pretty bad film. Nobody in the cast come out with any credit, with lead man Guy Madison particularly wooden in the extreme.

    Not even the lovely Rhonda can make me recommend this to anyone. 3/10
    6bkoganbing

    As their interests dictate

    Bullwhip casts Guy Madison as a man with an interesting predicament. He got framed for a murder that was self defense by Judge Don Beddoe working with Rhonda Fleming the mixed racial owner and boss of a freight line. She's got a huge advantage over her competitors being the daughter of a Cheyenne chief her wagons get safe passage through their territory.

    But she also by the terms of her father's will has to have a husband in order to inherit the company. So poor Madison gets framed for a murder and then gets a signed release from Beddoe.

    After that there's any number of people who want to see Madison alive or dead as their interests dictate. And there are some whose views change as far as Madison is concerned one of them being Fleming. As for Guy now that he's married he wants to assert his marital prerogatives in all fields. That especially works with the Cheyenne given their alpha male point of view.

    Rhonda Fleming does well in a part that I'm sure was written with Barbara Stanwyck in mind. Though I doubt their are not too many mixed bloods that have her distinctive titian tresses.

    In spite of a really stupid title song sung by Frankie Laine over the opening credits Bullwhip is a good little western with memorable supporting performances by Don Beddoe as one crooked and roguish judge and James Griffith as a gunman with shifting loyalties. Fans of the stars will approve.
    5elcoat

    Rhonda flaunts her beauties

    So this starts out with our framed hero in a jail cell who agrees to marry a woman to get out of jail and then his buddy arrives, an assassin misses a shot at him, a sheriff(?) fires at them and his buddy kills the sheriff and then he rides after his new wife's pack train and when he catches up, he takes it over.

    The assassin is following him but seems to appreciate his friendship and ends up getting all the money for (not) killing him anyway.

    I don't like the Hollywood disrespect for the law, but the girl vs. Guy interplay is entertaining, and Rhonda Fleming is eye candy par excellence with every male viewer wishing he was in that covered wagon with her. (Why not just offer her a massage?)

    Her father who owns the shipping company dies, but she's an Indian princess. It should have been clarified that she had been captured by the Indians and raised as one of their own.

    And Iron Eyes Cody looking good! I wish he were still with us too.

    Rhonda's bio says she had 5? 6? Marriages and ended up with a son and 4 great-grandchildren. She definitely should have had daughters too.

    BEAUTIFUL woman!
    5Marlburian

    Disappointing western with holes in the script

    There's not much to commend this Western apart from Rhonda Fleming looking good in an Indian princess outfit straight out of a musical. The plot is full of holes, such as Parnell's men knowing exactly where to find Steve and his sidekick and Pine Camp switching his loyalty from Cheyenne to Steve after being thrashed by him.

    Pine Camp is an unconvincing Indian, just as Fleming makes an unconvincing half-breed.

    When Cheyenne's wagons meet the Indians in an exchange of hand gestures I couldn't help feeling that Cheyenne should have been looking at them to the right, rather than to the left. I played back this sequence several times and the "wrong way round" effect persisted.

    James Griffith was a bit of a disappointment - he spent all the time looking enigmatically po-faced, though at least he kept us wondering about which contract he was going to fulfil.

    The bullwhip of the title wasn't much in evidence - just when Rhonda was flicking it in a fit of petulance and when she used it ineffectually on Steve.

    The film could have been beefed up a bit by more tension between Steve and Cheyenne, especially if they had been played by not-so-nice actors; imagine Jack Palance and Barbara Stanwyck in the lead roles.

    More like this

    Reprisal!
    6.6
    Reprisal!
    The Sheepman
    6.8
    The Sheepman
    Frontier Marshal
    6.6
    Frontier Marshal
    Wagons West
    6.2
    Wagons West
    Chuka
    6.3
    Chuka
    Ride Beyond Vengeance
    6.3
    Ride Beyond Vengeance
    Law of the Lawless
    6.0
    Law of the Lawless
    Chato's Land
    6.6
    Chato's Land
    Saddle the Wind
    6.6
    Saddle the Wind
    The Gun Hawk
    5.9
    The Gun Hawk
    Lone Star
    6.2
    Lone Star
    The Jayhawkers!
    6.3
    The Jayhawkers!

    Related interests

    Gary Cooper in High Noon (1952)
    Classical Western
    James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Sharon Angela, Max Casella, Dan Grimaldi, Joe Perrino, Donna Pescow, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Tony Sirico, and Michael Drayer in The Sopranos (1999)
    Crime
    Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)
    Drama
    Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca (1942)
    Romance
    John Wayne and Harry Carey Jr. in The Searchers (1956)
    Western

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Guy Madison often shaved his chest for "beefcake" scenes, but when he takes his shirt off here, his chest hair--and there's a lot of it--is clearly evident.
    • Goofs
      During the exterior shot of the judge opening the front door of the Sheriff's office and entering, followed by Julia and Pine Hawk, we see that behind the door is a corridor with a flight of stairs on the left leading upward. In the next interior shot, we see them now entering the Sheriff's office through the front door, but that it is one room, with no sign of any flight of stairs, let alone a corridor.
    • Connections
      Featured in The Wonder Years: Angel (1988)
    • Soundtracks
      Bullwhip
      Music and Lyrics by Hal Hopper and James Griffith

      Sung by Frankie Laine

    Top picks

    Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations
    Sign in

    FAQ14

    • How long is Bullwhip?Powered by Alexa

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • June 21, 1958 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Bull-Whipped
    • Filming locations
      • Kenny Ranch, Murphys, California, USA
    • Production companies
      • Romson Productions
      • William F. Broidy Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 20m(80 min)
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    Sign in for more accessSign in for more access
    Follow IMDb on social
    Get the IMDb App
    For Android and iOS
    Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • License IMDb Data
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Your Ads Privacy Choices
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2025 by IMDb.com, Inc.