Voice of the Whistler (1945)

That was an excellent one.

Crappy film

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

The Whistler series from Columbia is unusual. Every feature starts out with an introduction by "The Whistler" who is just a shadowy anonymous figure. The protagonist in every feature is played by Richard Dix, and in each case he is a different person with a different problem.This one tackles greed and loneliness. Dix plays business titan John Sinclair. The film opens with a film within a film that is a history of Sinclair's business life, starting in WWI, then spreading to auto production and banking, how his banks stayed solvent through the Great Depression, and a recent court win over another company stealing Sinclair's inventions. It's a nice little device to catch you up on John's history. But Sinclair is lonely because he doesn't trust other people to not use him to get his money. He has no friends or relatives. He has something that is merely called "an attack", and his doctor says he needs to leave immediately for a vacation or else he will die, the implication being that he will probably die shortly anyways. Nothing more specific is ever said about his illness.Well, John does take that trip, does make friends in Chicago, and then changes his destination to the seacoast on medical advice. He takes two of his Chicago friends with him - a cabbie, Sparrow, who helped him when he did not know he was helping the rich John Sinclair, and a nurse, Joan, at a neighborhood clinic for poor people. He marries the nurse strictly as a business deal - she will stay with him the few months he has left in return for inheriting his fortune. The problem is, Joan already has a fiancé, Fred, but he is struggling in spite of being a doctor and Joan wants money NOW. It is a revealing scene when she talks to her fiancé and you see how greedy she is underneath that compassionate exterior.So John, Sparrow, and Joan go to live in a lighthouse on the Maine Coast, renovated to a beach house. There is just one snag - John doesn't die. Happiness with Joan has helped him recover. The other snag is Joan is getting impatient again, tired of the isolation of the lighthouse which is really nothing for John since he has always been socially isolated. And then Joan's ex-fiancé shows up unexpectedly one day. John is suspicious that Fred will take Joan away. Fred still loves Joan. Joan still loves Fred but also loves the promise of her inheritance which she loses if she dumps John. And how does Sparrow the friendly cabbie fit into all of this, or does he? Watch and find out how this noir turns Capra-esque and then turns Hitchcock in the end.Recommended as a very good entry in the series. Columbia certainly knew how to take a shoestring budget and turn out an interesting product.

Cheaply made entry into the Whistler series of films produced in the 1940s and directed with skill by soon-to-be showman/horror director extraordanaire William Castle. This is one of Castle's earlier films and you can see his burgeoning skills as a director - especially in the third act of this film. The story here concerns a wealthy industrialist taking time from his job and identity to make himself better though time is against him. The doctors tell him he is sick because of a lack of friends. He therefore gets some friends - and then makes a business agreement with a pretty nurse to marry him for six months(what time he has been told he has allotted) and then she upon his death will never want for nothing financially. Well, she had a fiancée and the story then moves to a weird love triangle in a lighthouse that has been turned into living quarters. This film has quite a few obvious flaws. For starters, the acting is very poor. Richard Dix who starred in most of the films in this series is at best bland. His range of emotion wouldn't cast a blip on a radar of any magnitude. He is overall acceptable but nothing grand to be sure. His fellow actors don't fair any better - in fact - much worse with the exception of Rhys Williams who plays the affable Ernie. Williams has screen presence and acting ability and innate charm for the camera. He works. Pity the rest do not. Lynn Merrick is okay as the mean-spirited, nasty, avaricious beauty that makes the deal with Dix only to regret it later. Merrick can be seen in some scenes looking at the camera early on in the film as can many of the smaller role actors. Castle apparently does not have much to work with here and it shows. Nonetheless, the film is short and does move quickly. The end is fairly inventive and this is certainly a watchable film at the very least.

Voice of the Whistler (1945) *** (out of 4) Fourth film in Columbia's series is once again directed by William Castle but he also co-wrote the screenplay here. This time out Richard Dix plays a rich man who will dead within a two month period. Not wanting to spend his last months alone, he offers a nurse (Lynn Merrick) a great opportunity. She marries him to bring him happiness and he'll leave her his millions. They go through with the plan but all of the sudden he starts to get healthy again. This is certainly the best film in the series so far and it works mainly due to the great story they are working with. There's a lot of twists and turns throughout the short 60-minute running time but it all leads to a highly believable ending. Dix is very good in his role as is Merrick and the two work perfectly well together. The screenplay offers both of their characters a chance to grow, which certainly isn't normal for this type of B movie. Castle does a very good job with his direction and proves he could direct something without gimmicks.

Whistler no.4 was imho perhaps the weakest of the 8 in the series, the main trouble being the plot change from seedy tarmac to invigorating lighthouse. This still means it's an atmospheric, interesting and inventive mystery thriller, keeping you on your toes with all the twists to the very end.Rich, friendless and ill industrialist Richard Dix has a heart attack and gets ordered to go on vacation, forget about work and de-stress. He bumps into an English ex-boxer cocky Ernie Sparrow who befriends him and shows him round his poor but friendly neighbourhood. But sadly it doesn't last long as a new story direction is suddenly taken. You go from feeling sympathetic for everyone to feeling it only for Sparrow, such is the effect of the "business arrangement" that was made. Favourite bits: Some of the homely scenes looking out of the lighthouse windows stick in the mind; Lynn Merrick never looked lovelier this side of Boston Blackie, or out of a saddle either.If you like the genre like me it's a nice little film, an hour well spent.