Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Console best movie i've ever seen.

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

David (Handlinghandel) I was eager to see the "Whistler" movies because of William Castle's involvement in some. He was a fine director ion the forties. (He was OK later, too. But in the forties his films were very elegant and subtle. His later horror outings were anything but subtle.) This one is not directed by Castle but it works really well. It was near the end of Richard Dix's run in the series. He was not a great actor, at least not at this point. But he had a very solid presence. And he is plausible as good guys and not so hot ones as well.Here he plays a less than admirable character. He is a painter. Amazingly, the painting of his that we first see is pretty decent. So often, even in the toniest of A-pictures, paintings by supposedly great artists looked like the work of quick-sketch artists or Sunday painters.The film opens with a stylishly noirish woman buying her own tombstone. Everything bout this film has the marvelous dark look of a film noir. Or of an Edward Hopper paintings. The scenes look especially like book jackets from the time.And the female lead looks right off the cover of some true-crime book. Wow, she looks both right and beautiful! And she -- Leslie Brooks -- is a fine actress too. (Intriguingly, she looks like the same studio's biggest star ten years hence: Kim Novak.)The whole series is entertaining, even the final film, which does not have Dix in it.One problem I encountered and others may as well: Clearly the movies were based on a radio program of their time. I have never heard that program, though. I get the idea that the Whistler is an omniscient criminologist who either has no bodily image or, like Lamont Cranston of "The Shadow," can make himself invisible.Guess I will try to track some tapes of the series down. In the meantime, do yourself a favor and search out these films. They're all good. A couple, like this one, are very good.

jlnick1957 Can someone explain to me how this movie ends ?? I watched it twice, enjoyed and didn't understand the ending. I thought Richard Dix was terrific The sets and storyline were first rate It was obvious that having a "radio script" helped. You can't top the movies of this era. These would be great movies to remake. Who would be a good lead for this ?? Maybe Kevin Spacey or Alec Baldwin. You could even have a good female lead for this. How about Meryl Streep or Kate Blanchett ? I'd love to hear any other suggestions. The fact that these "Whistler" movies provided the fodder for a great series of movies is a great foundation for a future run. Charlie Chan, Thin Man, etc. were excellent, but wouldn't work. But this format has the chance to provide for a multitude of surprises and plot twists.Thanks

Spondonman I always thought Richard Dix was at his best in this series of films. The sense of mystery, menace, or goodness he could generate by turns makes his Whistler films (this was number 6 out of 7) well worth watching, although he could sometimes give the impression of a chunky silent actor getting to grips with talkies.In this outing he plays a man married to a woman purely for her money and who falls in love with a younger woman who is after him purely for his (her) money. How the situation is nefariously resolved is the plot, simply and carefully plotted. The way the actors spoke their words beginning with capital letters in this - and other entries in the series - makes me think this must have been adapted and expanded from one of the scripts of the 231 radio plays already aired by then. Whether playing a goodie, baddie or bothie Dix exuded a simple yet intense sincerity, he's basically a baddie with all the usual human failings in here and yet you can still find yourself rooting for the poor mutt. Leslie Brooks as the not-too-bad gold-digger artists model was never more alluring, I was definitely rooting for her! There's a poignant twist at the end, so attention is recommended.Sadly neglected, about time they were all available on DVD, a nice entry in a nice series for those of us who like the genre.

django-1 This was the second to last film Richard Dix made in the Whistler series. The mysterious Whistler is seen as a shadow and heard invoice-over narration, but the "star" of the films is Richard Dix, who plays a different role in each--some heroic, some cowardly, some honorable, some not so honorable. This must have been satisfying to Dix, since it gave him regular work AND allowed him to show his talent in a wide variety of roles. This particular entry gives Dix a complex role, as an artist married to a rich woman whose financial support allows him to continue his work. The plot is more complex than the synopsis suggests, and there are a number of twists and turns throughout, giving the film the feel of an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The "femme fatale" in this film is played by Leslie Brooks, who took this kind of role even further in the great BLONDE ICE two years later. Director George Sherman did a lot of exciting films at Republic prior to this film at Columbia, including many entries in the Three Mesquiteers series, and went on to do many more films, including episodes of such classic TV shows as Rawhide and Naked City. The centerpiece of the film, though, is Richard Dix, an actor of great presence (it's fair to say that Gary Cooper was influenced by Dix)and subtlety. SECRET OF THE WHISTLER would be a good introduction to this series, and it should appeal to any fan of INNER SANCTUM, THRILLER, ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS, etc. Most of the other films in the series are worth checking out also. Perhaps sometime in the future Columbia could do a DVD boxset of the Whistler films the way Universal is doing the Francis and Ma&Pa Kettle films? And after that, perhaps they could reissue the Boston Blackie films?