Ensofter Overrated and overhyped

Abbigail Bush what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Blake Rivera If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

mark.waltz A grieving widower decides that life isn't worth living and arranges for his own murder but ultimately changes his mind to his own detriment. Richard Dix starts off "The Whistler" series literally with a bang, continuing for several more years playing always different characters finding their darkness at dawn. As the war years began to wind down, America found itself in a new crisis: a domestic one not involving enemy agents from other countries or tensions between various parts of the country. This involved individual moralities, pretty much disintegrating as embittered survivors of a depression era world decided to just enjoy life, and to hell with the consequences of their own amoralistic actions. 1944 exploded with such movies, two of them ("Double Indemnity" and "Laura") considered "classics", and others featuring a cynicism that American movies had not previously been allowed to show. Radio got away with it more since the visual aspect of their stories were missing, but with many popular radio shows becoming as American as apple pie, it was only a matter of time before many of them began showing up on the movie screen.In the case of "The Whistler", the mysterious narrator pops in and out of the drama, adding a darkness on-screen that was only psychological on radio. Seeing the dark streets, cynical heroes and world-weary derelicts doing anything just to stay afloat brought the truths of the world out into the open. Dix's character doesn't reveal to the man he pays $1000 to that it is himself he wants bumped off, and later when that man is killed by the police, his widow arranges for a meeting with Dix in order to seek out her own revenge. The hit-man, given the instructions by a deaf mute, follows Dix around with the intention of simply scaring him to death, and when Dix ends up in a homeless shelter, he is almost made a victim of robbery by another homeless man. Every time this film turns another street, more darkness appears, and it is very appropriate that ultimately, it ends up down at the docks of the unnamed city it takes place in.Fans of the 1997 "Titanic" will be intrigued to see a young Gloria Stuart as Dix's devoted secretary, worried about him being missing, while "B" movie favorite Joan Woodbury makes an interesting femme fatal as the widow of the man Dix hired to bump himself off. Billy Benedict, of the "Bowery Boys" movies, is very haunting as the deaf mute (too busy reading the comics to even morally considering what he's passing on), and J. Carroll Naish is quietly sinister as the actual hit-man. Then, there's Charles Wagenheim as the man who tried to pick Dix's pocket in the flophouse who ends up manipulating him into leaving with him only so he can rob him later. This is filled with spooky, unforgettable characters of every dimension of low life, and even the ending is rather a downer, reminding the audience that not every story, whether crime related or not, has to end up happy. It seems that more people end up dead because of this man's grief than what he intended, giving an ironic twist to the darkness of a story that could only be told by "The Whistler".

kidboots Richard Dix seemed to have had starring roles from the start, always the dependable hero but when Paramount decided he would not be ideal for talkies he was dropped. It didn't really matter as he was still in demand, again usually as the solid good guy, but when he was given a role he could really get his teeth into, as the psychotic Captain in Val Lewton's "Ghost Ship", Columbia must have thought he would be ideal for their "Whistler" series. "The Whistler" had been a popular radio series and the stories followed the theme of a criminal act being uncovered, usually by overlooking an important detail or by the criminal's own stupidity. Richard Dix was starred in most of the entries. After a lifetime of playing uncomplicated leading men, it must have been a shock to him to be given roles where he was either a neurotic or psychotic!!!Wealthy industrialist Earl Conrad (Dix) contracts a hired killer to kill a man - himself!! He has been despondent about the death of his wife but can't bring himself to end it all. Unknown to most of his friends, his marriage was disintegrating and he had taken his wife, Claire, on a second honeymoon but when she is reported drowned he begins to think that everyone views him as responsible.Out of the blue he is notified that his wife has been found alive but the go-between who he has made arrangements with is killed after leaving the bar so Conrad, who now does not want to die, has no idea who to contact. The assassin, creepily played by J. Carroll Naish, is a scary bundle of professionalism who is determined to earn his money. He is toying with the idea of scaring Conrad to death!!This was the first in a highly original mystery series, always preceded by an eerie voiced narrator whistling the same weird song. Gloria Stuart who had been off the screen since 1939 returned in the mid forties for a few thankless roles before retiring, content to be a wife and mother. In "The Whistler" she plays Conrad's loyal secretary.

GManfred Richard Dix has lost his wife and has nothing to live for, life has turned to ashes, etc., so through an agent he hires a hit man (J. Carroll Naish) to kill him. He changes his mind as his wife has been found alive, but the agent is killed in a gun fight, so he can't contact the hit man to cancel the deal. So far you can go along, right?Then, the hit man contacts him, and says he can't cancel the deal, he is duty-bound and logic and reason be damned. Dix takes it 'on the lam', as they say, and from hereon the story becomes increasingly unbelievable until it enters a surreal phase from which it never recovers. The hit man shows up around every corner like a cartoon character, until the film ends abruptly, an ending which is outlandishly contrived.I liked the rest of the series but this initial entry is about the weakest, and I was never a fan of William Castle. The more I think of it the more I think my rating is too high.

MartinHafer The "Whistler" was very odd for a B-movie series and so much unlike its contemporaries (such as Charlie Chan or The Falcon). Richard Dix starred in 8 of the 9 films. though he played a totally different character in each--sometimes a good guy and other times a bad one. In many ways, this is reminiscent of Universal's INNER SANCTUM series in that the same actor often played different roles in each film AND the series was NOT the standard detective film but an anthology series--much like TV's TWILIGHT ZONE. The "Whistler" in the titles of most of the films is an unseen guy in the shadows that narrates the film and occasionally makes comments during the film. This format was apparently created for the radio version of "The Whistler".In this first of the series, Dix plays a depressed man who, instead of suicide, pays an unknown assassin to kill him!! While the whole idea is ridiculous and contrived, it is pretty entertaining--especially when Dix changes his mind and truly wants to live but he isn't sure who is coming to kill him or how to stop the contract! The biggest negative, other than the silliness of the story, was the narration by The Whistler. This narrator talks too much--sometimes making comments or saying things that were obvious to the viewer. I haven't seen the rest of the series, but surely hope this was corrected.