ThiefHott Too much of everything

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

utgard14 Wealthy industrialist John Sinclair (Richard Dix) has devoted so much of his life to making money that he has no friends. To make matters worse for the saddest millionaire, his health is now failing. While on a doctor-prescribed vacation, he meets sexy nurse Joan (Lynn Merrick). He steals her away from her fiancé Fred to go live with him in a lighthouse, promising he will leave his fortune to her when he dies. After awhile Fred shows up and the plot, as they say, thickens.The fourth in Columbia's Whistler series starring Richard Dix. Not the best but pretty good, especially given the short runtime. Dix is solid as usual. Fine support from Rhys Williams, James Cardwell, and beautiful Lynn Merrick, who looks great in a bathing suit. There's an early scene with a group of men sitting in a darkened room watching newsreel footage about the life of Dix's character that is close enough to Citizen Kane that one might call it a rip-off. Perhaps William Castle meant it as an homage. By the way, how precious is that little girl in the doctor's office? "I can't help it if I'm popular" -- so cute.

kidboots This is a very haunting entry in the unusual Whistler series, exploring loneliness and the need of friendship. Lynn Merrick was an up and coming starlet who had been featured on the Crime Doctor series and also in "Nine Girls" but she just wasn't showy or different enough to stand out from the crowd I suppose - she looked eye catching enough in this movie. These series were particularly good with unusually solid parts for girls, here Merrick plays Joan Martin, a nurse at the East Street Clinic where ruthless industrialist John Sinclair (Richard Dix) has been directed. He has just collapsed outside a train station where he is helped by a cheery cockney (!!!) cabbie who doesn't know who he is. Sinclair has been a hard headed business man all his life and through his hunger for power has missed out on love and companionship and now wants to make amends. He is drawn to nurse Joan (Merrick) but Joan is engaged to doctor Fred, even though, because of his lowly paid work among slum patients, he cannot give her the money and security that she craves. Sinclair sees his chance, reveals his true identity and lies, telling Joan he has only six months to live and that after his death, if they marry, she will inherit everything.The odd thing is that they then move to an isolated lighthouse - after realising that being around people has cured him of his malaise. Never fear, Joan has now given him even more of a reason to live and at the end of six months it is a hale and hearty John and a discontented Joan who welcome Fred as a guest to their lonely home. Fred has changed from a caring doctor to a grasping opportunist who can see a way out for himself and Joan. John's thoughts are going along the same lines and he engages Fred in that old conversation "how would you plan the perfect murder"??? John confides his plan of starting a rumour around the village that Fred is a sleepwalker - so when Fred's body is found, he will have a perfect alibi. Fred starts to act on the "suggestion", just as John hoped he would and when Fred enters his room that night, John is two steps ahead of him and Fred then becomes the corpse.... but there is a problem!!! After listening to John's proposal, Fred had become paranoid and ordered Sparrow (who is now John's buddy) to nail down the windows so it seems John now has to carry Fred's body down to the rocks below where he is seen by someone.... but who!!!After proving that he could play a villain as well as the next man (in "The Ghost Ship") Richard Dix was signed to do "The Whistler" series where he was called on to play a variety of characters - none of them particularly nice!!!

mgconlan-1 A truly great "B" and the best "Whistler" series film I've seen so far. It's true that the plot doesn't make much sense, but there's a marvelously surrealistic quality about the exercise and Richard Dix's performance is one of the most haunting of his career, harking back to his great epics of the 1930's ("Cimarron," "The Conquerors" and "Reno"). William Castle's direction shows his marvelous command of atmosphere — he really was a first-rate suspense director when he wasn't throwing things at the audience or giving them electric shocks — and also is distinctly influenced by Orson Welles even before they worked together on "The Lady from Shanghai," especially in the fake newsreel used to introduce Dix's character and his backstory and the long scenes of the semi-retired tycoon and his blonde trophy wife living a joyless existence in a remote residence. Lynn Merrick is superb as a morally ambiguous character, and though James Cardwell is weak, Rhys Williams is a far better than average comic-relief sidekick even though his sudden appearance makes it seem at first as if that train took Dix not to Chicago but to London via the transatlantic tunnel Dix was constructing in the film of that name. "Voice of the Whistler" is an especially good entry in a series that on the whole maintained a high level of quality and holds up better than the rather dated, tricky "Whistler" radio shows. Please, Sony, follow the example of Universai's release of the "Inner Sanctum" films and put out all eight "Whistler" movies as a DVD boxed set!

Spondonman 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.