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| RETURN OF THE
WHISTLER, THE (director: D.
Ross Lederman; screenwriters: story by Cornell
Woolrich/Edward Bock/Maurice
Tombragel; cinematographer:
Philip Tannura; editor: Dwight
Caldwell; music: Wilbur Hatch; cast: Michael
Duane (Ted Nichols), Richard Lane (Gaylord Traynor),
Lenore Aubert (Alice Dupres Barkley),
James Cardwell (John Barkley), Ann
Shoemaker (Mrs. Barkley), Wilton Graf (Dr.
Grantland), Owlin Howlin (Anderson), Eddy
Waller (Sam - the Gardener), Edgar
Dearing (Capt. Griggs), Ann Doran (Sybil), Sarah
Padden (Mrs. Hulskamp); Runtime: 63; MPAA Rating:
NR producer: Rudolph C. Flothow;
Columbia Pictures; 1948) "It was the only episode without the film's previous star Richard Dix, who retired." Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz D.
Ross Lederman ("Texas Cyclone"/"Adventure in
Iraq"/"Two-Fisted law") skillfully directs the
last of the eight entries in Columbia's superior
Whistler mystery series, that was based on a popular
radio show at the time. It was the only episode
without the film's previous star Richard Dix, who
retired. Dix's presence is missed. He was not a
continuous character, but he added a certain spark to
the characters whether as the dubious private
detective or villain. The film is introduced by the
voice-over of the unseen Whistler, who tells us "I
walk by night." During
a heavy rainstorm at night in upstate NY, engineer Ted
Nichols (Michael Duane) is driving to a
justice of the peace to marry a French widow
named Alice Dupres (Lenore Aubert),
whose American pilot husband was killed on their
wedding night a few years ago during the war and is
someone he only knows for two weeks. But the justice
of the peace won't be back until the morning, and the
couple find they have car trouble after its been
tampered with and stay at the only inn in town after
Ted bribes the nasty night clerk Anderson (Owlin
Howlin). Catch is that since they're not
married, Ted can't share the room with Alice. The next
morning Ted finds that Alice has vanished and Anderson
lies that she ran away. Overhearing the disturbance in
the lobby, private detective Gaylord Traynor
(Richard Lane)
offers his services to the distraught Ted and they
ride together to NYC to check Alice's apartment to see
if she went there and had cold feet like the detective
thinks. The first half was exciting, but in the second half when we learn what all the mystery means the film loses its power and deadens. We now know that the French widow is the heiress to the American family fortune after her husband's father's death, and her husband's crooked relatives have hired Anderson to concoct the wild story about her departure and for Traynor to locate Alice because they are planning to swindle her out of her inheritance and have placed her in an asylum run by a corrupt doctor (Wilton Graf). The less than compelling payoff has the engineer tracking his fiance to the asylum and rescuing her with the help of the guilt-ridden private dick, who changes allegiances when he's convinced the family who hired him are criminals. REVIEWED ON 10/7/2012 GRADE: B Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews" © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ |