The Whistler (1944-1948) | The Columbia Pictures’ mystery film noirs get the Indicator Blu-ray treatment

Mystery dramas were massively popular with American listeners during the Golden Age of Radio. The Whistler, which ran on CBS from 1942 to 1955 with 692 episodes, was one of them. I’ve never heard of it, even though I’m a fan of vintage radio shows, notably The Saint (1947-1951), which starred Vincent Price (of course) as Leslie Charteris’s ‘devil-may-care Robin Hood’ Simon Templar. 

And just as RKO adapted The Saint for a series of feature films (1938-1943) with Louis Hayward, George Sanders and Hugh Sinclair taking on Templar’s mantle, Columbia Pictures did the same with The Whistler – as part of their series of B-movie crime programmers like Boston Blackie. Between 1944 and 1948, eight B-features, running just 60 minutes each, were produced. Oscar-nominated actor Richard Dix, who was picked based on his performance in Val Lewton’s The Ghost Ship, starred in seven, and Michael Duane played the lead in the last one as Dix had decided to retire from acting.

The Whistler (voiced by Otto Forrest, who reminded me of American psychic Criswell) acted as the host/narrator, emerging as a shadow with a haunting whistle and heavy footsteps to introduce and comment on the action in each twisted tale of crime and punishment in which Dix would play different characters that were either heroic, villainous or everyman besieged by fate. 

Future gimmick showman William Castle cut his filmmaking teeth directing four of the features, bringing an eerie air with some low-key lighting effects and inventive camera angles (that would inform his later work), and by bringing them under budget, Castle became an in-demand director throughout the 1950s until he decided to go independent and scare the pants off America with such classics as House on Haunted Hill and Strait-Jacket.

For Indicator’s sixth release in their Columbia Noir collection, all eight films have been brought together in a four-disc Blu-ray box set. Each disc has two features alongside an array of extras, including commentaries, critical appreciations and image galleries, and a 120-page booklet which includes new and archival essays, including a great one from Tim Lucas (I especially liked how he connected these films to David Lynch’s Blue Velvet). If you have never seen these films, I recommend reading Tim’s article and tuning into Kim Newman’s essential primer, A Whistle-Stop Tour, on the first disc beforehand.

DISC ONE
The Whistler (1944, dir William Castle)
After failing to save his wife (Gloria Stuart, of The Old Dark House and Titanic fame) from drowning at sea, guilt-stricken industrialist Earl C. Conrad (Dix) hires a contract killer (House of Frankenstein’s J. Carrol Naish) to end his life – but when his wife turns up alive, he discovers he can’t renege on the deal.

The Mark of the Whistler (1944, dir William Castle)
In this tale, scripted by The Devil Bat‘s George Bricker, based on pulp fiction author Cornell Woolrich’s short story, Dormant Account, homeless drifter Lee Nugent (Dix) swindles $30,000 from an abandoned bank account by impersonating someone with the same name. But he’s soon targeted by the rightful owner’s sons (one of whom is played by famed US magician John Calvert).

• Audio commentary with film historian Josh Nelson on The Whistler (2024)
• A Whistle-Stop Tour (2024, 25 mins): an in-depth overview of the film series by critic and author Kim Newman
• It’s Your America (1945, 36 mins): a dramatised documentary focusing on soldiers returning from World War II, directed by John Ford and featuring J. Carrol Naish.

DISC TWO
The Power of the Whistler (1945, dir Lew Landers)
Fortune teller Jean Lang (Janis Carter) is determined to help amnesiac William Everest (Dix) uncover his name and past using the items he carries in his pockets – but gets the shock of her life when he turns out to be an escaped maniac from a mental hospital. Director Landers worked on over 100 features throughout his 50+ year career, including the classic Bela Lugosi/Boris Karloff 1935 horror, The Raven.

Voice of the Whistler (1945, dir William Castle)
Loneliness is the key theme in this entry as the wealthy John Sinclair (Dix), who has six months to live, makes a deal with his nurse, Joan (Lynn Merrick), that they marry, and she will inherit his fortune after his death. Seven months after settling into a refurbished lighthouse, John is still very much alive, Joan wants out, and her ex-fiancé Fred (James Cardwell) returns to claim her back… Cue some deadly action as Fred and John try to bump each other off. 

• Audio commentary with film scholar Professor Jason A Ney on The Power of the Whistler (2024)
• Audio commentary with the late film historian Lee Gambin (who tragically died, aged just 44, in May, on Voice of the Whistler (2024)
• The Noir City Interview with Robert Dix (2010, 19 mins): an interview with the son of Richard Dix, recorded in LA following a screening of The Power of the Whistler
• Stuart Holmes Oral History (1958, 69 mins): archival audio recording of the prolific character actor in conversation with historian George Pratt

DISC THREE
Mysterious Intruder (1946, dir William Castle)
Unscrupulous private detective Don Gale (Dix) gets mixed up in murder and mayhem when he’s hired to find a missing girl whose family inheritance contains two rare collectable song recordings from real-life Swedish singer Jenny Lind. This one features Barton MacLane, who famously played General Peterson in I Dream of Jeannie and professional wrestler/Hollywood heavy Mike Mazurki. It was also Castle’s final feature in the series as he would head off to work with Orson Welles on The Lady from Shanghai.

The Secret of the Whistler (1946, dir George Sherman)
Dix plays ‘kept husband’ Ralph Harrison, who poisons his wealthy wife Edith (Mary Currier), who suffers from bouts of heart attacks, so he can marry artist model Kay (Leslie Brooks). But Edith soon becomes suspicious. A well-acted, well-paced entry from director George Sherman, best known for low-budget Westerns in the 1930s and 1940s, and also the 1971 John Wayne classic, Big Jake, which marked his final feature.

• Audio commentary with film historian Jeremy Arnold on Mysterious Intruder (2024)
• Working in the Shadows (2024, 22 mins): Kim Newman looks over William Castle’s early career as a studio-contracted director

DISC FOUR
The Thirteenth Hour (1947, dir William Clemens)
Here, Dix plays Steve Reynolds, a trucking company owner who can’t get a brake as a rival firm wants him out of the picture. Framed for running down a police officer, Steve, with the help of his fiancé Eileen (Karen Morley) and her son Tommy (Mark Dennis), is determined to prove his innocence armed with a crucial piece of evidence – a glove containing diamonds in the thumb. It was a tremendous final stint from Dix and well-directed by William Clemens, who had previously helmed three Falcon films (RKO’s The Saint imitations). Karen Morley had a burgeoning career in the 1930s and 1940s (check her out in 1932’s The Mask of Fu Manchu), but her career floundered after being blacklisted by the Un-American Activities Committee. Little Mark Dennis also appeared in 1947’s Secret Beyond the Door and 1968’s Targets.

The Return of the Whistler (1948, dir D. Ross Lederman)
Another Cornell Woolrich story, All At Once, No Alice, forms the basis for this final entry in the series. Helmed by another actioner director, D. Ross Lederman, it stars Michael Duane as a man whose fiancée Alice (Lenore Aubert, best known for Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein) is abducted on the eve of their wedding. As he – and a dogged PI (Boston Blackie regular Richard Lane) – investigate, it turns out Alice is the heir to an estate, and her murderous in-laws are determined to be rid of her.

• Audio commentary with academic Eloise Ross on The Thirteenth Hour (2024)
• It’s Murder (1944, 9 mins): dramatised documentary produced for the war effort directed by Edward Bernds (who helmed 1959’s Return of the Fly and 1958’s Queen of Outer Space)