Boring

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

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

I love classic films, but one of my greatest pet peeves about them is long, uninteresting dialogue scenes. This film has got plenty! The plot is at least intriguing. There's this guy who thinks that his wife is dead, so he hires a hit-man to kill himself off. Midway through the movie he realizes his wife is alive, but he is unable to call off the murder.Where this film is lacking is in its execution. The cinematography is bland and uninteresting, and the performances here, except for J. Carroll Naish, are dull. This movie manages to take an interesting premise and make it boring by sheer unimaginative filmmaking.I know this is a low budget movie, but you know what? So was Night of the Living Dead. That movie at least had a spark of imagination and creativity.I actually stopped watching this 3/4 of the way through. I don't know for certain how it ends, but that doesn't matter to me, for I was not invested in the story at all. Ugh.Don't waste your time here.

The first in a series of "Whistler" films to be based on the popular radio show, which evolved into a television series by 1954. This theatrical film actually looks and plays like a TV episode, with defunct writing and mostly generic casting, though it is entertaining for the brief time it stays on. Businessman, mourning the loss of his wife at sea (for which he harbors guilt and shame), orders a contract hit on himself before ultimately changing his mind; unfortunately, the deal-maker has been shot dead and the hit-man is determined on finishing the job (though we're not sure why...maybe he's anal-retentive?). Richard Dix is a most unusual actor for the lead: tough and robust, yet playing at sad-eyed, he's hardly vulnerable and looks as if he can take care of himself. We don't fear for the character's safety, but it does look as if he's about to lose his job at any moment. The Whistler sets the scene for us, popping up in the narrative only briefly--a ploy which is risky and fascinating for a thriller. ** from ****

"The Whistler" is a film version of the radio show, where a whistling man serves as narrator. On film, he's only seen in shadow. "The Whistler" was one of many B movie series done by Hollywood, and I can't say it's one of my favorites. The story in this particular one concerns a despondent man who takes out a hit on himself and then tries to revoke it.My major problem with this series is Richard Dix. I can't get past what looks like a cheap hairpiece and everything about him seems blah. Because he's the star (and plays a different role in every Whistler film) this film and the others drag for me, even though the stories are good. Gloria Stuart plays an assistant to the boss here, and she's just beautiful. I was really looking forward to watching these on TCM, but Richard Dix just sucks the life out of them.

This film is another very mysterious story dealing with the Whistler Series and Richard Dix plays the role as Earl C. Conrad who is very upset about the death of his wife in a Japanese Concentration Camp during WW II and decides to end his life by hiring someone to kill him. Earl goes through different people in order to get his own hit man and pays five-thousands dollars to have this carried out. Earl has a secretary named Alice Walker, (Gloria Stuart) who really loves Earl but he does not seem to realize this and she helps him to feel better about himself. However, Earl finds out that his wife is not really dead and is coming back to the United States. The hit man or killer is J. Carrol Naish who is determined to accomplish his killing of Earl and there are many events which seem to keep changing until the very end of the film. There is a scene in this picture which shows Earl Conrad going into a flop house and getting a bed for 25 cents and how he almost gets rolled over by the bums. This is a very entertaining film and great to look at a film produced in 1944, with classic actors.