A different way of telling a story

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

This unusual Film Noir (the only one ever to be made into a whole series of films) certainly catches the sinister atmosphere of its genre, both visually with very well done shadow effects and the adequate 'cheap' harbor surroundings of a B movie, and thematically, using a lot of psychology which doesn't fail to have its effects, neither on the protagonists nor on the audience - but just a little bit of an overdose of the belief in 'destiny'...Whose destiny is it to live or to die? Who has a 'right' to live or to die? Questions like these are maybe somehow out of place in a Film Noir - because they've got too much to do with morality. The Noir world (at least that of the 40s) is usually quite immoral (see "The Maltese Falcon", "The Shanghai Gesture", "Gilda"); and it's not always the good ones who get away - that's the cynical Noir philosophy...But anyway, "The Whistler" still remains an enormously suspenseful film with a very capable cast and direction; and a 'must' for every fan of classic crime.

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.

Solid, low-budget film noirish yarn about a man who takes out a contract on himself and then through a reversal of fortune decides against it. The Whisteler open up the film with that delightfully creepy little tune and a brief narrative and the reigns are handed over to a competent corp of character actors(and Richard Dix and Gloria Stuart). Dix plays the lead well-enough though incredibly lethargically. He literally looks like he hasn't slept in days. Stuart is peppy and pretty in a smallish role, but J. Carrol Naish does an outstanding job as the contracted killer. He gives a layered performance is what was a truly difficult role. The film barely spans an hour and ten minutes or so but never lags. we get suspense, action, and answers rather quickly. The Whistler has a much more subdued role then what you would hear in the radio series. This film would go on to spawn many sequels and was one of the earliest directorial forays of horror icon William Castle. Castle, as always, does a more than workmanlike job.

I've always enjoyed this atmospheric little thriller, a remarkable film even more remarkable for continually being overlooked – it's hardly ever on UK TV. Sure it's very 1940's and has a brooding melancholic black and white quality about it that might be a problem to some, but had it been made by Val Lewton over at RKO instead of William Castle at Columbia it would surely have been feted as art by now. The Whistler had been running successfully on CBS radio since 16th May 1942 and was transferred intact to the big screen.Starts out with company boss played memorably by Richard Dix terminally depressed at the accidental death of his wife in a sleazy bar to get a go-between to get a hit-man to "remove" him. The twists continue when the go-between is removed instead and Dix's wife is discovered alive with the hit-man programmed. What an extra 10 minutes to the film could have brought to the part J. Carrol Naish played as the psychotic hit-man with the penchant for psychology! A lot is packed into the 58 minutes running time including an intriguing car crash and a night in a flop house, where the vulture is killed by the cat playing with the canary. Dependable Dix is a goodie in this first Whistler film, he starred in the first 7 alternating at various points between goodie and baddie, bringing to each one a chunky sincerity and clear diction that, along with the nature of the plots made them a unique movie series. In this one the Whistler himself is responsible for a couple of key plot moments, in future he confined himself to sneering from the shadows – "Man cannot change his destiny" – but apparently the Whistler can!A great film, totally inconsequential but engrossing from the word go and one I can savour repeatedly.