Muerte burlada

My father told me about the Whistler Series that ran on the Radio years ago in the 1940's and Richard Dix starred in this series. This film was directed by Lew Landers, a famous director who created many mystery films and especially this film which will keep you trying to figure out just what William Everest (Richard Dix) was after he received a bad blow to his head from a car running into him and he lost his memory and amnesia occurred. William Everest stops in for a drink at a bar and a young pretty blonde named Jean Lang,(Janis Carter) is playing with cards that a fortune teller would use and finds out that this man at the bar has about twenty-four hours to live and will probably die. There are many twists and turns in this dark mysterious film from the 1940's and there is a very dark side to William Everest and he always seems to attract the very pretty women. Enjoy.

Far from the best of the series. The first twenty minutes or so are intriguing, after which the film trails off into a conventional suspenser. Dix plays a mysterious man who's suffered memory loss following an accident. Lovely Janis Carter steps in to assist after a prophetic portent from an ordinary deck of cards. Dix appears a decent sort eager to uncover his lost identity, but as events unfold the situation becomes darker, with an ending that would warm feminist hearts of decades later.

Some nice touches that build ambiguity, such as the frilly apron as Dix prepares breakfast for the girls, or his saying grace before the chatty sisters can dig in. On the other hand, there are the mysterious deaths trailing behind. The Whistler makes several shadowy commentaries, a neat carry-over from the radio series of the same name. Nonetheless, the material cries out for a stylish director who can lift the last half beyond the merely familiar, and create the kind urban nightmare of the original (William Castle).

Dix is again effective as the mystery man. However, Carter's high-energy smile and bubbly personality seem better suited to a Betty Grable musical than this slice of psychic noir. I just wish the imagination of the first half had carried over to the second. Still, worth a look-see from an outstanding series.

I really like The Whistler movies. Richard Dix plays a different role in each one. Sometimes he's a good guy, sometimes bad. The plot here has Dix as a man suffering from amnesia after being struck by a car. A woman (Janis Carter) playing around with tarot cards predicts death for Dix within 24 hours so she feels the need to warn him. She finds out he has lost his memory so she tries to help him figure out who he is so together they can prevent his death.

There is one part that amused me a great deal. It really has no significance to the plot or how much you will like the movie but I will share it anyway. During the first meeting of Dix and Carter, he feels faint so she opens a car door and they sit down in the back seat to talk. After their conversation, some guy gets in and is surprised to see them. He's the owner of the car! So the girl explains they just needed a place to sit down, to which the car owner replies "Oh okay" like it's perfectly normal. Then he offers to drive them some place! I don't know if this scene just shows how much times have changed or what, but it made me laugh when I watched it. I just can't see that scene playing out the same way in a movie today.

This is a fun B movie with some good performances and an interesting story. There are some bugs in the plot but nothing that detracts greatly from the entertainment level, at least for me. Fans of Dix and The Whistler series should like it a lot.

... because the leading lady here (Janis Carter as Jean Lang) makes some very questionable moves regarding a stranger she sees in a restaurant (Richard Dix as the amnesiac). She is using cards to tell fortunes, and Dix is supposed to be in grave danger for the next 24 hours according to the cards. He is a total stranger to her and yet she gets up from the table and accosts him in the street about this. It turns out Dix is an amnesiac, a condition brought on by being hit by a car a short time before. Does she take him to the police or to a hospital? NO! She takes this total stranger home to sleep on her couch in the apartment she shares with her kid sister. Yikes!

So the guy has no ID on him. Just some clues in his pockets - a prescription, an order for a birthday cake from a bakery, a train schedule with a particular town circled, a cigarette lighter, receipt for two dozen roses, a Canadian dollar with a license number penciled in, and a key. So that night and the next day Jean and her sister embark on a kind of scavenger hunt, using these clues to establish who this guy is. Jean is paired with the amnesiac, her sister paired with her fiance, both teams using the clues they have. So the amnesiac seems gentle as a lamb, even making breakfast for Jean and her sister and saying grace before eating. But one thing Jean has got to notice - every time she leaves him alone and near an animal, she returns to find that animal dead. And yet she remains unalarmed.

It's a pretty interesting story how all of these Thin Man style clues are put together into a cohesive portrait of who this guy actually is. As usual in the Whistler series, it boasts a good noir atmosphere considering it was a Columbia quickie. As with several of the Whistler films, this one has the theme of unescapable destiny as the plot comes full circle.

This 40s b movie boasts mediocre acting, awkward dialog and a fairly ridiculous story, but it all sort of works, generating genuine suspense and moving at a fairly quick pace. The premise is interesting, with an amnesiac helped by a a stranger, but it requires you to accept that a bunch of people think it's a better idea to figure out a stranger's identity by searching his pockets than by seeing a doctor or contacting the police.

One interesting thing about this movie is how trusting everyone is. Some people get into a stranger's car to rest, and when the stranger shows up he offers them a ride. Stuff like that keeps happening throughout the movie. Were people really that trusting back then? If so, the movie suggests it might not be such a good idea.