The Thirteenth Hour

The penultimate entry in Columbia's Whistler series and the last to star Richard Dix. This final Dix Whistler movie isn't one of the best but it's still worth a look. The story is fairly straightforward with Dix playing more of a typical protagonist than in other entries where he played more morally ambiguous characters. This time he's a truck driver out to clear his name when he's framed for killing a policeman.

Karen Morley is good as Dix's girlfriend. Regis Toomey plays a small but important part as the cop Dix is accused of killing. Mark Dennis is unintentionally funny as Morley's son, who reads books on necrophobia and warns cops "That's mama's and my bedroom. We don't like anybody going in there." John Kellogg, Jim Bannon, and Bernadene Hayes round out the significant roles in the cast. For his part, Dix is solid as usual.

As I said, this is the last Whistler movie that Dix made, but it's also his last film period. He retired after this and died two years later. With a career stretching back over twenty years into the silents, he's probably best remembered for his Oscar-nominated role in Cimarron or for playing the crazy captain in Val Lewton's The Ghost Ship. Lantern-jawed with a somewhat stiff line delivery, Dix may not have challenged Gable or Grant or Flynn in charisma or sex appeal but he had an interesting screen presence all his own. He certainly made his mark in the films I mentioned, as well as many others including this fine series based off the popular radio series The Whistler. His last film may not have been an example of "going out on top," but it was definitely nothing to be embarrassed about. Which is, unfortunately, more than you can say for some of his contemporaries' final films.

Truck-firm owner Steve Reynolds (Richard Dix) gets involved in a feud with a rival firm, and shortly thereafter is slugged by a masked assailant who steals the truck he is driving. The assailant runs down a policeman in the truck and leaves other clues pointing to Reynolds as the cop killer.

With only a glove, with diamonds stuck in the thumb, as a clue, and while evading the police and other characters after him and the diamonds, Reynolds, with the help of his fiancée and her son, finally runs down the guilty party and clears himself.

Richard Dix stars in this seventh instalment of the Whistler series and, sadly, it's his final film. Always a likeable presence, Dix does a great job as always and bolsters this standard thriller somewhat. Not the best Whistler, but enjoyable enough, if a little convoluted.

... is how I describe Richard Dix's final film and the last of the Whistler series of B films in which he starred with twists and turns like the California roads over which his trucks roll.

Dix plays trucking company owner Steve Reynolds, who has just gotten engaged to diner owner Eileen Blair. He has a single alcoholic drink to celebrate his engagement and, while driving his truck, picks up a hitchhiker simply because he is in a good mood. That less than a minute it took to pick up the hitchhiker causes Steve to be at a point on the road where he has a near collision with a reckless driver who simply keeps on driving. Steve crashes into a gas station to keep from hitting the reckless driver. But Steve is readily written up for drunk driving by a cop who is resentful of the fact that Steve got Eileen. Steve says the hitchhiker can verify what happened, but he is gone. Nobody at the site of the wreck saw the reckless driver, and nobody else saw the hitchhiker. It is like he disintegrated. This is the Twilight Zone part of the film.

From there things just go horribly wrong for Steve. He is framed for murder, runs away making himself look guilty, and in attempting to clear himself runs across a major criminal enterprise. To tell you more would be to tell too much, but it is a very entertaining B film. Dix was great in this Whistler series of films, here playing somebody who is not a gray character, but a straight shooter who just got caught up in events.

Richard Dix is lorry driver "Reynolds" who is going about his business when he gets slugged by an unknown assailant whilst out on a job. He and his truck are taken, but they are pursued by a motor-cycle cop. When they stop, the driver allows the truck to roll backwards squashing the cop under it's wheels, then he absconds leaving "Reynolds" with only a glove to help him track down the true criminals before he falls victim to them - or to the police... Williams Clemens keep the film moving along swiftly. No, there is nothing much new here and there is little, if any, jeopardy about the conclusion but we remain in ignorance about the identity of the baddies for a fair while, and the cat and mouse elements are enjoyable enough for an hour.

1st watched 5/29/2000 - (Dir-William Clemens): Interesting story that keeps you attached till the end in this obvious "one in a series of films" surrounding mysterious things that happen around a whistler that shows up in shadows.Very much like "The Fugitive" TV series and movie that followed.