The Power of the Whistler

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.

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.

Columbia's B pictures were generally the worst of the major studios. It's hard to forgive them for those awful Jungle Jim films and producer Sam Katzman generally had no artistic quality in his product. Maybe his absence explains the relative excellence of the Whistler series, in particular this very early entry in the Psycho Killer stakes. More reminiscent of Val Lewton than Katzman, The Power of the Whistler foreshadowed many Hollywood psychological features of the next half century.

Jean Lang (Janis Carter) reads the Tarot cards for a man (Richard Dix) she sees sitting at a nightclub. The Death card (ace of spades) comes up twice. She goes to warn him and finds out he's got amnesia and can't remember who he is or how he got there. She searches through his wallet and finds various names and addresses which they visit to try to piece together who he is.

Fast-paced and VERY atmospheric (especially at the end) thriller. Just simply a good tight B picture that you can watch and kill time for about 70 minutes. The acting is good too--Carter is very good and even Dix (who I never liked) is pretty OK. This is worth watching just for the thunder and lightning final sequence--it really does work on you. My only complaint is the rather abrupt ending. It's very amusing to see how people in the movie readily help a total stranger without a care! How times have changed. Worth catching.

... 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.