The Thirteenth Hour

"The Thirteenth Hour" is the final installment of The Whistler series which starred Richard Dix. Sadly, shortly after making the movie, Dix died of a heart attack at age 56.

When the story begins, Steve Reynolds (Richard Dix) owns a small trucking company and life is just fine. However, he's in for a horrible time...and it all begins when he picks up a hitchhiker. His car is run off the road and there is no obvious evidence that another driver was involved. Steve tells the cops to ask the hitchhiker what happened...and the man disappeared! The court believes Steve was drunk and they take away his license...and it's obvious the cops have it out for Steve. Soon after, Steve is deliberately set-up for murder when an unknown person runs over a policeman in Steve's truck. Steve is knocked out and stuck behind the wheel...and the police think he's a killer. So, he runs away before the police can apprehend him and he spends the rest of the film trying to discover who is doing all this to him and why. The only clue he has is a glove.

This is an enjoyable and well written installment of this B-movie series. Not among the very best but quite good and well worth seeing.

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.

The seventh 'Whistler' movie and Richard Dix's last screen performance has him as an independent trucker. He's just cleared all debts and is about to start making money and to marry Karen Morley when he gets involved in an accident. It's not his fault, but his witness vanishes. He winds up paying compensation and having his license suspended. He continues taking jobs, but when a driver fails to show up, he drives the truck himself; a mysterious stranger saps him and kills motorcycle cop Regis Toomey. Dix panics and runs, but realizes that he has to prove his innocence, with no clue but a glove.

It's also the last film directed by William Clemens, a decent journeyman, He had entered the movies as an editor, switched to directing in 1936 and made 33 features in a dozen years. He would die in 1980 at the age of 74.

Like the other movies in the series, it's a decent little B feature, taking advantage of Dix's longtime star power. He had been a middling star at Paramount in the silent era, then shifted to RKO with the coming of sound, as one of their major stars. His career began to decline in the middle of the 1930s. When RKO let him go, he switched to Columbia and settled into the comfortable routine of this series. A series of heart attacks caused his retirement, and he would die in 1949 at the age of 56.

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.

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.