The Thirteenth Hour

... 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.

"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.

The 13th Hour was Richard Dix's 7th and final hour with the Whistler films; in fact he retired and died 2 years after this. It's not the best or the worst in the series, but still more than an adequate engrossing potboiler. It had the usual tight Columbia b picture budget yet atmospheric sets and photography plus the usual twisty story.

Honest and dependable truck firm owner Dix suddenly finds himself guilty of causing damage through driving whilst under the influence of alcohol, but of course he's innocent. This being the Whistler means it goes from bad to worse, and wanted murderer Dix really has his back up against the wall for most of the picture trying to find the real culprits. If you're familiar with the tenor of the previous entries you can probably see the big twist a-coming, but the beautiful little twist just after will get you! Favourite bits: the atmospheric shots outside Eileen's café; the denouement inside and outside Mabel's apartment, unfortunately leading to a bit of a trite end.

It wasn't quite the end of the dimly-lit road though – there was one more film to come (sans Dix) which wasn't too bad but the Canon is the 7 with him. All well worth watching if you prefer a simpler more complex world, when a b&w mystery film was just that and not a sex, violence, cgi cartoon riddled gimmick and hype fuelled socially inclusive seedy work of Art like nowadays.

I'm not a fan of Richard Dix. Here he is in The Thirteenth Hour, from 1947, the seventh Whistler story.

I would love to know what the Whistler does to help these people. I wasn't aware of him doing anything but narration. What a gimmick. And he had a radio and film career. Otto Fortest is the uncredited Whistler.

This is Dix's last film as he suffered a heart attack during filming. He died in 1949.

Steve Reynolds (Dix) owns a trucking company, which he refused to sell to a rival who plays rough.

Steve picks up a hitchhiker and winds up framed for a cop killing, plus his truck is stolen. He only has a glove with diamonds stuck in the thumb as clues.

He has to clear himself since evidently this Whistler doesn't do anything. The Shadow at least intimidates people.

Dix started in silents. He had 123 credits when he died at the age of 56. He was nominated for an Oscar for the film Cimarron.

Not a favorite, but obviously a hard worker who died young.

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.