The Mark of the Whistler

The tangled web we weave strikes again in Mark of the Whistler, starring as usual Richard Dix. This story is by Cornell Woolrich and directed by William Castle, so it has a good pedigree.

The Whistler narrates the story but isn't seen and doesn't interfere. Nice work if you can get it.

Here Dix is a drifter, Lee Nugent, who sees that a bank is seeking owners of old bank accounts that haven't been claimed. He manages to convince a store owner to give him a new suit for a cut of the money. After doing his research and feeling safe that the real man will not come forward, he is ready to approach the bank.

It turns out to be a sizable sum, and he eventually collects. However, he becomes the target of a man whose father was cheated by Lee's father and forced to do time in prison.

I'm never thrilled by Richard Dix, but there are some turns in this story that make it watchable.

Like all but the final installment of the Whistler films, this one stars Richard Dix...and just like in several others, he's a bit of a scum-bag. When the film begins, he is a drifter and happens upon an interesting con. He's just learned about a tragic fire back in 1912 and a surviving boy was left without a family following this. A few years later, this Lee Nugent disappeared from his foster home...and no one's seen him since. However, there is a dormant bank account and armed with some inside information, the drifter decides to impersonate Nugent and collect. But how much? And, is it possible without any documentation that he'll be able to pull off this scam?! And, might he be walking into a deadly situation by claiming to be Nugent? Well, like in "Date Night", the anti-hero in this film learns the hard way that taking another's identity is not all it's cracked up to be!

All in all, this is an exciting installment...though what occurs to 'Nugent' isn't exactly a surprise...even the surprise twist at the end. However, the acting is nice and the direction likewise. Because of this, it makes for a diverting B movie. Not one of the best in the series but still quite good...and worth seeing.

The mark of the whistler 1944

Film noir, by definition, deals with crime and that too in a stylised way. These films galore in Hollywood in the 40s to 60s period. One such film is this.

The story is narrated by an incognito narrator (the whistler) and is about a stone broke man who gets into the hotseat due to his greed for easy money. The storyline is simple, characters are very few and the filming is seamless. The suspense is kept intact, though it isn't a 'whodunit'. The protagonist gets his share for his part on the day of reckoning and there is one major suprise in the end too. Roughly an hour long, this drama is worth watching and you wouldn't regret it.

This was the second of the eight self-contained Whistler films starring Richard Dix, still playing a goodie but this time with more bad in him. Also after the first my second favourite entry in the series.

Lee Nugent – mark that name – is a human derelict who hits upon the idea of impersonating a man whose bank is advertising for him to appear and claim his dormant bank account. He doesn't initially know how much money is involved but when he does get it he gives Porter Hall a fair price for the loan of his suits … Things start to get complicated when he bumps into Limpy the match seller and a determined newspaper reporter played by Janis Carter – just before she played a determined newspaper reporter in One Mysterious Night! Favourite bits: Signing his name but blotting his middle initial in the bank; Some of the sinister scenes with John Calvert chasing after Dix. The overall moral is Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide, with Dix you can believe it too. With one twist after another the last one is a little twee but still effective.

No cgi cartoonery, swearing, sex or violence, just b&w and an intricate story well acted make for a very pleasant hour.

This is the second of the Whistler films, having two titles: THE MARK OF THE WHISTLER and THE MARKED MAN. It has a superb plot written by the famous mystery writer Cornell Woolrich. And Richard Dix, who plays the lead, intensifies the suspense by his brilliant portrayal of a man who impersonates another man of the same name in order to access a dormant account at a bank. He only discovers that the dormant account exists by randomly picking up a newspaper in which an ad has been placed for claimants to dormant accounts to come forward. His name is Lee Nugent, and so is the man whose money was left to him in trust by his mother many years ago and never claimed. Dix does research and, reassured that laying claim is probably safe, approaches the bank with a loan from a pawn broker to pay for a new suit (as Dix is penniless). But nothing in a film noir is ever simple, which is, one might say, the same as with Life. There are unknown factors in the background, and some begin to stir. Will the bank hand over the money? Will Dix get away with it? How much money is there, anyway, since the bank won't say. Events get more and more tense. This is a really excellent suspense film.