Don Gale, agent privé

Mysterious Intruder (1946)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Fifth film in Columbia's The Whistler series has Richard Dix playing a private investigator who gets a case from an old man who is looking for his niece. Soon the old man is dead and the PI might have had something to do with it. This is a pretty good entry in the series, although the screenplay falls short when compared to the previous film. I think the biggest problem here is the plot itself, which is quite confusing and even in the end it didn't seem to work itself out very well. The film only ran 61-minutes so perhaps that's why the story didn't have time to work itself out as well as it should have. Dix once again turns in a good performance with Charles Lane, Barton MacLane and Nina Vale offering fine support. Castle's direction is good throughout, although it could have probably been better with a better script.

The improbable plot for this entry in "The Whistler" series has something to do with valuable cylindrical disc recordings of Swedish nightingale Jenny Lind, a double-crossed antique dealer, a femme fatale blonde who knows the recordings are worth $200,000, and some crooked thieves. RICHARD DIX is the gumshoe detective in the mold of Philip Marlowe, but his dialog isn't quite as sharp.

Dix, of course, has to play fast and loose with the police on his trail and there are enough plot twists to keep any mystery fan mystified. Another factor in the plot is the femme fatale posing as someone else while scheming to get the money. As you can see, for a film that only runs one hour there's enough to keep you busy watching for the next development.

The supporting cast includes BARTON MacLANE, PAMELA BLAKE, CHARLES LANE, REGIS TOOMEY and MIKE MAZURKI.

Crisply written and directed, it's a good series entry.

A nice old gentleman named Stillwell approaches a private investigator about a girl who has been missing for seven years. Stillwell has some valuable property that he strongly feels rightfully belongs to the girl named Elora. Elora's mother had pawned some 'junk' at Stillwell's music shop but who has died since. The intrigue is what is so valuable about this property and whereabouts in Stillwell's shop is it? Stillwell gets stabbed and other murders follow as the search for the mysterious object ensues.

Richard Dix plays the investigator who only just manages to keep on the right side of the law. This film is so full of mercenary characters. The most interesting of these for me is Rose Denning who is a charming old dear who keeps her hard liquor hidden under the wool in her knitting basket. There is a terrific shot of Mike Mazurki as Harry Pontos when he grabs hold of a package in Stillwell's shop. The evil look of sheer avaricious delight is probably the most menacing sequence I've seen in a film lately.

I wasn't prepared for the grim ending as I didn't really know what these Columbia Whistler films were all about. The Whistler is a doom-laden narrator who only appears as a shadow on the wall. This one is full of mystery and has a terrific atmosphere as you would expect under the guiding influence of director William Castle. He has excelled himself here as he weaves together so many moments of shadows and skulduggery and I savored every moment of them.

William Castle the director of many low B budget films made this into another great Whistler series starring Richard Dix as Don Gale, a rather shady private detective who had a nice brunette secretary named Joan Hill, (Nina Vale) who assisted him with all his clients and especially a little old man. This little old man wanted to locate a young girl named Lund in order to tell her that she was worth lots of money and he wanted Don Gale to try and local this young girl from his past. Don Gale has other ideas and decides to find a girl to impersonate this young girl in order to find out just how much of a fortune she is worth and what it just might be. Several people get murdered and this dark tale takes you down many blind alley's with all kinds of ugly and evil men and woman. Enjoy, it is a good mystery, and Richard Dix had a certain charm that made his acting so suspenseful.

Fifth in the Noirish Whistler film series (and the third Directed by William Castle) is a so-so effort despite a decent enough premise. A kindly old shopkeeper (Paul E. Burns) is looking for a young girl (Pamela Blake) who disappeared suddenly after a family tragedy seven years before. He's been holding some valuables for her. The shopkeeper hires a shady Private Investigator (Richard Dix) to find the young girl. Soon enough, a Model (Helen Mowry), a street thug (Mike Mazurki), a hotel manager (Regis Toomey) and the cops are on the case. At barely an hour, Eric Taylor's script never fleshes out the characters. It's purely a plot driven vehicle. Unfortunately, the P.I. is such a dreary lunkhead of a character that even the twists in the tale don't land. I like Dix in a number of movies, but he isn't able to lift the part. Castle's Direction has a few minor touches and Cinematographer Philip Tannura does a decent job under the circumstances. MYSTERIOUS INTRUDER, with it's P.I. focused story may more claim to being Noir than some of the other Whistler films (I do love that mysterious shadowy figure), but, it's still more of a crime melodrama - and, a second rate one at that.