The Secret of the Whistler

A neat entry from the series has RICHARD DIX playing a man who wants to get rid of his wife for a younger woman (LESLIE BROOKS). What he doesn't know is that his wife learns about his affair with the young blonde model and is recording her thoughts in a diary.

When his wife dies, he does marry again--but has to play a cat-and-mouse game with his new wife when she begins to suspect him of murder.

Dix plays his role quite effectively and Leslie Brooks is stunning as the blonde beauty. She never had a better chance than she does here, but unfortunately Columbia was never able to find anything but supporting roles for her in B-films of the period.

Suspenseful, it takes awhile before the tense proceedings start to tighten up, but it's worth ending for the good finale. MICHAEL DUANE has a small supporting role as an artist but gets star billing.

Well directed by George Sherman, these series are better than average programmers.

Secret of the Whistler, The (1946)

*** (out of 4) T

he sixth film in Columbia's series and the last to feature Richard Dix. In the film Dix plays an artist who begins dating a younger woman (Leslie Brooks) while waiting for his wife to die. After the wife dies he marries the younger woman but soon she starts to fear that he might have killed the first wife. This is another good entry in the series that manages to build some nice suspense with its very entertaining story and another fine performance by Dix. Not only is Dix very good in his role but the supporting cast is great as well. Brooks turns in a very good performance as the woman who begins to suspect the worst. Michael Duane and Mary Currier co-star as a newspaper man and Dix's first wife. The story goes by at a very fast pace and there's some nice twists and turns along the way. The film focuses on a psychological horror aspect, which is where the suspense comes from.

This is the sixth of the Whistler films. Once again Richard Dix stars, this time as an impecunious artist who has married a very rich woman. The versatility of Dix really is astonishing. He changes like a chameleon from picture to picture. This film is not directed by William Castle like the others, but by George Sherman. It has a completely different feel about it. It is not so quirky and mysterious, but is more of a glamorous melodrama. The budget seems to have been a bit higher, and the film is more of an ordinary murder mystery. The film opens well with a woman going to a monument maker and commissioning a very expensive gravestone for herself. ($5000, a lot of money then.) She is Dix's wife. She has a severe heart condition and believes she has only months to live. Dix is a dutiful husband towards his wife, seriously concerned for her health, until he falls into the clutches of a scheming young femme fatale played by Leslie Brooks. This curvaceous blonde artist's model sees dollar signs and goes for Dix bigtime. He naturally becomes infatuated and says when he is free (i.e., when his wife has died) he wants to marry her. But then along comes a clever doctor with a new treatment which restores the wife to health very suddenly. She overhears Dix and the blonde talking and realizes the situation, so phones her lawyer to arrange to change her will so that he inherits nothing whenever she does die, and to commence divorce proceedings immediately. However, this is a film noir, so she dies during the night. So what has happened? "The Whistler knows."

Lesser entry in the offbeat Whistler series. The story is worthy enough. Richard Dix plays an "artist' and kept man who takes a fancy to a shapely blonde model while his wealthy wife is stricken with a serious heart problem. The intrigue goes on from there. The problem is that the screenplay is filmed in straightforward fashion, with none of the moody atmospherics that distinguish other entries. The result is an entertaining 60 minutes, but minus the usual visual panache. Apparently, journeyman director George Sherman wasn't advised of the proper lighting or feel of the series. Either that or the producers were seeking a stylistic departure.

Nonetheless, the story keeps us watching. As usual we can't be sure how events will turn out since Dix's character is as morally compromised as in the other entries. Unlike other Hollywood films of that era, there is no one to root for as the plot unfolds. Thus, it's the story itself that holds our interest, and not the more predictable question of how a hero will triumph. Fortunately, the ending comes up with the usual fine touch of irony that fans expect.

There's an expertly shaded performance by Mary Currier as Dix's star-crossed wife. Watch the subtlety of her expressions as she learns about her wayward husband. The series itself did not depend on subtle acting-- and certainly Dix doesn't manage the Lothario role very well. Nonetheless, Currier delivers an A-grade performance. (In passing-- I expected the screenplay to develop the scheming relationship between blonde model Kay and her effete boyfriend Jim more fully than it did. That could have set up an interesting dynamic of those schemers competing against another schemer, Dix.) Anyway, stylish or not, this remains a very watchable hour of frustrated passion and the hand of fate.

This was the second to last film Richard Dix made in the Whistler series. The mysterious Whistler is seen as a shadow and heard in

voice-over narration, but the "star" of the films is Richard Dix, who plays a different role in each--some heroic, some cowardly, some honorable, some not so honorable. This must have been satisfying to Dix, since it gave him regular work AND allowed him to show his talent in a wide variety of roles. This particular entry gives Dix a complex role, as an artist married to a rich woman whose financial support allows him to continue his work. The plot is more complex than the synopsis suggests, and there are a number of twists and turns throughout, giving the film the feel of an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The "femme fatale" in this film is played by Leslie Brooks, who took this kind of role even further in the great BLONDE ICE two years later. Director George Sherman did a lot of exciting films at Republic prior to this film at Columbia, including many entries in the Three Mesquiteers series, and went on to do many more films, including episodes of such classic TV shows as Rawhide and Naked City. The centerpiece of the film, though, is Richard Dix, an actor of great presence (it's fair to say that Gary Cooper was influenced by Dix)and subtlety. SECRET OF THE WHISTLER would be a good introduction to this series, and it should appeal to any fan of INNER SANCTUM, THRILLER, ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS, etc. Most of the other films in the series are worth checking out also. Perhaps sometime in the future Columbia could do a DVD boxset of the Whistler films the way Universal is doing the Francis and Ma&Pa Kettle films? And after that, perhaps they could reissue the Boston Blackie films?