The Return of the Whistler

Return of the Whistler, The (1948)

*** (out of 4)

The seventh and final film in Columbia's series tells the story of a man (Michael Duane) who checks his fiancé (Lenore Aubert) into a hotel room but when he returns the next day she is gone. He eventually tracks her to a strange family who claims the woman is already married but there's more going on. The series certainly ends on a very high note and I have to wonder why more movies weren't made unless they simply weren't making money. Richard Dix is missing but Duane makes for a good leading man and carries the film just fine. Aubert, from Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, turns in a fine performance as does Richard Lane from the Boston Blackie series. What has shocked me the most about this series is that all of the screenplays are "A" level in their style and sharpness. This film offers a lot of nice twists and turns, which make it worth watching for mystery or noir fans.

Richard Dix decided to retire and so Michael Duane took his place playing the role as Ted Nichols who meets up with a young French girl named Alice Dupres Barkley, (Lenore Aubert). This couple only knew each other for two days and they decided to get married by a Justice of the Peace (Judge) and it is pouring rain when they pull up to the Judge's home and find out he is not home and will not return until the next day. As the couple are inside the house you see some one lift up the hood of their car and takes an automobile part from the engine. Once you see this event happening you realize this couple is in for a big surprise and the story beings to reveal a very mysterious event which surrounds Alice Barkley and so poor Ted Nichols starts out with plenty of trouble and no marriage. Good mystery, but I missed Richard Dix. Enjoy.

The Whistler series was an excellent B mystery series from the 1940s. Each of the films had starred Richard Dix...but in 1947 he had a heart attack and was in ill health until his death in 1949. But the studio wanted to carry on the series and brought us "Return of the Whistler"...a similar but Dix-less installment in the series. It turned out to be the last in the series as well. Additionally, the exciting director William Castle directed most of the Whistler films...though not this one.

The mystery in this film is a good one. When Ted (Michael Duane) and his fiancée, Alice (Lenore Aubert), arrive at a hotel, things seem pretty normal. But when Ted leaves and then returns, he finds Alice missing--and the hotel desk manager is lying about her leaving on her own. But who took her...and why?! Well, the solution turns out to be very interesting...and well worth seeing.

Despite the stars of this film being pretty much complete unknowns, the film works well because the acting is good AND, most importantly, the mystery is very well written and engaging. Overall, actually one of the better entries in the series...and it's a shame this was the last.

This being the final entry in the superlative Whistler series, I was expecting a dud. But it's not. Overall, the movie is definitely second rank but still representative of many of the series' better elements. The mystery sets up quickly as prospective bride (Aubert) disappears from her hotel room, leaving prospective groom (Duane) wondering what went wrong. After all, she seemed so sincere and loving. The hotel clerk (Howland, I believe) is worse than no help and may make you glad for Motel 6. The mystery deepens as detective Lane turns up clues and things begin to appear not as expected.

Duane is serviceable in the lead, replacing series regular Richard Dix. More importantly, I'm not sure how well the aging, dissipated Dix could have matched up with the innocent bridegroom role, anyway. What the entry lacks is the trademark provocative ending and the suffused atmosphere that characterize the William Castle directed entries, suggesting that Castle was more formative to the series' overall excellence than perhaps thought.

Still, it's puzzling to me that the series ended so abruptly, even without Dix. The material certainly reflected popular noirish programming of the period, so I would surmise that an audience was there. Perhaps there's an inside story. Nonetheless, in my little book, The Whistler series remains the most memorably unusual to emerge from the movie- drenched 1940's, even if this entry falls short.

The "Whistler" series of mysteries in the 1940s was one of the immediate ancestors of "film noir." The stories were usually dark, the characters were morally ambiguous, and the shadowy, anonymous narrator ("I am the Whistler") added an extra touch of creepiness.

This last entry in the series is different from the others. It's lighter, in both senses of the word. Though it's an adequate "B" mystery, it's no grimmer than an Agatha Christie film.

The difference is partly due to the writing and directing, but the absence of Richard Dix, the aging former star who played the leads in the previous films, is a big factor. Dix had a "noir" persona if ever there was one. He looked like a man haunted by the past and worried about the future. Here he's replaced by fresh-faced young Michael Duane, who just doesn't have the same gravitas.

The plot is a variation on a familiar theme. A man's new fiancée vanishes, and he quickly realizes how little he really knows about her. The more he learns what seems to be the truth, the more it makes sense simply to forget all about her, but he can't get past the feeling that somebody is lying to him.

The mystery woman is played by Lenore Aubert, who was sort of the poor man's Hedy Lamarr in the 1940s. She's supposed to be a French widow here, though she doesn't sound terribly French. (She was actually born in Slovenia and raised in Austria, and her Gallic-sounding screen name was dreamed up by Hollywood.)

This is a decent little crime story, but it's not representative of the "Whistler" movies. If you don't happen to like it, at least give another film in the series a look.