THE WHISTLER (1944) He knows many things, for he walks by night

THE WHISTLER was the first of an eight-film series (1944-48) based on one of radio's most popular mystery drama shows (1942-55). All but one starred Richard Dix, who had started out in silent Westerns and is perhaps best-remembered for DeMille's silent version of THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (1923). Dix is not “The Whistler," who is an unbilled narrator seen only in shadow; rather, he plays a principal character in each story, sometimes a good guy, sometimes not. In this first entry, he’s a despondent industrialist who, believing his wife dead, hires a professional killer (J. Carroll Naish) to put him out of his misery. When he learns that his wife is still alive (or is she?), he tries to disemploy his assassin. THE WHISTLER is a great example of how, with clever direction (William Castle) and strong if not highly well-known players, a B-grade picture from a poverty row studio can rise above its budgetary limitations. Don't get me wrong. THE WHISTLER is only a few cuts above Saturday matinée fare. But I love the economy with which the story is told, without needless lines or scenes but with lots of great bits - for example, in his spare time the assassin reads from a book on necrophobia (fear of death). (Trivia notes: Each film begins with The Whistler ominously intoning: “I am the Whistler ... and I know many things, for I walk by night." Dix retired from acting after making the second to last movie in the Whistler series, THE THIRTEENTH HOUR. He died two years later.)