The Thirteenth Hour

... is how I describe Richard Dix's final film and the last of the Whistler series of B films in which he starred with twists and turns like the California roads over which his trucks roll.

Dix plays trucking company owner Steve Reynolds, who has just gotten engaged to diner owner Eileen Blair. He has a single alcoholic drink to celebrate his engagement and, while driving his truck, picks up a hitchhiker simply because he is in a good mood. That less than a minute it took to pick up the hitchhiker causes Steve to be at a point on the road where he has a near collision with a reckless driver who simply keeps on driving. Steve crashes into a gas station to keep from hitting the reckless driver. But Steve is readily written up for drunk driving by a cop who is resentful of the fact that Steve got Eileen. Steve says the hitchhiker can verify what happened, but he is gone. Nobody at the site of the wreck saw the reckless driver, and nobody else saw the hitchhiker. It is like he disintegrated. This is the Twilight Zone part of the film.

From there things just go horribly wrong for Steve. He is framed for murder, runs away making himself look guilty, and in attempting to clear himself runs across a major criminal enterprise. To tell you more would be to tell too much, but it is a very entertaining B film. Dix was great in this Whistler series of films, here playing somebody who is not a gray character, but a straight shooter who just got caught up in events.

The seventh 'Whistler' movie and Richard Dix's last screen performance has him as an independent trucker. He's just cleared all debts and is about to start making money and to marry Karen Morley when he gets involved in an accident. It's not his fault, but his witness vanishes. He winds up paying compensation and having his license suspended. He continues taking jobs, but when a driver fails to show up, he drives the truck himself; a mysterious stranger saps him and kills motorcycle cop Regis Toomey. Dix panics and runs, but realizes that he has to prove his innocence, with no clue but a glove.

It's also the last film directed by William Clemens, a decent journeyman, He had entered the movies as an editor, switched to directing in 1936 and made 33 features in a dozen years. He would die in 1980 at the age of 74.

Like the other movies in the series, it's a decent little B feature, taking advantage of Dix's longtime star power. He had been a middling star at Paramount in the silent era, then shifted to RKO with the coming of sound, as one of their major stars. His career began to decline in the middle of the 1930s. When RKO let him go, he switched to Columbia and settled into the comfortable routine of this series. A series of heart attacks caused his retirement, and he would die in 1949 at the age of 56.

"The Thirteenth Hour" is the final installment of The Whistler series which starred Richard Dix. Sadly, shortly after making the movie, Dix died of a heart attack at age 56.

When the story begins, Steve Reynolds (Richard Dix) owns a small trucking company and life is just fine. However, he's in for a horrible time...and it all begins when he picks up a hitchhiker. His car is run off the road and there is no obvious evidence that another driver was involved. Steve tells the cops to ask the hitchhiker what happened...and the man disappeared! The court believes Steve was drunk and they take away his license...and it's obvious the cops have it out for Steve. Soon after, Steve is deliberately set-up for murder when an unknown person runs over a policeman in Steve's truck. Steve is knocked out and stuck behind the wheel...and the police think he's a killer. So, he runs away before the police can apprehend him and he spends the rest of the film trying to discover who is doing all this to him and why. The only clue he has is a glove.

This is an enjoyable and well written installment of this B-movie series. Not among the very best but quite good and well worth seeing.

This is the seventh Whistler film and the last one to star Richard Dix. (There would be one more Whistler film the next year with another lead actor: THE RETURN OF THE WHISTLER, see my review). This film as directed by William Clemens, who had directed several of the Falcon films, a Philo Vance film, and several of the original Nancy Drew films with Bonita Granville. This time Dix plays a trucker who has worked hard to start up his own trucking business but made enemies amongst the established truckers, some of whom are dangerous. Dix is involved with a woman named Eileen who owns a truck stop café, played by Karen Morley. She has an engaging teenage son played by Mark Dennis who has a considerable role in the film. (He was 14 at this time and had appeared in one film the year before; he is very good.) A lot of this film was shot at night on dark roads and it thus has considerable atmosphere. The story is not particularly odd or unusual, and it does not take place in a city like most Whistler films. Basically, this is a drama about setups, murders, betrayals, greed, and innocent victims. Dix is an innocent victim. There is no explanation within the film of the title, as there is no "thirteenth hour" in the story. So someone just thought up a catchy title. The story gets very tense and involved, as Dix is accused of murder after murder, none of which he has committed. And there is an interesting twist of a clue which seems to indicate that the murderer was missing a finger on his left hand. But to say more would be to say too much. This is a good noir. And it is sad to take one's leave of the amazing Richard Dix, who in seven Whistler films played characters so far apart it is astonishing that he could so easily do so. He was a most engaging and fascinating actor. He suffered a heart attack during the filming and died in 1949 of his heart condition. This was his last film appearance. He was only 56 years old, and his early death was a great loss to the screen.

The 13th Hour was Richard Dix's 7th and final hour with the Whistler films; in fact he retired and died 2 years after this. It's not the best or the worst in the series, but still more than an adequate engrossing potboiler. It had the usual tight Columbia b picture budget yet atmospheric sets and photography plus the usual twisty story.

Honest and dependable truck firm owner Dix suddenly finds himself guilty of causing damage through driving whilst under the influence of alcohol, but of course he's innocent. This being the Whistler means it goes from bad to worse, and wanted murderer Dix really has his back up against the wall for most of the picture trying to find the real culprits. If you're familiar with the tenor of the previous entries you can probably see the big twist a-coming, but the beautiful little twist just after will get you! Favourite bits: the atmospheric shots outside Eileen's café; the denouement inside and outside Mabel's apartment, unfortunately leading to a bit of a trite end.

It wasn't quite the end of the dimly-lit road though – there was one more film to come (sans Dix) which wasn't too bad but the Canon is the 7 with him. All well worth watching if you prefer a simpler more complex world, when a b&w mystery film was just that and not a sex, violence, cgi cartoon riddled gimmick and hype fuelled socially inclusive seedy work of Art like nowadays.