The Mark of the Whistler

This entry is the best in this above-average series from Columbia. All the stories had intriguing premises and clever twists, but this one even more so, since it was based on an original by Cornell Woolrich, that master of gloom, fate and paranoia. You definitely won't see the last curveball coming. There's a nice element of "Crime and Punishment"-like guilt infiltrating the protagonist's shady exploits, although it's not directly responsible for his downfall. The material is the essence of noir, but Castle filmed it straightforwardly for the most part. In his early days before churning out his gimmicky horror pics, he knew how to add telling little touches and include fascinatingly offbeat characters on the margins. All the same, one can't help thinking that this might have been a low-budget noir masterpiece along the lines of "Blind Spot" or "Fear in the Night" if the style had been more doom-laden and shadowy.

This is the second of the Whistler films, having two titles: THE MARK OF THE WHISTLER and THE MARKED MAN. It has a superb plot written by the famous mystery writer Cornell Woolrich. And Richard Dix, who plays the lead, intensifies the suspense by his brilliant portrayal of a man who impersonates another man of the same name in order to access a dormant account at a bank. He only discovers that the dormant account exists by randomly picking up a newspaper in which an ad has been placed for claimants to dormant accounts to come forward. His name is Lee Nugent, and so is the man whose money was left to him in trust by his mother many years ago and never claimed. Dix does research and, reassured that laying claim is probably safe, approaches the bank with a loan from a pawn broker to pay for a new suit (as Dix is penniless). But nothing in a film noir is ever simple, which is, one might say, the same as with Life. There are unknown factors in the background, and some begin to stir. Will the bank hand over the money? Will Dix get away with it? How much money is there, anyway, since the bank won't say. Events get more and more tense. This is a really excellent suspense film.

The series is unique in that although Richard Dix stars in the first seven movies in the series he does not play the same character. As a result, each film has to stand on its own merits. There is no opportunity to introduce the audience to a suave character in the first movie or two and then ride the series out with a group of sub-par films. The quality of the movies throughout the series very good. The only character common to each movie is "The Whistler" who "knows many things". In the first movie Dix plays the hero haunted by the death of his wife. In this offering, Dix plays the anti-hero who perpetrates a fraud to come into money that is not rightfully his. He is then pursued by the sons of a man sent to prison by the father of the person with a legitimate claim to the money. Many of The Whistler movies have a unique or surprising "twist" close to the end that significantly changes the expected outcome. This has possibly the best.

Lee Selfridge Nugent (Richard Dix) is introduced as someone who once had power and wealth, but has lost that over time, and due to bad health cannot hold a job and has become a homeless hobo. He looks at a newspaper left on a park bench and sees an ad for unclaimed money at a local bank. The accounts are all said to be over a hundred dollars (about 2000 dollars in 2021 money), and one of the people who has a dormant account left it in trust for her son, who is also named Lee Nugent.

So Lee does some reconnaissance and gets enough backstory on Lee Nugent that he feels he can impersonate him and get his mother's money. But nobody seems to know what happened to the actual Lee Nugent past fifteen years of age. Lee does pull it off. A brief investigation by the bank and the money is his. But it is thirty thousand dollars not just one hundred. In 2021 that would be about 600K.

But Lee's conscience bugs him because he KNOWS the money is not his. Before he gets the money he thinks every cop or guard who stares at him must know about his fraud. But after he gets the money he is a bit too confident. And then he starts noticing strangers staring at him who are not cops or guards. Is he imagining things, or are they wanting to rob him, or is it something more? Watch and find out.

Well directed by William Castle, the camera gets good close ups of the people involved, detracting from the somewhat cheap sets that poverty row Columbia could afford, and allowing the viewer to feel the claustrophobia that Lee is feeling.

This Whistler entry has some great plot twists, as do most of them. Plus The Whistler himself narrates more of the story than he does in later entries. I'd highly recommend this one.

Second in Columbia's Whistler series starring Richard Dix and directed by William Castle. In each movie, Dix played a different character in a film noir mystery thriller. This time around he plays a bum who tries his hand at identity theft to claim some money that belongs to someone sharing the same name as him. Good support from Porter Hall and Paul Guilfoyle. Dix is solid as our lantern-jawed "hero." Some nice twists & turns in this one. Castle does a fine job building suspense with scenes like when Dix is sitting in the bank, growing uncomfortable with everyone staring at him. I was on the edge of my seat about what's going to happen to this guy for awhile. Is he going to get away with it? Do I want him to get away with it? My only real complaint is the sucky ending, undoubtedly tacked-on because of the Production Code. Still, it's a pretty good B picture that kept my interest throughout.