The Power of the Whistler

This 40s b movie boasts mediocre acting, awkward dialog and a fairly ridiculous story, but it all sort of works, generating genuine suspense and moving at a fairly quick pace. The premise is interesting, with an amnesiac helped by a a stranger, but it requires you to accept that a bunch of people think it's a better idea to figure out a stranger's identity by searching his pockets than by seeing a doctor or contacting the police.

One interesting thing about this movie is how trusting everyone is. Some people get into a stranger's car to rest, and when the stranger shows up he offers them a ride. Stuff like that keeps happening throughout the movie. Were people really that trusting back then? If so, the movie suggests it might not be such a good idea.

... because the leading lady here (Janis Carter as Jean Lang) makes some very questionable moves regarding a stranger she sees in a restaurant (Richard Dix as the amnesiac). She is using cards to tell fortunes, and Dix is supposed to be in grave danger for the next 24 hours according to the cards. He is a total stranger to her and yet she gets up from the table and accosts him in the street about this. It turns out Dix is an amnesiac, a condition brought on by being hit by a car a short time before. Does she take him to the police or to a hospital? NO! She takes this total stranger home to sleep on her couch in the apartment she shares with her kid sister. Yikes!

So the guy has no ID on him. Just some clues in his pockets - a prescription, an order for a birthday cake from a bakery, a train schedule with a particular town circled, a cigarette lighter, receipt for two dozen roses, a Canadian dollar with a license number penciled in, and a key. So that night and the next day Jean and her sister embark on a kind of scavenger hunt, using these clues to establish who this guy is. Jean is paired with the amnesiac, her sister paired with her fiance, both teams using the clues they have. So the amnesiac seems gentle as a lamb, even making breakfast for Jean and her sister and saying grace before eating. But one thing Jean has got to notice - every time she leaves him alone and near an animal, she returns to find that animal dead. And yet she remains unalarmed.

It's a pretty interesting story how all of these Thin Man style clues are put together into a cohesive portrait of who this guy actually is. As usual in the Whistler series, it boasts a good noir atmosphere considering it was a Columbia quickie. As with several of the Whistler films, this one has the theme of unescapable destiny as the plot comes full circle.

Far from the best of the series. The first twenty minutes or so are intriguing, after which the film trails off into a conventional suspenser. Dix plays a mysterious man who's suffered memory loss following an accident. Lovely Janis Carter steps in to assist after a prophetic portent from an ordinary deck of cards. Dix appears a decent sort eager to uncover his lost identity, but as events unfold the situation becomes darker, with an ending that would warm feminist hearts of decades later.

Some nice touches that build ambiguity, such as the frilly apron as Dix prepares breakfast for the girls, or his saying grace before the chatty sisters can dig in. On the other hand, there are the mysterious deaths trailing behind. The Whistler makes several shadowy commentaries, a neat carry-over from the radio series of the same name. Nonetheless, the material cries out for a stylish director who can lift the last half beyond the merely familiar, and create the kind urban nightmare of the original (William Castle).

Dix is again effective as the mystery man. However, Carter's high-energy smile and bubbly personality seem better suited to a Betty Grable musical than this slice of psychic noir. I just wish the imagination of the first half had carried over to the second. Still, worth a look-see from an outstanding series.

Columbia's B pictures were generally the worst of the major studios. It's hard to forgive them for those awful Jungle Jim films and producer Sam Katzman generally had no artistic quality in his product. Maybe his absence explains the relative excellence of the Whistler series, in particular this very early entry in the Psycho Killer stakes. More reminiscent of Val Lewton than Katzman, The Power of the Whistler foreshadowed many Hollywood psychological features of the next half century.

Power of the Whistler, The (1945)

** (out of 4)

Third film in the series has Richard Dix being hit by a car and losing his memory. A card reader (Janis Carter) befriends the man as the two search for his real identity but who he turns out to be is the real shock. Based on a radio show episode, this film manages to be somewhat entertaining, although it seems long even at just 66-minutes. It takes a while for the story to get going but the twist in the man's identity comes out of no where and is handled very well. This is when the film really picks up and leads to a very good final act. Dix is very good in his role and Carter comes off good as well. Landers steps in to direct this one after William Castle handled the first two. I was a little letdown that he didn't keep the action moving better because he usually handles these B films a lot better. There's some nice humor scattered throughout and also a rather mean spirited side, which includes killing of a lot of animals.