The Return of the Whistler (1948)

Last of the Whistler movies and the only one without star Richard Dix. The plot here is about a man (Michael Duane) whose fiancée (Lenore Aubert) disappears from her hotel the night before they are to be married. He investigates along with the assistance of a private detective. Michael Duane is okay but it's easy to see why the series didn't continue with him. Lenore Aubert is lovely. Richard Lane, usually playing Inspector Farraday in the Boston Blackie series, plays the private eye here. Great character actor Olin Howland stands out as a hotel clerk. Not a bad B movie but missing the screen presence of someone like Richard Dix. Still worth checking out if you catch it on TV one of these days.

"The Whistler" really didn't go anywhere, he's here, whistling his mournful dirge and giving us the lowdown on the case at hand. The difference is that Richard Dix was replaced by Michael Duane as the main character in this, the last of the series.The good news is that this one is an entertaining, spellbinding story for 50 mysterious minutes. The bad news is that the picture lasts for 60 minutes, and begins to fall apart towards the end. I often think that authors and screenwriters start with a terrific idea for a story and then can't figure out how to end it (exhibit A is "Harvey").I thought Michael Duane was a good main figure and did a creditable job in this film, but then disappears soon after from motion pictures. Boston Blackie fans will recognize Richard Lane, who played Insp. Farraday in that series. This was a good entry in "The Whistler" series, before losing some credibility in the last 10 minutes. In fact, it was very good, for the first 50.

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.

This was the eighth and final Columbia Whistler film and the only one without Richard Dix who had retired from movies and was to die the following year. It's still a competent thriller, the machine carried on without him perfectly, but – something was missing: Dix! The stories in the Whistler series were always interesting, sometimes brilliant, the screenplays often noir always atmospheric, but it wasn't only the Whistler himself that hung it all together on screen, Dix did too.Young couple stepping out for a whole fortnight get the urge to marry in the pouring rain but are thwarted when the potential bride first disappears then is discovered to already be married before she apparently goes mad. Is the potential groom put off, even when the private dick he's hired to find her suddenly slugs him and lams, or is love blind? Who's twisting who is the question. Michael Duane in his penultimate film is OK if a bit of a wimp, lovely Lenore Aubert's finest moments came next film in Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein, and Richard Lane was wonderful as ever on loan from Boston Blackie. Also the only outing where the Whistler himself must have got wet from slouching about in the rain, unless he got sprayed with sea foam in Voice.A lot happened in this last hour, well worth watching over and over again as usual to fans of the genre like me. The Whistler radio series begun in 1942 carried on until 1955 clocking up nearly 700 half hour shows, nearly all of which are available on mp3 and based upon what I've heard so far nearly all of which are well worth listening to as well.