I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Wow, this is a REALLY bad movie!

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The Whistler series from Columbia is unusual. Every feature starts out with an introduction by "The Whistler" who is just a shadowy anonymous figure. The protagonist in every feature is played by Richard Dix, and in each case he is a different person with a different problem.This one tackles greed and loneliness. Dix plays business titan John Sinclair. The film opens with a film within a film that is a history of Sinclair's business life, starting in WWI, then spreading to auto production and banking, how his banks stayed solvent through the Great Depression, and a recent court win over another company stealing Sinclair's inventions. It's a nice little device to catch you up on John's history. But Sinclair is lonely because he doesn't trust other people to not use him to get his money. He has no friends or relatives. He has something that is merely called "an attack", and his doctor says he needs to leave immediately for a vacation or else he will die, the implication being that he will probably die shortly anyways. Nothing more specific is ever said about his illness.Well, John does take that trip, does make friends in Chicago, and then changes his destination to the seacoast on medical advice. He takes two of his Chicago friends with him - a cabbie, Sparrow, who helped him when he did not know he was helping the rich John Sinclair, and a nurse, Joan, at a neighborhood clinic for poor people. He marries the nurse strictly as a business deal - she will stay with him the few months he has left in return for inheriting his fortune. The problem is, Joan already has a fiancé, Fred, but he is struggling in spite of being a doctor and Joan wants money NOW. It is a revealing scene when she talks to her fiancé and you see how greedy she is underneath that compassionate exterior.So John, Sparrow, and Joan go to live in a lighthouse on the Maine Coast, renovated to a beach house. There is just one snag - John doesn't die. Happiness with Joan has helped him recover. The other snag is Joan is getting impatient again, tired of the isolation of the lighthouse which is really nothing for John since he has always been socially isolated. And then Joan's ex-fiancé shows up unexpectedly one day. John is suspicious that Fred will take Joan away. Fred still loves Joan. Joan still loves Fred but also loves the promise of her inheritance which she loses if she dumps John. And how does Sparrow the friendly cabbie fit into all of this, or does he? Watch and find out how this noir turns Capra-esque and then turns Hitchcock in the end.Recommended as a very good entry in the series. Columbia certainly knew how to take a shoestring budget and turn out an interesting product.

Voice of the Whistler (1945) *** (out of 4) Fourth film in Columbia's series is once again directed by William Castle but he also co-wrote the screenplay here. This time out Richard Dix plays a rich man who will dead within a two month period. Not wanting to spend his last months alone, he offers a nurse (Lynn Merrick) a great opportunity. She marries him to bring him happiness and he'll leave her his millions. They go through with the plan but all of the sudden he starts to get healthy again. This is certainly the best film in the series so far and it works mainly due to the great story they are working with. There's a lot of twists and turns throughout the short 60-minute running time but it all leads to a highly believable ending. Dix is very good in his role as is Merrick and the two work perfectly well together. The screenplay offers both of their characters a chance to grow, which certainly isn't normal for this type of B movie. Castle does a very good job with his direction and proves he could direct something without gimmicks.

One of the best of the offbeat series. About 15 or 20 minutes into the screenplay and we still can't be sure what direction the story will take or how it will turn out. We're being set up for something, but without the usual conventions, it's hard to know what. In fact, this is one of the most unusual plot turn-arounds of that period. No doubt, a little programmer like this could get away with a lot more than a higher profile project. That's why there's more movie gold to be found under the 40's radar screen than on it.Richard Dix is perfectly cast as the burned-out magnate looking for a new lease on life after years of cut-throat competition at the top. In fact he looks like he's at tether's end until he meets the sweet blonde nurse. ( Prophetically, the alcoholic Dix would die a few short years later). However, the chummy stroll with cabbie Rhys Williams along poverty row is rather overdone, while the roomful of cheerful clinic patients smacks of pure Hollywood pretense. On the other hand, the converted lighthouse amounts to an inspired bit of "mise-en-scene", with a moonlit seascape that stretches into a glimpse of eternity and a perfect backdrop for the events that follow. I don't know if the writers intended the screenplay as a cynical commentary on friendship among the poor and those who serve them, but it certainly looks that way. The irony isn't played up, but it's still there. Also, note how the closing shot amounts to a spooky warning that in such matters, no one gets off scot free. Then too, if there's a moral to the story, I suggest something like never messing with a guy who has battled his way to the top of the business dog pile. Anyhow, it's an intriguing little 60 minutes, more than worthy of that shadowy figure of fate and master of graveyard commentary, the Whistler.

Whistler no.4 was imho perhaps the weakest of the 8 in the series, the main trouble being the plot change from seedy tarmac to invigorating lighthouse. This still means it's an atmospheric, interesting and inventive mystery thriller, keeping you on your toes with all the twists to the very end.Rich, friendless and ill industrialist Richard Dix has a heart attack and gets ordered to go on vacation, forget about work and de-stress. He bumps into an English ex-boxer cocky Ernie Sparrow who befriends him and shows him round his poor but friendly neighbourhood. But sadly it doesn't last long as a new story direction is suddenly taken. You go from feeling sympathetic for everyone to feeling it only for Sparrow, such is the effect of the "business arrangement" that was made. Favourite bits: Some of the homely scenes looking out of the lighthouse windows stick in the mind; Lynn Merrick never looked lovelier this side of Boston Blackie, or out of a saddle either.If you like the genre like me it's a nice little film, an hour well spent.