Wizard-8
"Voice of the Whistler" is an interesting entry in the Whistler series in several aspects. The first half of the movie will lead you to believe that it will be the story of a dying man trying to improve his life before he passes on. It is treated pretty seriously, and there is nothing chilling or horrifying about the movie during this first half. Things do start to get darker in the second half of the movie, but not right away - it's only in the last fifteen or so minutes that the movie gets seriously dark. And the way the movie unfolds during those last fifteen minutes feels more like a noir of the period than a suspense drama. Although my above description of the movie may make it sound to be somewhat of a mess, it's actually executed fairly well. It's fairly briskly paced and never boring - you'll be wondering what exactly will happen in the end (though the flash forward scene at the beginning of the movie does take out some of the punch at the end.) This is a nice little B movie that does its job in just sixty minutes.
mark.waltz
A powerful industrialist has spent more time making millions than making friends, and thinking that he is dying proposes to a hard-working nurse (Lynn Merrick) so he can do something good with his fortune. In spite of being engaged to the idealistic Rhys Williams, she agrees, destroying her chance of happiness in the process. She ends up taking care of him in a remote seaside lighthouse, and the question arises, how long does it really take a dying man to die? What starts off slow suddenly becomes intriguing, adding a Gothic twist to the mystery. Tom Kennedy (brother of the slow-burning Edgar) is the only person who is in contact with them, that is until Williams pays a surprise visit and Dix creates an ominous warning involving a chess game. Is there a murder plot afoot, or is the whistler really in charge of the chess board?The always hysterical Miverva Urecal has a magnificent cameo as an obnoxious woman trying to buy flowers that have already been sold. Once again, the aging Dix is paired with a much younger woman, but unlike Lon Chaney Jr. in the "Inner Sanctum" series, it isn't as morbid. Dix, one of the major matinée idols of the early 1930's, is still dashing, if dangerous, and twists and turns in the story never stop. "B" melodrama at its best with a great final shot concerning Merrick.
MartinHafer
This film is really like two separate films morphed together near the very end. The first 85% is a nice film about a rich but lonely man who is able to find himself. He seems like a very nice guy and you want him to succeed. I liked this very, very much and Richard Dix played an extremely sympathetic character. Then, as if out of left field, near the end of the film, the plot took a HUGE detour in an entirely different direction and this change made little sense. As I said, it seemed like an entirely different movie. Plus, once the film changed and the plot took a very dark turn, there was no sense of irony or suspense--leaving the viewer with a very flat and downbeat ending. While those who created this anthology series wanted to create a series with many of the characteristics of the later Twilight Zone TV show, the writing in the case of several of the installments just was too spotty. For a suspense-type film, it was gravely lacking in suspense.
Spondonman
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.
AD
