Richard Dix had starred in seven of the unrelated films in The Whistler series of noir pictures, but ill-health prevented him from appearing in the eighth and final entry, 1948’s The Return of the Whistler.
It’s odd to have a new guy as the lead in film that is supposedly the return of the title character. Then again, that title character still only appears as an occasional shadow and, more often, on the soundtrack as the narrator.
And that new star isn’t entirely a new face, as Michael Duane had been in a previous entry in the series (The Secret of The Whistler) in a minor role. The picture opens with him and his fiancée, a French widow played by Lenore Aubert, arriving at a Justice of the Peace late in the night, intending to marry. Alas, the Justice is out and won’t be back until the morning. While the couple is getting this info, they are oblivious to the guys pulling up to their car and sabotaging it.
They try to stay at The Old Inn, but it is full-up. Well, it is almost at capacity, as there is one room, but the guy says he can’t charge them for it, as it is risky enough as it is putting them in it. Here I was hoping the room was haunted, but this isn’t that kind of film. Actually, when all is said and done, I realized I still don’t understand why he was reluctant to let them have that room.
When it is discovered they aren’t married yet, she stays there while he goes to the mechanic to get the car repaired. I wasn’t surprised when she’s missing when he returns to the inn the next morning, but it was startling to see even the bed is gone. A worker appears to be in the process of applying wallpaper. The desk clerk wakes the night clerk, who says she left only a half-hour after Duane did. He claims she said she had to get back to the city immediately, as there had been an emergency. At least there is a private investigator offering assistance to Duane (Richard Lane), though it seems awfully convenient that man just happened to be in the lobby of the inn at that time, and so happens to witness the altercation between our hero and the staff.
At this point, I expected this to be the kind of film like Breakdown or The Lady Vanishes, where somebody disappears and either everybody says they did something very unlikely (as is the case here) or that the person never existed at all. That is the kind of thriller which deeply resonates with me for whatever reason, and always leaves me feeling a bit queasy.
Instead, this picture subverts those expectations, with Duane almost immediately learning Aubert is in a mansion where he meets the husband she said had died (James Cardwell). But we’ll soon discover that man is an imposter, her husband really is dead, and she is being kept prisoner in the house by relatives of the deceased who will inherit a fortune should she meet an untimely end. And that’s why it is so important you meet a potential spouse’s relatives long before you decide to tie the knot.
Typical of such low-budget B-movie cinema, this is a competently made film, though with few remarkable touches. The shooting is confined to overlit studio sets, prompting me to laugh out loud when a character is asked, “How can you read in here? It’s so dark.” Actually, it is so bright in the room, the actors were likely to start tanning if they stayed there too long.
The one novel aspect of this is it is the only Whistler film not starring Richard Dix. Although Dix’s often peculiar line deliveries made for some odd moments, he brought a distinctive energy to the preceding seven pictures which this one lacks. Duane is a far more conventional actor and, objectively, likely one better suited for heroic roles such as the one he plays here. But I can’t imagine him in the anti-hero and sometimes downright villainous roles Dix served in for the other entries of the series.
Return of the Whistler is a decent, though rather pedestrian, noir. I think it only clicked with me because of the type of thriller it is, more so than any true qualities of it. It isn’t even the best of the Whistler films, though I still enjoyed it, and I came away with a favorable impression of the series overall.
Dir: D. Ross Lederman
Starring Michael Duane, Lenore Aubert, Richard Lane
Watched as part of the Powerhouse/Indicator blu-ray box set Columbia Noir #6: The Whsitler (region B)