The Whistler (1944)

Directed by William Castle. Starring Richard Dix, J. Carrol Naish, Gloria Stuart, Alan Dinehart, Don Costello, Joan Woodbury, Robert Emmett Keane, (voice) Otto Forrest.

First of Columbia Pictures’ eight film adaptations of the popular radio drama “headlined” by the Whistler, an omniscient narrator of crime stories. That mysterious figure sets and wraps up a noir-ish thriller of grief-stricken Dix arranging to be bumped off by a hitman (Naish), but after he changes his mind, he can’t convince the pathological killer to just keep the money and back off. Not bad by B-movie standards, with a small yet juicy role for Woodbury as a surprise femme fatale; better writing might have made Naish’s thug a memorable heavy. Some style, but undercooked, and the casting of Dix does no favors for the banal victim he essays. Screenplay credited to Eric Taylor.

60/100