Voice of the Whistler

 

Read/Watch 'em In Order #119

At first, I was a little annoyed with the way director William Castle opens Voice of the Whistler (1945), the fourth of the eight Whistler movies. He shows us the character of Joan Merrick (Lynn Merrick) living alone and embittered in a lonely light house. So right away we know that everyone she's involved with throughout the movie is going to end up dead or in prison. Why start the movie out with such a spoiler? After all, not all the Whistler movies have had tragic endings. 

But, as I watched it, I realized that the scene provides us context. Voice of the Whistler is only barely movie-length, even for a B-movie. It clocks in at an even 60 minutes. And a little over half of that is setting up the characters and getting them into a situation where at least one of them wants to murder at least one of the others. 

Up until that point, it seems like a pleasant drama about a lonely man gradually finding a reason to live. If we didn't know that some sort of shenanigans were coming up soon, we might not know we were watching a Film Noirish crime story.

It all works out, though. The short run and another great performance by Richard Dix keeps our interest and the build up to murder turns out to be quite effective.

Dix plays John Sinclair, a wealthy industrialist whose entire life has been dedicated to make money. He doesn't have any friends and he's also lost his health. His doctors have told him to get away on a restful trip. It's best if he takes someone with him, but... well, who would a man with no friends take with him?

A train trip from New York to Chicago ends when he has another attack of weakness and dizziness. This, though, leads him to make a friend when a compassionate cab driver (Rhys Williams) helps him out. A trip to a local clinic also brings the nurse, Joan Merrick, into his life.

Joan is engaged to a local doctor (James Cardwell), but won't marry him until he's making enough money to provide her with a nice home. That, we gradually realize, is Joan's thing. In many ways, she's a nice person. But her eyes are too rigidly fixed on a financial prize.

Sinclair offers to marry her. He figures he only has a few months to live, so he makes her a deal. He wants her companionship for those months. In return, she inherits her fortune.

She agrees, dumps the doctor and marries him. Along with the cab driver (now Sinclair's best friend), they move into a remote light house in Maine. But Sinclair spoils things by not dying. In fact, he gets better.

Then the doctor comes for a visit. He wants Joan back. She wants to leave Sinclair, but still wants money.  Sinclair knows Joan wants to leave him, but wants to keep her. Soon, Sinclair and the doc are thinking about ways to get and keep the woman they both love. Both begin to think she might be worth killing for.

Of course, things go awry as soon as a murder is committed. But the twists at the end are good ones and, though the tragic ending has been spoiled for us, that ending turns out to be a very satisfying one.

Voice of the Whistler is another strong entry in this entertaining series.