Return of the Whistler

 

Read/Watch 'em In Order #123

The last movie in the Whistler series (1948's The Return of the Whistler) is the only one not to star Richard Dix, who was too ill to continue working and was only a year away from his untimely death. That's too bad, because he had done an excellent job in the series, portraying good guys, bad guys and in-between guys with equal skill.

Michael Duane,who had played a supporting role in Secret of the Whistler and was a B-Movie regular throughout the 1940s, takes the lead in Return and does a fine job. And, as much as I miss Dix in the series while watching this one, a younger actor does fit the part better. 

Duane is Ted Nichols, who is about to marry a pretty French girl named Alice. Alice is a widow, by the way, who married an American pilot during the war and, when he was killed in action, came to the U.S. to meet his in-laws. 

Or IS she a widow? She disappears from a hotel room the night before the wedding and the clerk says she left on her own accord. Then Ted learns that her husband is apparently alive and that Alice is Cookoo for Coco-Puffs, suffering from selective amnesia and delusions.

At first, Ted accepts this. But soon after, he finds a clue that tells him Alice's supposed husband was lying to him regarding at least one important fact. Ted finds himself tasked with busting Alice out of a Sanitarium to find out what is really going on.

Duane and Lenore Aubert (Alice) are likeable protagonists and the plot is quite good. We see most of the events of the film from Ted's point of view, following along with him as the identities and apparent motivations of various characters keep shifting. Is Alice crazy? Are her in-laws who they claim to be? What's the point behind a complicated plot to seperate Ted from Alice before they get married? 

I especially enjoy the inclusion of a private eye played by Richard Lane, who's own shifting motivations for helping Ted, then working against him, then helping him again make him a key part of the story. And Lane, who played Inspector Farrady in the Boston Blackie movies, is one of the character actors I always enjoy seeing in a movie--a guy who feels like an old friend whenever he pops up in something I'm watching. 

Of course, watching this movie has made me feel like my own honeymoon was lacking. I didn't have to rescue Angela from a Sanitarium ONCE during the entire trip. Oh, well. 

That's if for the Whistler movies. Watching them all has made me wish there had been more of them--or simply that Hollywood still churned out B-Movies and double features today. Nostalgia can be a misleading feeling, because its certain that many things were not better in the past. But I think that it can be argued that in many ways, storytelling in popular culture was stronger in the 1930s, 40s and 50s than it is today.