Watch The Whistler For Free

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

The first entry in the little-known today "Whistler" series is an atmospheric and intriguing little thriller that keeps you watching because you never know what will happen next. However, I think it missed an opportunity of being even better by not keeping the killer's face hidden from the audience for a longer time: the scene where Dix mistakes a phone repairman for his executioner creates a terrific feeling of paranoia that, after the killer goes from a voice and a shadow to a visible face, the film cannot quite recapture. Also, the striking Joan Woodbury's role is far too small. And a trivia note: if IMDb is correct, the guy doing the (hypnotic) voice and, well, whistling of the Whistler is still alive and almost 111 years old!!! **1/2 out of 4.

(There are Spoilers) In an almost empty bar on the city docks businessman Earl C. Conrad, Richard Dix, has a prearranged meeting with this stranger who's to get a "job" done for him. The stranger a local hoodlum named Lefty Vigran, Don Costello, is to set up a hit on someone that Conrad want's iced by no later that Friday. What Lefty doesn't know, since everything between the two is done on a no name basis, is that the person that Conrad want's to be hit is non other then himself!Dark creepy and unnerving suspense drama that has a man wanting to commit suicide but not having the guts to do it himself. Hiring a hit-man to do him in Conrad's contact Lefty, who it turns out is a fugitive cop killer, ends up getting gunned down by the police resisting arrest moments after he leaves Conrad drinking away his troubles in the bar. Lefty having his runner the deft mute, who reads only Superman comic books, William Benedict get the message, with the $5,000.00 fee, to the hit man's, J. Carrol Naish, hotel room put everything into motion to get Earl C. Conrad the wish that he's been hoping for. A death wish Conrad had since he, in his confused and disturbed mind, left his wife Claire to drown in a boating accident in the Pacific Ocean.It's later that a shocked Conrad gets the "good news" from his secretary, who's secretly in love with him, Alice Walker( Gloria Stuart) that the Red Cross had found that his wife in fact survived and is interned in a Japanese internment camp ; the film takes place during WWII. Conrad now not waning to have his life snuffed is in a dilemma in not being able to contact Lefty, who's dead, and not knowing who the hit-man, J. Carrol Naish, is! This all leaves Conrad, if he wasn't already, to become a paranoid individual suspecting anyone he runs into to be the man who's out to take his life! The man that he in fact paid to do it!Excellent performance by former silent film and cowboy star Richard Dix as a man, Earl C. Conrad, who screwed himself by overreacting to a tragedy that he in fact had nothing to do with. In fact Conrad heroically saved a number of passengers from the sinking cruise ship that he and Claire were on but had her slip out of his hands at the last moment. The insane hit that Conrad arranged on himself was in fact far worse that any conceived notion of guilt that he had about his wife's death. Arranging a mob hit, even on oneself, is murder and knowingly wanting and paying to murder someone, even himself, is far worse then even letting, which Conrad didn't, someone purposely drown!The movie has a really good double surprise ending that, even though it's very contrived, ties all the loose ends together. The ending not only rights all the wrongs of what Conrad crazily did to himself, and those like Alice who loved him, but shows the audience that "The Whistler" was right all alone in his assertion that a curtain individual's destiny was to die tonight.

Earl Conrad is convinced his life is worthless without his wife who has been killed overseas. Earl, who obviously can well afford it, gives ten thousand dollars to a shady character to "dispose" of someone. The only information he gives is an address, but he never tells this man he is the intended victim. The intermediary gives the address to the real killer. The shady man, who has kept half of the money, dies on the street in a confrontation with the police. Everything is set in motion as the killer cases the house where his victim lives.At this point of the story, Earl Conrad's secretary, the loyal Alice Walker, comes to give her boss the wonderful news his wife has not died. Earl, who has been despondent, suddenly wants to live. After all, he has a good reason for wanting to annul the contract he has put on his own life. When he finds out about the go-between man death's he starts to look for his would-be-assassin. Will he be able to talk him out of killing him?William Castle, the director of this enjoyable, and seldom seen film, makes the most of it in filling 59 minutes of celluloid with a taut drama that is credible and gives a new dimension to a crime that will be committed, but has to be stopped by all means. James Brown's photography works well in the film, as does the screen play written by Eric Taylor.Richard Dix appears as Eric Conrad the man that puts a contract on his own life and then decides he wants to live. Gloria Stewart makes a wonderful Alice Walker, the secretary secretly in love with her boss. J Carrol Naish, who never utters a word is perfect as the killer.The film is a curiosity not seen too often.

Oh, what Hitchcock could have done with this story and a bigger budget! Dix plays a man depressed and ridden with guilt over his wife's death. He decides to put a contract out on himself. He gives $10,000 to shady character who in turn hires the killer (Naish). Dix doesn't know who the killer is, what he looks, or whether it is a man or woman.The shady character dies in a shootout with the police shortly after hiring the killer, so when Dix changes his mind and decides he wants to live, he has no way of canceling the contract.There are some amusing twists in this fast paced noir which Hitchcock would have enjoyed. The best one is when the killer (well-played by Naish) poses as a fast-talking insurance salesman and tries to sell the man he plans to kill some life insurance! Also, as in Hitchcock movies, there is a ying-yang relationship between hero and killer. Hero initially wants to die, killer is morbidly afraid of death.The seamy low-life characters that Dix encounters are very well-played by obscure character actors.The whole thing is beautifully photographed in typical doom-noir style.The plot is very similar to 1971's "The Face of Fear" where a young woman who thinks she's dying of leukemia, hires a mob killer to eliminate her, then changes her mind.