This is the fourth Whistler film. Once again Richard Dix is the star and he plays a completely different character from the three preceding ones. His versatility is simply amazing. This time he is a very wealthy industrialist named John Sinclair who has no family, has never married, and also has no friends. He has been ruthless in the pursuit of financial success but as a result suffers from burnout. His doctor tells him he must take a long break, as his exhaustion attacks could become fatal. And that is where the story really begins. He meets a smiling and friendly nurse played by Lynn Merrick, who undergoes an extreme personality change when she realizes that Dix, going under a pseudonym as John Carter, is really the rich and famous John Sinclair. She becomes consumed by uncontrollable greed. Dix asks her to marry him and she unceremoniously dumps her fiancée, a handsome young doctor plated by James Cardwell. Then events very rapidly become noirish. The couple are living in a converted lighthouse on a desolate bit of coast and have no visitors. Merrick is going to pieces but Dix is falling in love with her. Then Cardwell suddenly turns up and the three of them spend days or weeks together, especially in the 'solarium' at the top of the lighthouse gazing out at the sea. There are lots of shots of them climbing up and down the spiral stairway inside the structure, of which Merrick cheerfully says 'It's good exercise.' Things get so tense one expects Barbara Stanwyck to turn up with Fred MacMurray. Well, at this point one draws a discreet veil over where this is all going, leaving the pleasure of discovery of the subsequent events to the viewers. One remark about Merrick. She was born in Texas as Marilyn Llewelling. That is an unusual American distortion of the well known Welsh surname of Llewellyn. And a real Welshman, Rhys Williams, appears in the supporting cast. I wonder what he thought of Llewellyn becoming Llewelling.

"Voice of the Whistler" is an interesting entry in the Whistler series in several aspects. The first half of the movie will lead you to believe that it will be the story of a dying man trying to improve his life before he passes on. It is treated pretty seriously, and there is nothing chilling or horrifying about the movie during this first half. Things do start to get darker in the second half of the movie, but not right away - it's only in the last fifteen or so minutes that the movie gets seriously dark. And the way the movie unfolds during those last fifteen minutes feels more like a noir of the period than a suspense drama. Although my above description of the movie may make it sound to be somewhat of a mess, it's actually executed fairly well. It's fairly briskly paced and never boring - you'll be wondering what exactly will happen in the end (though the flash forward scene at the beginning of the movie does take out some of the punch at the end.) This is a nice little B movie that does its job in just sixty minutes.

**SPOILERS** One of the most unusual and unpredictable of "The Whistler" movies that has to do with burnt out industrial and banking tycoon John Sinclair, Richard Dix, who after working himself into an early grave, in making his millions, finds out that he'll soon and up in one if he doesn't get his act together and take a long vocation from his work. Going to his rented island vacation house off Chicago's Lake Michigan Sinclair has a sudden seizer and ends up in Chicago cab driver's, who gave him a lift, Erin Sparrow, Rhys Williams,next door hotel room. Despite his phenomenal success in the business world Sincleir never had a chance to develop any lasting relationships and is in fact, despite his many millions, all alone in the world. It's Sparrow, a former English lightweight boxing champion, who shows the clueless Sinclair, who now calls himself John Carter, what friendship is all about and how to make friends as well has his, Sinclair, ability in influencing people to invest in his banks and businesses. Having a new lease on life Sinclair easily makes friends with a number of people that he comes in contact with in Chicago including registered nurse Joan Martin, Lynn Merrick, who Sparrow introduced him to. Not really being that hip in Joan's future with her long suffering fiancée Dr.Fred Graham, James Cardwell, who's trying to open up his own practice, he works almost for nothing at a local charity clinic, Sincalir make Joan a proposal to marry him and move into his new home away from home a converted, with all the modern convinces, lighthouse off the coast of Maine. A destroyed Dr. Graham leaves Joan feeling that her marriage to Sinclair, with him not expecting to live for more then six months, so that she could inherit his money is incredibly greedy as well as unfeeling towards him. It's when Sinclair's health improves and his sudden death, predicted by his doctors, doesn't come to pass that things start to get a bit stressful for everyone involved including Dr. Graham. The doctor unexpectedly showed up at the lighthouse expecting Joan to come back to him, after her husbands John Sinclair's demise, as well as as also getting himself a piece of Sinclair millions. The movie "The Voice of the Whistler" then takes a turn for the worse for everyone involved with Sinclair and Dr. Graham plotting each others murder with Joan, who's caught in the middle of all this, not Sinclair's money being the ultimate prize. ****SPOILER ALERT FROM THIS POINT ON****You never know what's coming next but when it does it will shock your socks off. Sinclair for all his smarts let's the cat out of the bag in giving Dr. Graham the idea to murder him. It's that idea on Sinclair's part that leads to the double disaster at the conclusion of the film. If Sinclair was honest with himself he would have left Joan alone and not think that he could buy her like the many expensive, homes cars and yachts, items he bought for himself all through the years. In he end Sinclair overestimated himself in trying to outsmart Dr. Graham and giving him the opening that he needed to put him away for good and thus have Joan all for himself. It wasn't that Dr. Graham saw through Sinclair devious and murderous plan but that Sinclair, always feeling that he's in complete control, overlooked some very vital things, like the nailed shut lighthouse windows, that in the end lead to his downfall.

This is one of a series of movies starring Richard Dix based on the very popular radio drama "The Whistler" with it signature whistling. This episode...I mean movie is all about the wealthy businessman John Sinclair, who is suffering from poor health and lack of friends. On his was to a cruise vacation he passes out in a cab. The friendly cab driver and former boxer, Ernie Sparrow, takes him home until he can get him to a doctor at the free clinic. This new doctor recommends avoiding a cruise and instead going to a small town in New England where he should make friends. John invites Ernie to come with him and proposes to the local free clinic nurse. The doctor told him he is going to die probably in months. So his proposal to Nurse Joan Martin, is marry him...come to Maine to nurse him and when he dies she will get his whole fortune. Only in Maine, where they buy a lighthouse and turn it into a house, John gets better and doesn't die as expected. Joan's former fiancée, Dr. Fred Graham, comes to pay them a visit and take Joan away with him. Except his timing couldn't be worse as John had just confessed his love to Joan, wanting to have a real marriage. Then John during a chess explanation maps out how he would commit a murder...and Fred starts to take step to use it! Interesting film, my one complaint is the person who ends up with the fortune seems a little mercenary, making the ending a bit of a disappointment. The rest of the end seems like poetic justice. If you are a big Whistler fan I recommend not missing this one, also if you like a good murder mystery plot...you may enjoy this.

A powerful industrialist has spent more time making millions than making friends, and thinking that he is dying proposes to a hard-working nurse (Lynn Merrick) so he can do something good with his fortune. In spite of being engaged to the idealistic Rhys Williams, she agrees, destroying her chance of happiness in the process. She ends up taking care of him in a remote seaside lighthouse, and the question arises, how long does it really take a dying man to die? What starts off slow suddenly becomes intriguing, adding a Gothic twist to the mystery. Tom Kennedy (brother of the slow-burning Edgar) is the only person who is in contact with them, that is until Williams pays a surprise visit and Dix creates an ominous warning involving a chess game. Is there a murder plot afoot, or is the whistler really in charge of the chess board? The always hysterical Miverva Urecal has a magnificent cameo as an obnoxious woman trying to buy flowers that have already been sold. Once again, the aging Dix is paired with a much younger woman, but unlike Lon Chaney Jr. in the "Inner Sanctum" series, it isn't as morbid. Dix, one of the major matinée idols of the early 1930's, is still dashing, if dangerous, and twists and turns in the story never stop. "B" melodrama at its best with a great final shot concerning Merrick.

Voice of the Whistler (1945) *** (out of 4) Fourth film in Columbia's series is once again directed by William Castle but he also co-wrote the screenplay here. This time out Richard Dix plays a rich man who will dead within a two month period. Not wanting to spend his last months alone, he offers a nurse (Lynn Merrick) a great opportunity. She marries him to bring him happiness and he'll leave her his millions. They go through with the plan but all of the sudden he starts to get healthy again. This is certainly the best film in the series so far and it works mainly due to the great story they are working with. There's a lot of twists and turns throughout the short 60-minute running time but it all leads to a highly believable ending. Dix is very good in his role as is Merrick and the two work perfectly well together. The screenplay offers both of their characters a chance to grow, which certainly isn't normal for this type of B movie. Castle does a very good job with his direction and proves he could direct something without gimmicks.

Although "Voice Of The Whistler" is the shortest of the first four Whistler films, running just under an hour, it is also the slowest in its setting up the plot. It doesn't really pick up until the last 20 minutes or so, when the young doctor arrives at the lighthouse and the film becomes (not a who-done-it but) a who-will-do-it-first! The characters are complex people - neither good nor bad, but somewhere in between (like most of us). Other points of interest include the surprising amount of skin Lynn Merrick shows in her vintage mid-1940s swimsuit, and the pseudo-documentary at the start which actually reminded me of Woody Allen's "Zelig"! **1/2 out of 4.

This film is really like two separate films morphed together near the very end. The first 85% is a nice film about a rich but lonely man who is able to find himself. He seems like a very nice guy and you want him to succeed. I liked this very, very much and Richard Dix played an extremely sympathetic character. Then, as if out of left field, near the end of the film, the plot took a HUGE detour in an entirely different direction and this change made little sense. As I said, it seemed like an entirely different movie. Plus, once the film changed and the plot took a very dark turn, there was no sense of irony or suspense--leaving the viewer with a very flat and downbeat ending. While those who created this anthology series wanted to create a series with many of the characteristics of the later Twilight Zone TV show, the writing in the case of several of the installments just was too spotty. For a suspense-type film, it was gravely lacking in suspense.

The Whistler series from Columbia is unusual. Every feature starts out with an introduction by "The Whistler" who is just a shadowy anonymous figure. The protagonist in every feature is played by Richard Dix, and in each case he is a different person with a different problem. This one tackles greed and loneliness. Dix plays business titan John Sinclair. The film opens with a film within a film that is a history of Sinclair's business life, starting in WWI, then spreading to auto production and banking, how his banks stayed solvent through the Great Depression, and a recent court win over another company stealing Sinclair's inventions. It's a nice little device to catch you up on John's history. But Sinclair is lonely because he doesn't trust other people to not use him to get his money. He has no friends or relatives. He has something that is merely called "an attack", and his doctor says he needs to leave immediately for a vacation or else he will die, the implication being that he will probably die shortly anyways. Nothing more specific is ever said about his illness. Well, John does take that trip, does make friends in Chicago, and then changes his destination to the seacoast on medical advice. He takes two of his Chicago friends with him - a cabbie, Sparrow, who helped him when he did not know he was helping the rich John Sinclair, and a nurse, Joan, at a neighborhood clinic for poor people. He marries the nurse strictly as a business deal - she will stay with him the few months he has left in return for inheriting his fortune. The problem is, Joan already has a fiancé, Fred, but he is struggling in spite of being a doctor and Joan wants money NOW. It is a revealing scene when she talks to her fiancé and you see how greedy she is underneath that compassionate exterior. So John, Sparrow, and Joan go to live in a lighthouse on the Maine Coast, renovated to a beach house. There is just one snag - John doesn't die. Happiness with Joan has helped him recover. The other snag is Joan is getting impatient again, tired of the isolation of the lighthouse which is really nothing for John since he has always been socially isolated. And then Joan's ex-fiancé shows up unexpectedly one day. John is suspicious that Fred will take Joan away. Fred still loves Joan. Joan still loves Fred but also loves the promise of her inheritance which she loses if she dumps John. And how does Sparrow the friendly cabbie fit into all of this, or does he? Watch and find out how this noir turns Capra-esque and then turns Hitchcock in the end. Recommended as a very good entry in the series. Columbia certainly knew how to take a shoestring budget and turn out an interesting product.

Like the other entries in the Whistler series, this one has an intriguing premise (not far removed from "Indecent Proposal") with a couple of nice twists. Unfortunately, it doesn't make for good cinema due to its static nature -- it's much more suited to the series' original medium, radio. The grungy setting of the first entry in the series (also directed by the fledgling William Castle) is sorely missed, though he does introduce a few oddball characters in passing. Nonetheless, it is worth sitting through the dull parts for the clever climax and the haunting aftermath. And there's one of those nice little walk-across-the-room bits by a sexy waitress to keep the guys alert (reminiscent of Lana Turner's rookie appearance in "They Won't Forget" or Yvette Vickers' eye-catching serveuse in "Hud"). A similar tale of a lighthouse-bound ménage-a-trois occurs in PRC's semi-noir appropriately entitled "Lighthouse".