Mysterious Intruder ***½ (1946, Richard Dix, Barton MacLane, Nina Vale) – Classic Movie Review 13,233

Richard Dix is fine as the tough-nosed private detective Don Gale, who investigates the disappearance of a wealthy young girl, in William Castle’s 1946 film noir Mysterious Intruder, the well-made fifth Whistler film.

‘He had eyes that gave me the horrors’

Director William Castle’s 1946 film noir B-picture mystery crime thriller Mysterious Intruder stars Richard Dix, Barton MacLane, Nina Vale, Regis Toomey, Mike Mazurki, Helen Mowery, Pamela Blake, and Charles Lane.

Richard Dix is fine as the tough-nosed private detective Don Gale, who investigates the disappearance of a wealthy young girl, Elora Lund, in Columbia Pictures’ way-way-way-above-adequate, well-conceived, well-made fifth Whistler film.

Aged music store proprietor Edward Stillwell (Paul E Burns) hires morally ambiguous Don Gale to find a missing young woman called Elora Lund (Pamela Blake), who vanished when she was 14 seven years ago when her mother died, and whose family inheritance contains two rare collectible song recordings worth a very great deal of money, $200,000. Gale then chases a killer who is leaving a trail of bodies in his search for the valuable treasure.

The efficient, engrossing, inventive script by Eric Taylor (who writes both story and screenplay) is based on the 1942-1955 CBS radio series The Whistler by J Donald Wilson, which was adapted into a  series of eight film noirs by Columbia Pictures. The Voice of the Whistler is provided by an uncredited Otto Forrest.

Mysterious Intruder is smoothly directed by Castle, with eye-catching black-and-white cinematography by Philip Tannura. It is an excellent series episode with the full set: good cast, good story, good noir atmosphere, great cinematography. Richard Dix is very well suited to the private detective role, and does moral ambiguity just great. A series with the Don Gale character would have been most welcome. Barton MacLane slips comfortably and snugly into the role of Detective Taggart, and Nina Vale is an impressive femme fatale as the fake Elora Lund, aka Joan Hill. Mike Mazurki is an essential component as the menacing, villainous Harry Pontos, surely a close relative of Moose Molloy in Farewell My Lovely.

The story is busy, tense and gripping. It piles up the surprises as high as the bodies. There are some neat noir set pieces, actually a series of carefully contrived and executed ones. The climax is breathless and delivers an enormously surprisingly conclusion, actually quite a shocking one. Castle’s direction is pacy and drives along compellingly. The film fits The Whistler format nicely, with no sense of strain. The Columbia Pictures production is decent enough for a Forties B movie, and its shortcomings are carefully hidden or disguised by cinematographer Tannura who actually turns them to an advantage by clever, imaginative lighting and camera angles and set-ups. It’s B movie excellence.

The cast are Richard Dix as Don Gale, Barton MacLane as Detective Taggart, Nina Vale as Joan Hill, Regis Toomey as James Summers, Helen Mowery as Freda Hanson, Mike Mazurki as Harry Pontos, Pamela Blake as Elora Lund, Charles Lane as Detective Burns, Paul E Burns as Edward Stillwell, Kathleen Howard as Rose Deming, and Harlan Briggs as Mr Brown.

Mysterious Intruder [aka Murder is Unpredictable] is directed by William Castle, runs 61 minutes, is made by Larry Darmour Productions, is released by Columbia Pictures, is written by Eric Taylor, is shot in black-and-white by Philip Tannura, is produced by Rudolph C Flothow, and is scored by Wilbur Hatch.

In the first seven films, veteran actor Richard Dix plays the main character, a different one each time. But Michael Duane plays him in the final film.

William Castle’s film noir B-pictures are quite strong and make the most of a limited budget: The Whistler (1944), When Strangers Marry (1944), Mysterious Intruder (1946), Undertow (1949) and The Fat Man (1951) are all worth seeing. Her directed four Whistler films.

Release date: April 11, 1946 (US).

Mysterious Intruder follows The Whistler (1944) directed by Castle, The Mark of The Whistler [The Marked Man] (1944) directed by Castle, The Power of the Whistler (1945), Voice of the Whistler (1945) directed by Castle.

It is followed by The Secret of the Whistler (1946), The Thirteenth Hour (1947), The Return of the Whistler (1948).

The Whistler is an American radio mystery drama series that ran from May 16, 1942, until September 22, 1955, on the US West Coast regional CBS radio network.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,233

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