The Return of the Whistler **½ (1948, Michael Duane, Lenore Aubert, Richard Lane)  – Classic Movie Review 13,259

The Return of the Whistler (1948).

The 1948 American mystery film noir The Return of the Whistler is based on a Cornell Woolrich short story called All at Once, No Alice, and that should be recommendation enough. 

Director D Ross Lederman’s 1948 American mystery film noir The Return of the Whistler is based on a Cornell Woolrich short story called All at Once, No Alice, and that should be recommendation enough.

It is the eighth and final entry in Columbia Pictures’ Whistler series based on the radio drama The Whistler. It is the only film in the series that does not star Richard Dix, who had to retire for health issues, but instead stars Michael Duane, Lenore Aubert, and Dick Lane. The screenplay is by Edward Bock and Maurice Tombragel.

Michael Duane stars as a young engineer called Ted Nichols, whose car apparently breaks down in an American small town on the night of his marriage, though actually the car has been fixed. He leaves his French fiancée Alice (Lenore Aubert) in a room at a nearby hotel while he goes to a garage in the next town to get his car fixed. But, when he returns the next morning, Alice has disappeared, and the night clerk has an unbelievable story to tell. A private detective, Gaylord Traynor (Richard Lane), turns up mysteriously to help Ted track her down, but Ted soon finds himself caught in a web of lies, intrigue and murder concerning his fiancée’s dead husband and his wealthy, corrupt family.

The Return of the Whistler (1948) is an ultra-complicated, very involved film noir mystery thriller, missing series star Richard Dix. The film is okay, watchable, satisfactory enough, but nothing special, with the build-up better than the climax. It starts with a bang, and proceeds tensely and properly mysteriously, but somehow contrives to go out with a whimper, the mystery being better than the solution. Preposterous as it is, though, the story holds water. Maybe they just wrap it up too quicky and neatly.

Little known Michael Duane is not bad as the hero, quite credible if not totally compelling, but Lenore Aubert seems lost in a thankless role as a pretty passive victim. The creepy private eye character Gaylord Traynor is a good, even quite fascinating creation, well inhabited by Richard Lane. Was this intended to be the Richard Dix role?. In any case, you don’t get many private eyes called Gaylord. No wonder, after finally reluctantly accepting his help, Ted keeps calling him Traynor.

There’s no femme fatale! But there are multiple flashbacks as Ted fills Traynor in with his story while they are driving. James Cardwell is also plenty creepy as the man claiming to be Alice’s very much alive husband Mr Barkley, and Ann Shoemaker is admirably chilly as the mother, Mrs Barkley. They are all strong noir characters. But what are they up to?

The cast are Michael Duane as Ted Nichols, Lenore Aubert as Alice Dupres Barkley, Richard Lane as Gaylord Traynor, James Cardwell as Barkley, Ann Shoemaker as Mrs Barkley, and Sarah Padden as Mrs Hulskamp.

The Columbia Pictures Whistler series

The Whistler (1944) directed by William 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, Mysterious Intruder (1946) directed by Castle, The Secret of the Whistler (1946), The Thirteenth Hour (1947), The Return of the Whistler (1948).

The first seven of the eight all star Richard Dix.

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.

The whistling at the beginning of each of the movies is by Dorothy Roberts, backed by the theme’s composer Wilbur Hatch and his orchestra.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,259

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