The Secret of the Whistler *** (1946, Richard Dix, Leslie Brooks, Michael Duane, Mary Currier, Mona Barrie, Claire Du Brey) – Classic Movie Review 13,253

The Secret of the Whistler (1946, Richard Dix),

Richard Dix plays a charming middle-aged artist who starts a relationship with a grasping young artist’s model (Leslie Brooks) while his older wealthy wife (Mary Currier) is suffering heart attacks.

Director George Sherman’s effective 1946 film noir crime thriller The Secret of the Whistler focuses intently on following the usual noir themes of greed, betrayal and murder for money, biting off a heck of a lot of choice cuts to chew and digest in just 65 minutes. This American mystery film is based on the radio drama The Whistler, and is the sixth of Columbia Pictures’ eight Whistler films produced in the 1940s, all but the last one starring Richard Dix.

Richard Dix plays middle-aged charmer Ralph Harrison, an artist who starts a relationship with grasping gold-digger young artist’s model Kay (Leslie Brooks) while his older wealthy wife Edith (Mary Currier) is suffering heart attacks. The smoothly cunning Dix has married her solely for her money and the brittle model is a conniving piece of work after him solely for his money. His wife unexpectedly recovers under the care of a new doctor and then discovers the relationship and decides to cut him out of her will, so he secretly poisons the wife to keep both her money and his girlfriend but events take several unexpected turns.

There is hardly a decent person in sight, though some are not actually criminals but might as well be, in this quick penetrating peek into the film noir world. Richard Dix has got good at this by now, a devilish charmer to the manner born, while little known Leslie Brooks and Mary Currier are spot on in their impressively unsympathetic roles, the one alluringly unscrupulous, the other an ice-chilly victim. Mona Barrie scores as the sassy, wisecracking Linda Vail, but it’s Claire Du Brey who steals the show as the Harrisons’ Mrs Danvers-type housekeeper/ servant Laura, a masterclass in sullen bitterness (or bitter sullenness).

In some ways The Secret of the Whistler is just regulation stuff of its Forties B movie formula kind, but it is a good, entertaining example none the less, well thought out and smartly executed. And now its kind is properly respected, admired and enjoyed, this one too.

The wife writes in her diary: ‘I shall hide the bottle and have it’s contents analyzed tomorrow.’ Agreed, there is no excuse for bad grammar, though being murdered for it might be a but extreme.

The cast are Richard Dix as Ralph Harrison, Leslie Brooks as Kay Morrell, Michael Duane as artist Jim Calhoun, Mary Currier as Edith Marie Harrison, Mona Barrie as Linda Vail, Ray Walker as Joe Conroy, Claire Du Brey as the Harrisons’ servant Laura, and Otto Forrest as the voice of The Whistler.

Leslie Brooks.

Leslie Brooks (born Virginia Leslie Gettman; July 13, 1922 – July 1, 2011)

Leslie Brooks began in movie bit roles for Columbia Pictures in 1941 and gained more sizable parts in Nine Girls (1944) and Cover Girl (1944), and starred in the film noir classic Blonde Ice (1948). She retired from films in 1949, but returned to make one last film in 1971, How’s Your Love Life?.

Claire Du Brey (born Clara Violet Dubreyvich, August 31, 1892 – August 1, 1993).

Claire Du Brey (born Clara Violet Dubreyvich, August 31, 1892 – August 1, 1993)

American actress Claire Du Brey (born Clara Violet Dubreyvich, August 31, 1892 – August 1, 1993) appeared in more than 200 films from 1916 to 1959.

She died in Los Angeles on August 1, 1993, aged 100.

It is claimed that Marie Dressler and Du Brey had a long-term romantic relationship. Du Brey, who had trained as a nurse, was said to be Dressler’s assistant and caregiver while she was ill with terminal cancer.

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 13,253

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