The Secret of the Whistler
Theatrical release poster
Directed byGeorge Sherman
Screenplay by
Based onThe Whistler
1942-55 radio series
by J. Donald Wilson
Produced byRudolph C. Flothow
Starring
Narrated byOtto Forrest
CinematographyAllen G. Siegler
Edited byDwight Caldwell
Music byHerschel Burke Gilbert
Production
company
Larry Darmour Productions
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
  • November 7, 1946 (1946-11-07) (United States)
Running time
65 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Secret of the Whistler is a 1946 American mystery film noir based on the radio drama The Whistler. Directed by George Sherman, the production features Richard Dix, Leslie Brooks and Michael Duane.[1] It is the sixth of Columbia Pictures' eight "Whistler" films produced in the 1940s, all but the last starring Dix.

Plot

Ralph Harrison (Richard Dix) is married to Edith (Mary Currier), a rich woman who has been suffering heart attacks. Upset by her condition, he finds consoling companionship with an artist's model, the unscrupulous gold-digger Kay (Leslie Brooks).

He falls in love with Kay. Edith's health then improves. Edith overhears Ralph professing his love for Kay. Edith threatens Ralph, saying she's going to take him out of her will. He decides to poison her, with her own medicine, before she can meet with her lawyers.

After Edith dies, Ralph marries Kay, who becomes suspicious of how Edith died and worried for her own fate. Finding incriminating diary pages and the medicine, she has the medicine analyzed, discovering that it was poisoned.

Ralph overhears the phone conversation with the lab. Pretending to embrace her, he strangles Kay to death, just as the police arrive and arrest him for murder — a murder he didn't need to commit because Edith hadn't taken the poisoned medicine after all, but died of a heart attack, before she could take it.

Cast

Reception

TV Guide rated it 3/5 stars and called it "engrossing as usual and well acted".[2]

References

  1. ^ The Secret of the Whistle at the TCM Movie Database.
  2. ^ "Secret Of The Whistler". TV Guide. Retrieved February 20, 2015.

External links

Films directed by George Sherman
Categories