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The Whistler follows Earl C. Conrad (Richard Dix), a businessman that hires a hitman through a middleman to kill himself, as he hasn't been able to recover from the death of his wife. The twist comes when he realizes later that his wife is alive, but he has no way to contact the hitman to stop the hit since the middleman was killed as well.
This was an interesting watch that I found out about when looking for short film noirs (its runtime is just 60 minutes). The premise is really interesting and Dix is a competent lead. However, the way the hitman behaves really doesn't make much sense as he seems determined in completing the job, but still spins his wheels too much when the time comes for some odd reasons.
Regardless of that, the atmosphere is effective and most of the cast does a solid job. The whole "whistling" thing ends up being a weird red herring, and there are some odd developments in the second act that I don't think were that well executed, paired with an unnecessary love interest. However, the breezy runtime helps smooth the rough edges a bit.
Grade:
THE WHISTLER
(1944, Castle)
(1944, Castle)
"You better take out some more insurance today because... tomorrow may be too late."
The Whistler follows Earl C. Conrad (Richard Dix), a businessman that hires a hitman through a middleman to kill himself, as he hasn't been able to recover from the death of his wife. The twist comes when he realizes later that his wife is alive, but he has no way to contact the hitman to stop the hit since the middleman was killed as well.
This was an interesting watch that I found out about when looking for short film noirs (its runtime is just 60 minutes). The premise is really interesting and Dix is a competent lead. However, the way the hitman behaves really doesn't make much sense as he seems determined in completing the job, but still spins his wheels too much when the time comes for some odd reasons.
Regardless of that, the atmosphere is effective and most of the cast does a solid job. The whole "whistling" thing ends up being a weird red herring, and there are some odd developments in the second act that I don't think were that well executed, paired with an unnecessary love interest. However, the breezy runtime helps smooth the rough edges a bit.
Grade: