What a waste of my time!!!

Good start, but then it gets ruined

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Up to this point, I found the entries in "The Whistler" series to be enjoyable B movies, but with "Mysterious Intruder", something seems to have gone wrong. Let me make clear that I didn't think that this entry was a terrible movie. But all the same, it doesn't seem to fit with the other entries. For starters, the story is more of a standard B movie detective movie instead of a more suspenseful story. And this particular detective story really requires you to pay close attention - if you are not keeping careful mental notes to what's going on, you'll likely get lost pretty quickly. I will admit that if you're patient enough to sit through the movie, you'll be rewarded with a dark ending that does seem to fit other movies of the series. Those who also like detective dramas of the 1940s probably will get some extra enjoyment as well. But as I said, it isn't really a true "Whistler" movie, and must be considered somewhat of a misfire.

Some great character actors liven up this convoluted entry in a series that started off intelligent and clever, and over the time has gotten full of itself to where much of the proceedings are incomprehensible. Murders surrounding a rare record shop and missing persons result in a lot of headaches in trying to keep up with what is going on. Some clever historical references add a bit of interest, but by that time, a momentary blink can cause one to loose track again. In this entry, Richard Dix is a cynical private investigator, often at odds with detectives Barton MacLane and Charles Lane, out to solve the sudden death of an elderly music store owner, the disappearance of the girl he was searching for, and the odd assortment of characters coming in and out searching for valuable musical artifacts. In addition to MacLane and Lane are Kathleen Howard, Regis Toomey and Mike Mazurki, but the intrusion of too many characters leads to a seeming dead end in the plot. Even at just over an hour, this gets puzzling and ultimately frustrating, especially after watching two previous entries in "The Whistler" series that showed its smarts. I can only guess that while whistling, that shadowy figure saw somebody sucking on a lemon, because this one is out of tune with previous entries in the series. This lacks the artistic genius of the cult director William Castle who moved from series writer to behind the camera.

A nice old gentleman hires private detective Don Gale (Richard Dix) to find a girl named Elora Lund he hasn't seen in seven years. Gale tries to rip the old man off by sending an impostor to pose as Elora. But then the old man is murdered (in a surprisingly brutal scene) and Gale finds himself on the spot.Another entertaining entry in Columbia's always-fun Whistler franchise. A contender for best in the series. Dix is terrific as the sleazeball private eye. Good supporting cast includes Barton MacLane, Mike Mazurki, Regis Toomey, and Charles Lane. Nice direction from William Castle. The plot in this one takes several twists and turns. It's a pretty good story, especially for a B movie. You should definitely check it out, even if you are new to The Whistler.

**SPOILERS** Having elderly music store owner Edward Stillwell, Paul E. Burns, show up at what you would expect to be, from watching Sam Spade & Philip Marlow like 1940's private eye flicks, his rundown and barley lit office in what looks like swanky Sutton Place, check out the 59th Street Bridge outside the office window, private investigator Don Gale, Richard Dix, is anything but interested in taking up his case. Stillwell is willing to pay Gale all his life saving, $100.00, to track down and find 21 year-old Elora Lund, Pamela Blake, whom he hasn't seen or heard from for almost seven years. It's when Stillwell tells the very uninterested Gale that Miss. Lund is to inherit a large amount of money that her widowed mother, who had just passed away, left with him that Gale suddenly got interested in the case knowing that he'll, if he finds Miss. Lund, get a piece of it.The movie "Mysterious Intruder" is a lot like the "Maltese Falcon" with an unscrupulous private eye, like Sam Spade in the latter, breaking every rule in the book trying to get his hands on, instead of the legendary "Black Bird", a set of 1887 wax recordings cylinders of Swedish Nightingale Jenny Lind worth over $200,000.00. Gale is in fact a lot more unscrupulous then Sam Spade ever was by using people to trick poor old Mr. Stillwell into getting hold of the wax recordings without even giving them to their rightful owner Elora Lund!Gale using one, of many, of his lady friends hot blond Freda Hanson, Helen Mowery, to impersonate Miss. Lund to get a hold of the wax treasures has old man Stillwell murdered by the gorilla-like Harry Pontos (Mike Mazurki), who somehow got wind of what was going on, who ends up taking Freda hostage together with a package in Stillwell's store addressed to Elora Lund. When Gale get's to Stillwell's store finding him murdered and Freda missing has the news get out, via the police, that she's not really Miss. Lund. Pontos hearing this on his car radio, together with him finding nothing of value in the package that he stole from Stillwell's music store, lets Freda go as he heads home to his rooming house for a good nights sleep; it turned out to be the last good nights,or days, sleep that the big lug would ever have.Gale gets it from both sides in the movie, the police and those who work for him, with him getting the royal screwing from non other then Freda herself who's ***SPOILER ALERT*** working behind his back to get the wax cylinders off his hands and keep the $200,00.00 for both herself and her secret crime partner. Freda is later murdered by her unknown and unseen partner in a classic double-cross with the now clueless Gale being the number one suspect in her death.It's only later that Gale finally gets to the bottom of what's behind all this death and destruction but by then it's a bit to late for him to do anything about it. With him wanted by the police in Freda's, and possibly Mr. Stillwell's, murder Gale goes incognito, as a mummy-like looking bandaged crippled man, to the late Mr. Stillwell's music store knowing that the real killer, or killers, of Freda are there rummaging through the place trying to find the valuable wax recordings.The ending by far is the best part of the film "Mysterous Intruder" with everyone getting exactly what's coming to them including the on the lamb and under the covers, or bandages, Don Gale. One of the best of the Richard Dix "The Whistler" series of films and at the same time one of most complicated. Still "Mysterious Intruder" is more then worth watching a second time just to see the clues and subplots that you may have missed the first time around.