Waste of time

just watch it!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

It must have seemed strange to Richard Dix that after a career of playing dependable heroes his career was given a new lease of life with the Whistler series in which he portrayed a number of neurotics and psychotics. In this excellent entry he is a man with a ghastly mission - until he is knocked over by a car and when he wanders into a bar, unknown to him, is Jean (Janis Carter), who reads his fortune and predicts his death within 24 hours. Armed with this information she makes his acquaintance and together, with different items found in his pocket, they try to find out who he is. The first stop is the Civic Theatre where Constantina (Tala Birell) denies knowing him (he had sent her roses).Jean is trusting in the extreme - even after leaving a little girl crying over her dead cat, "George" (that's what Jean calls him) had been looking after it - she still invites him to stay at her flat until they find out his true identity!! After another unfortunate incident involving a pet bird (there is also a scene with a squirrel - you don't see their deaths, but you do see Dix's face), Francie (Jeff Donnell), Jean's sister and flatmate, is even more skeptical about him.Bit by bit he slowly starts to remember but while Jean is hampered by her closeness to George, Francie, who is far more "cluey" is succeeding in leaps and bounds. She finds out he has bought poison at the chemist then ordered a birthday cake to be delivered to the warden of the local mental hospital. It is now clear that George is a homicidal maniac who has escaped and is trying to rekindle an old romance (Birell did know him but didn't want to admit it) and settle old scores!!! There is a last minute rescue to stop the birthday cake being eaten and a showdown in a deserted barn!!Janis Carter who was unforgettable as the psychotic Jill Merrill in "Night Editor" here plays a trusting victim and pulls it off equally well. Also playing a stereo typical maid was an actress who in 1930 seemed to have a huge future in films. She was Nina Mae McKinney who because of the color of her skin was unfortunately destined to play maids, no matter how talented a singer she was.Highly Recommended.

Far from the best of the series. The first twenty minutes or so are intriguing, after which the film trails off into a conventional suspenser. Dix plays a mysterious man who's suffered memory loss following an accident. Lovely Janis Carter steps in to assist after a prophetic portent from an ordinary deck of cards. Dix appears a decent sort eager to uncover his lost identity, but as events unfold the situation becomes darker, with an ending that would warm feminist hearts of decades later.Some nice touches that build ambiguity, such as the frilly apron as Dix prepares breakfast for the girls, or his saying grace before the chatty sisters can dig in. On the other hand, there are the mysterious deaths trailing behind. The Whistler makes several shadowy commentaries, a neat carry-over from the radio series of the same name. Nonetheless, the material cries out for a stylish director who can lift the last half beyond the merely familiar, and create the kind urban nightmare of the original (William Castle).Dix is again effective as the mystery man. However, Carter's high-energy smile and bubbly personality seem better suited to a Betty Grable musical than this slice of psychic noir. I just wish the imagination of the first half had carried over to the second. Still, worth a look-see from an outstanding series.

A typically spooky entry in the Whistler series [3/8] held together well by the inimitable Richard Dix in this outing as an amnesiac madman; the plot is well outlined in a previous post. Why Janis Carter falls for him and stays fallen until near the end is the biggest mystery in this film. I'd hoped that she would meet a grisly end in One Mysterious Night when she played an annoying reporter spying on Boston Blackie, and it's a pity that in this Dix couldn't have reached the pitchfork before her.A well crafted story, as were most of the Whistler films (as was the original radio series) which keeps you thinking and second guessing all the way through. My favourite moments are Dix in the park killing the squirrel - he did didn't he? And would you have let a man as creepy and wild eyed as him sleep on the couch, but of course only the viewer would know what the man was like in the dark.Well worth watching, but to those of you who worry about such things: don't worry about the whistling disembodied shadow - that's all it is - with a sneering voice and some choice comments.

Richard Dix plays...well, that's the secret. He gets hit by a car early on in the movie and gets one of those handy Hollywood cases of amnesia. Shortly after being hit, he's asked by a girl in a restaurant to be allowed to tell his fortune for a lark, to show her friends how it's done. The cards come up bad, and then his amnesia comes to light, causing the amateur fortuneteller to more or less adopt him so she can help him find out who he is. You'll notice that folks trust one another in this flick a lot more than they probably ever did in real life. With the results your parents probably warned you about. Dix, as usual, is great as this befuddled but somehow sinister stranger. This is perhaps the best of the Whistler movies. Warning: Implied violence to cuddly animals!