The best of the series--too bad they weren't all this well-written

Fifth of the Whistler series, Director William Castle's 3rd

Leslie Brooks and Richard Dix in The Secret of the Whistler (1946)

Richard Dix, Bernadene Hayes, John Kellogg, and Karen Morley in The Thirteenth Hour (1947)

James Cardwell, Richard Dix, Lynn Merrick, Frank Reicher, and Rhys Williams in Voice of the Whistler (1945)

Paul Guilfoyle, John Calvert, Janis Carter, Richard Dix, and Porter Hall in The Mark of the Whistler (1944)

Janis Carter and Richard Dix in The Power of the Whistler (1945)

Gloria Stuart, Alan Dinehart, Richard Dix, and J. Carrol Naish in The Whistler (1944)

Lenore Aubert and Michael Duane in The Return of the Whistler (1948)

Theresa Harris, Jack Holt, and Fay Wray in Black Moon (1934)

Constance Cummings and Jack Holt in Behind the Mask (1932)

Scott Brady, Dorothy Hart, and John Russell in Undertow (1949)

Nina Foch, Stephen Crane, Osa Massen, and Blanche Yurka in Cry of the Werewolf (1944)

Jim Backus, Richard Conte, Julie Adams, Fred Clark, and Henry Hull in Hollywood Story (1951)

Stanley Blystone, Richard Dix, Ann Hunter, and Helen Mowery in Mysterious Intruder (1946)

Mike Mazurki in Mysterious Intruder (1946)

Pamela Blake and Richard Dix in Mysterious Intruder (1946)

Richard Dix and Helen Mowery in Mysterious Intruder (1946)

Paul E. Burns and Richard Dix in Mysterious Intruder (1946)

Paul E. Burns and Helen Mowery in Mysterious Intruder (1946)

Richard Dix

Barton MacLane

Ann Hunter

Eric Taylor

Amid murders and kidnappings, a private detective is hired to find a missing girl whose family inheritance contains two rare collectible song recordings worth a lot of money.

William Castle

Mysterious Intruder

Phillip Marlowe He Ain&apos;t

The 1940&apos;s were full of private eyes from Sam Spade to Phillip Marlowe. None, however, equals the sheer sleaze of key-hole peeper Don Gale. He&apos;s a distinctive creation of writer Eric Taylor&apos;s clever little screenplay, with more twists and turns than one of those old Toni home permanents. The brief opening between Gale and his secretary tells all we need to know about his brand of professional ethics and is a great bit of subtle innuendo. Richard Dix is perfect as Gale with all the phony charm and shifty eyes of an oily medicine man. If Gale has any redeeming qualities like Spade or Marlowe, I can&apos;t find them, making him one of the most unusual lead characters of the day.

The movie starts off posing a neat little mystery-- why would anyone want to kill for some worthless old keepsakes. The solution is a novel one, although the story sometimes unfolds in a complex fashion that&apos;s hard to follow.There&apos;re some nifty little touches, such as the trigger-happy neighbor who apparently shoots at anything that moves or the safe-house matron who looks like she could go a few rounds with Mike Tyson. However, not everything is roses. Little old man Stillwell should carry a sugar-overload warning, while plug-ugly Mike Mazurki mugs it up shamelessly as the towering menace. The bare-bones street scenes might blemish most movies, but here they come across as just plain cheap like Gale himself.

How surprising that the schlockmeister of 1950&apos;s gimmick movies, William Castle, stands as the moving force behind many of these little Whistler gems. He had a real feel for them. Too bad he&apos;s identified now with such exploitation flicks as The Tingler (1959) and 13 Ghosts (1960), (Tingler wired certain certain theatre seats for a mild jolt and then insured the patrons! ). Anyway, the ending here is particularly ironical, even for a series that prided itself on irony. As they say, they just don&apos;t make &apos;em like this any more. Too bad.

The 1940's were full of private eyes from Sam Spade to Phillip Marlowe. None, however, equals the sheer sleaze of key-hole peeper Don Gale. He's a distinctive creation of writer Eric Taylor's clever little screenplay, with more twists and turns than one of those old Toni home permanents. The brief opening between Gale and his secretary tells all we need to know about his brand of professional ethics and is a great bit of subtle innuendo. Richard Dix is perfect as Gale with all the phony charm and shifty eyes of an oily medicine man. If Gale has any redeeming qualities like Spade or Marlowe, I can't find them, making him one of the most unusual lead characters of the day.

The movie starts off posing a neat little mystery-- why would anyone want to kill for some worthless old keepsakes. The solution is a novel one, although the story sometimes unfolds in a complex fashion that's hard to follow.There're some nifty little touches, such as the trigger-happy neighbor who apparently shoots at anything that moves or the safe-house matron who looks like she could go a few rounds with Mike Tyson. However, not everything is roses. Little old man Stillwell should carry a sugar-overload warning, while plug-ugly Mike Mazurki mugs it up shamelessly as the towering menace. The bare-bones street scenes might blemish most movies, but here they come across as just plain cheap like Gale himself.

How surprising that the schlockmeister of 1950's gimmick movies, William Castle, stands as the moving force behind many of these little Whistler gems. He had a real feel for them. Too bad he's identified now with such exploitation flicks as The Tingler (1959) and 13 Ghosts (1960), (Tingler wired certain certain theatre seats for a mild jolt and then insured the patrons! ). Anyway, the ending here is particularly ironical, even for a series that prided itself on irony. As they say, they just don't make 'em like this any more. Too bad.

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Mysterious Intruder

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