The Mark of the Whistler (1944)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

William Castle

Writers:

George Bricker (writer)
Cornell Woolrich (story)

Release Date:

9 October 1944 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A drifter claims the money in an old bank account. Soon he finds himself the target of two men who turn out to be the sons of the man's old partner...

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman | Based On Radio Series | Sequel | Cult Director

Cast

Richard Dix	...	Lee Selfridge Nugent
Janis Carter	...	Patricia Henley
Porter Hall	...	Joe Sorsby
Paul Guilfoyle	...	'Limpy' Smith
John Calvert	...	Eddie Donnelly
Matt Willis	...	Perry Donnelly

Also Known As:

Dormant Account (USA) (working title)
The Marked Man (UK)

Runtime:

60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Larry Darmour Productions

Movie Connections:

Followed by The Thirteenth Hour (1947)

William Castle meets Dostoyevsky

This entry is the best in this above-average series from Columbia. All the stories had intriguing premises and clever twists, but this one even more so, since it was based on an original by Cornell Woolrich, that master of gloom, fate and paranoia. You definitely won't see the last curveball coming. There's a nice element of "Crime and Punishment"-like guilt infiltrating the protagonist's shady exploits, although it's not directly responsible for his downfall. The material is the essence of noir, but Castle filmed it straightforwardly for the most part. In his early days before churning out his gimmicky horror pics, he knew how to add telling little touches and include fascinatingly offbeat characters on the margins. All the same, one can't help thinking that this might have been a low-budget noir masterpiece along the lines of "Blind Spot" or "Fear in the Night" if the style had been more doom-laden and shadowy.