A melodramatic crime movie about deceit, imposture, greed, its asset is the plot, coming from a revered writer, and it takes us through rain, an inn, a mansion, a hospice, its direction is somewhat impersonal but reasonably skilled, mostly serviceable, the director being one of the labourers of that age, here he followed the age's new trend, the new style (I felt grateful for being spared of the allegedly humorous moments that plagued crime movies made a decade earlier …), in his rendering is defined by a light sobriety, and I think his movie would prove of interest to the writer's buffs, with the necessary caveat that it's more of an impersonal crime movie, than of a faithful transposition of a work, it has the plot, but not the writer's very peculiar atmosphere; I sympathized with the detective, I disliked the psychiatrist, and the leading actor reminded me of a C. Grant impersonator.A shocking moment is the attack of the watchdog.This movie could of been much more; the opportunity has been wasted. The feverishness of the writer's ideas has been mitigated, stumped, dimmed, blunted. Notwithstanding, the storytelling is suspenseful and dynamic.The moments of artistic truth or at least authentic craftsmanship were expect-ably few; in the '30s, many directors preferred to crowd the tropes, to throng them, than to make good use of a few, they practically left them unused, and if here the writer's universe seems impoverished, it's because the director had this mindset. On the other hand, the tone here was sober. It already had been a radio program, a few yrs later it would of made a cool TV series.

Last of the Whistler movies and the only one without star Richard Dix. The plot here is about a man (Michael Duane) whose fiancée (Lenore Aubert) disappears from her hotel the night before they are to be married. He investigates along with the assistance of a private detective. Michael Duane is okay but it's easy to see why the series didn't continue with him. Lenore Aubert is lovely. Richard Lane, usually playing Inspector Farraday in the Boston Blackie series, plays the private eye here. Great character actor Olin Howland stands out as a hotel clerk. Not a bad B movie but missing the screen presence of someone like Richard Dix. Still worth checking out if you catch it on TV one of these days.

Richard Dix decided to retire and so Michael Duane took his place playing the role as Ted Nichols who meets up with a young French girl named Alice Dupres Barkley, (Lenore Aubert). This couple only knew each other for two days and they decided to get married by a Justice of the Peace (Judge) and it is pouring rain when they pull up to the Judge's home and find out he is not home and will not return until the next day. As the couple are inside the house you see some one lift up the hood of their car and takes an automobile part from the engine. Once you see this event happening you realize this couple is in for a big surprise and the story beings to reveal a very mysterious event which surrounds Alice Barkley and so poor Ted Nichols starts out with plenty of trouble and no marriage. Good mystery, but I missed Richard Dix. Enjoy.

The minute I knew the screenplay for THE RETURN OF THE WHISTLER was taken from a Cornel Woolrich story, I was hooked into watching. I wasn't disappointed. The story has so many of the film noir ingredients usually found in any Cornel Woolrich story. He wrote THE WINDOW, NO MAN OF HER OWN, STREET OF CHANCE, and so many noirish mysteries.This tale begins on a rainy night when a young couple are about to get married. When the minister is not home, they must stay overnight at a nearby hotel and that's where the mysterious happenings begin. The plot ingredients include a missing fiancé, a corrupt and greedy family looking for an inheritance, a hired private eye, and a man (MICHAEL DUANE) anxious to locate his missing fiancé and getting to the bottom of a plot of deception.It's really standard stuff, but it makes a very watchable tale, nicely acted by Duane, LEONORE AUBERT, RICHARD LANE, ANN DORAN and others.An entertaining entry in the series.