This was the last entry in the Columbia Pictures' "Whistler" B movie series, for reasons I have not been able to uncover. Maybe audiences missed series star Richard Dix, who had retired because of health problems. But while Dix might have added some of his usual spark as he did in the previous entries, as it is, this is a pretty good B movie and a good way to end the series. It gets going pretty early on, quickly adding mysterious touches that will get you wondering just what is going on. And there are some good twists, though I did guess what the private detective character was eventually going to do towards the Michael Duane character about a third of the way into the movie. Probably you'll guess it too, if you've seen the other movies in the series. Aside from that, the movie works nicely and fits the 63 minute time limit pretty well - there's no unnecessary fat in this story. If you liked the other movies in this series, you should like this final bow.

The Whistler series was an excellent B mystery series from the 1940s. Each of the films had starred Richard Dix...but in 1947 he had a heart attack and was in ill health until his death in 1949. But the studio wanted to carry on the series and brought us "Return of the Whistler"...a similar but Dix-less installment in the series. It turned out to be the last in the series as well. Additionally, the exciting director William Castle directed most of the Whistler films...though not this one.The mystery in this film is a good one. When Ted (Michael Duane) and his fiancée, Alice (Lenore Aubert), arrive at a hotel, things seem pretty normal. But when Ted leaves and then returns, he finds Alice missing--and the hotel desk manager is lying about her leaving on her own. But who took her...and why?! Well, the solution turns out to be very interesting...and well worth seeing.Despite the stars of this film being pretty much complete unknowns, the film works well because the acting is good AND, most importantly, the mystery is very well written and engaging. Overall, actually one of the better entries in the series...and it's a shame this was the last.

**SPOILERS** Last of "The Whistler" Columbia Pictures series and the only one without Richard Dix has to do with a scheme to get a young widow out of the picture in order to collect her husbands inheritance.Arriving from far off France Alice Dupres Barkley, Lenore Aubent, got very disillusioned with her late husband's, a US transport pilot who was killed on D-Day, family in that their resentful of her marrying him and now a threat, being that Mr. Barkley was the sole recipient, to the Barkley family's vast holdings. Alice meets young engineer and armature doctor, he fixes Alices sprained ankle, Ted Nichols (Michael Duane) and both fall in love with each other and within two weeks she and Ted decided to get married. It's then that strange and unexplained things started to happen to the two lovebirds that seemed to be purposely preventing them to tie the knot.Driving out in the country, in a driving thunderstorm, to get married Ted & Alice are hampered with the fact that the minster who's to preform the wedding ceremony couldn't make it because all the roads to the chapel were washed out. Deciding to stay at a local hotel until morning, when the minster is expected to show up, Alice mysteriously disappears when Ted spending the night sleeping in his disabled, by someone hired by the Barkley's, car shows up to meet her that morning. Being that the two were not married the hotel clerk(Fred F. Sears), a man of conscience, refused to have them spend the night together.Confused and not knowing what to do Ted is approached by private eye Gaylord Traynor, Richard Lane, who offers to help. It was an offer that Ted,who needed all the help he could get, couldn't refuse and in the end despite Traynors true intentions, which weren't at all helpful, reunited him and Alice.Alice is used as a pawn in this game of both money and power on the part of her greedy and scheming in-laws. Trying to get Alice out of the way by just airbrushing her out of the Berkley family's history wasn't as easy as the family (Brother Charlie, James Cardwell, Sister Hulskamp, Sarah Padden, and Moma Bradley, Ann Shoemaker) at first thought it would be.Ted after being knocked out cold by Traynor, who was secretly working for the Bradley family, who took off with Alice's and her late husbands wedding papers or certificate later realized that he was being used by the Bradley's to get poor Alice out of the way. Charlie Sister Hulskump and Moma plan to put Alice away and out of their lives for good as an incurable mental patent at the Woodlawn Sanitarium.It takes a lot of patience as well as legwork for Ted to finally track down Alice but he does it by faking it in trying to prove to the sanitarium administrator Bertram H. Grantland M.D, Wilton Graff, that he's just as sick as any of the other patients under his care. Ted get's to save Alice just before she's to be put under, by Bertram H. Grantland M.D, with a super-strong seductive and locked away, with her memory being erased with the use of shock treatment, for the rest of her life.****SPOILER ALERT**** It turns out that the at first villain in the movie Traynor turns out to be the good guy. Traynor realizing that he's been snookered by Charlie Barkley & Co to stiff Alice, as well as Ted, out of the Barkley inheritance gets in touch with the police who in the end put an end to Brother Charlie and friends, or relatives, grandiose plan to get their hands on the Barkley fortune. As for Ted & Alice they finally kiss and say I do as the long awaited minister, who was stuck in traffic during the storm, finally shows up and marries them.

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.