The Whistler. 1944. USA. Directed by William Castle. 59 min.
Screenplay by Eric Taylor. With Richard Dix, Gloria Stuart, J. Carrol Naish. “I am the Whistler, and I know many things, for I walk by night . . .” So began the CBS radio program that ran from 1942 to 1955, an anthology of suspense tales narrated with bitter irony by the title character, a mysterious figure with access to the inner workings of fate. Adapting the program for a series of B movies, Columbia made the premise even more Kafkaesque by casting the fading star Richard Dix as a different character in each film—and often, it wasn’t until the end that the audience learned whether Dix was playing a hero, a victim, or a villain. In this first episode, directed by the young Columbia recruit William Castle, Dix is a businessman who, crushed by guilt over the accidental death of his wife, hires a hit man to take him out of his misery. But one thing the Whistler knows is that his wife is alive.