BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

ChanBot i must have seen a different film!!

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

mark.waltz A powerful industrialist has spent more time making millions than making friends, and thinking that he is dying proposes to a hard-working nurse (Lynn Merrick) so he can do something good with his fortune. In spite of being engaged to the idealistic Rhys Williams, she agrees, destroying her chance of happiness in the process. She ends up taking care of him in a remote seaside lighthouse, and the question arises, how long does it really take a dying man to die? What starts off slow suddenly becomes intriguing, adding a Gothic twist to the mystery. Tom Kennedy (brother of the slow-burning Edgar) is the only person who is in contact with them, that is until Williams pays a surprise visit and Dix creates an ominous warning involving a chess game. Is there a murder plot afoot, or is the whistler really in charge of the chess board?The always hysterical Miverva Urecal has a magnificent cameo as an obnoxious woman trying to buy flowers that have already been sold. Once again, the aging Dix is paired with a much younger woman, but unlike Lon Chaney Jr. in the "Inner Sanctum" series, it isn't as morbid. Dix, one of the major matinée idols of the early 1930's, is still dashing, if dangerous, and twists and turns in the story never stop. "B" melodrama at its best with a great final shot concerning Merrick.

gridoon2018 Although "Voice Of The Whistler" is the shortest of the first four Whistler films, running just under an hour, it is also the slowest in its setting up the plot. It doesn't really pick up until the last 20 minutes or so, when the young doctor arrives at the lighthouse and the film becomes (not a who-done-it but) a who-will-do-it-first! The characters are complex people - neither good nor bad, but somewhere in between (like most of us). Other points of interest include the surprising amount of skin Lynn Merrick shows in her vintage mid-1940s swimsuit, and the pseudo-documentary at the start which actually reminded me of Woody Allen's "Zelig"! **1/2 out of 4.

mgconlan-1 A truly great "B" and the best "Whistler" series film I've seen so far. It's true that the plot doesn't make much sense, but there's a marvelously surrealistic quality about the exercise and Richard Dix's performance is one of the most haunting of his career, harking back to his great epics of the 1930's ("Cimarron," "The Conquerors" and "Reno"). William Castle's direction shows his marvelous command of atmosphere — he really was a first-rate suspense director when he wasn't throwing things at the audience or giving them electric shocks — and also is distinctly influenced by Orson Welles even before they worked together on "The Lady from Shanghai," especially in the fake newsreel used to introduce Dix's character and his backstory and the long scenes of the semi-retired tycoon and his blonde trophy wife living a joyless existence in a remote residence. Lynn Merrick is superb as a morally ambiguous character, and though James Cardwell is weak, Rhys Williams is a far better than average comic-relief sidekick even though his sudden appearance makes it seem at first as if that train took Dix not to Chicago but to London via the transatlantic tunnel Dix was constructing in the film of that name. "Voice of the Whistler" is an especially good entry in a series that on the whole maintained a high level of quality and holds up better than the rather dated, tricky "Whistler" radio shows. Please, Sony, follow the example of Universai's release of the "Inner Sanctum" films and put out all eight "Whistler" movies as a DVD boxed set!

Alonzo Church Richard Dix is a big, not very nice industrialist, who has nearly worked himself to death. If he takes the vacation his doctors suggest for him, can he find happiness for the last months of his life? Well, he'll likely be better off if he disregards the VOICE OF THE WHISTLER.This William Castle directed entry has some great moments (the introduction and the depiction of Richard Dix's life through newsreel a la Citizen Kane), and some intriguing plotting in the final reels. Dix's performance is generally pretty good. But, unfortunately, the just does not quite work because one does not end up buying that the characters would behave the way that they do. Also, the movie veers from a dark (and fascinating beginning) to an almost cheerful 30s movie like midsection (full of nice urban ethnic types who don't mind that they aren't rich) and back again to a complex noir plot for the last 15 minutes or so.This is a decent movie -- worth seeing -- but it needed a little more running time to establish a couple of the characters and a female lead capable of meeting the demands of her role.