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The Mark of the Whistler

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The Mark of the Whistler
Theatrical release poster
Directed byWilliam Castle
Screenplay byGeorge Bricker
Story byCornell Woolrich
(short story "Dormant Account")
Based onThe Whistler
1942-55 radio series
by J. Donald Wilson
Produced byRudolph C. Flothow
StarringRichard Dix
Janis Carter
Narrated byOtto Forrest
CinematographyGeorge Meehan
Edited byReg Browne
Music byMario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
Production
company
Larry Darmour Productions
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
  • October 9, 1944 (1944-10-09) (United States)
Running time
60 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Mark of the Whistler, aka The Marked Man, is a 1944 American mystery film noir based on the radio drama The Whistler.[1] Directed by William Castle, the production features Richard Dix, Porter Hall and Janis Carter.[2] It is the second of Columbia Pictures' eight "Whistler" films produced in the 1940s, all but the last starring Dix.[3]

Plot

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A drifter claims the money in a dormant bank account. Later, he becomes the target of men who are the sons of the man's old partner, who is now in prison due to a conflict with him over the money.

Cast

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Reception

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Bosley Crowther, the film critic for The New York Times, gave the film a mixed review, writing "The dodges by which a fellow successfully stakes a phony claim to a dormant account in a savings bank and swindles $29,000 lend some fair to middling interest to Columbia's latest Whistler-series film—one called The Mark of the Whistler...In this dubious demonstration, the film does present a criminal case with the patient documentation familiar in crime-and-punishment shorts. But the things that happen to this defrauder after he has got the cash are just the claptrap of cheap melodrama—and they are bluntly presented that way."[4]

References

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  1. ^ "The Mark of the Whistler (1944) - William Castle - Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related - AllMovie". AllMovie.
  2. ^ "AFI-Catalog". catalog.afi.com.
  3. ^ "The Whistler (1944) - Notes - TCM.com". Turner Classic Movies.
  4. ^ Crowther, Bosley (November 11, 1944). "The New York Times film review". The New York Times. Retrieved February 10, 2010.
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