''The Power of the Whistler'' is a 1945 film noir

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

based on the

radio drama Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...

The Whistler ''The Whistler'' is an American radio mystery drama which ran from May 16, 1942, until September 22, 1955, on the west-coast regional CBS radio network. The show was also broadcast in Chicago and over Armed Forces Radio. On the west coast, it w ...

''. Directed by Lew Landers, the production features

Richard Dix Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong ...

. It is the third of

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

' eight " Whistler" films produced in the 1940s, seven starring Dix.

Plot

Dix plays an

amnesiac Amnesia is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage or disease,Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R., & Mangun, G. (2009) Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. but it can also be caused temporarily by the use o ...

who learns about his name and past through the help of amateur

fortune teller Fortune telling is the practice of prediction, predicting information about a person's life.J. Gordon Melton, Melton, J. Gordon. (2008). ''The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena''. Visible Ink Press. pp. 115-116. The scope of fortune telling ...

Jean Lang (Janis Carter). The fortune teller sees the mysterious-looking man when she is in a restaurant with her sister and the sister's boyfriend. Without meeting him, she predicts that he will be near death twice in the coming day. Outside the restaurant, she saves him from being struck by a car. It is then that he realizes he has no memory of his past. Charmed by his pleasant, cultured manner, she resolves to help him uncover the mystery of his life. She continues to do so, even as she encounters signs that they may find something scary.

Cast

as William Everest *

Janis Carter Janis Carter (born Janis Elinore Dremann, October 10, 1913 – July 30, 1994) was an American stage and film actress who performed throughout the 1940s and into the 1950s. During the mid-1950s, she began working regularly on television, co-ho ...

as Jean Lang * Jeff Donnell as Frances * Loren Tindall as Charlie Kent *

Tala Birell Tala may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Tala (comics), a fictional character in DC comics *''Tala'', a 1938 volume of poetry by Gabriela Mistral *Tala (music), a rhythmic pattern in Indian classical music * "Tala" (song), by Sarah Geronimo, ...

as Constantina Ivaneska *

John Abbott Sir John Joseph Caldwell Abbott (March 12, 1821 – October 30, 1893) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the third prime minister of Canada from 1891 to 1892. He held office as the leader of the Conservative Party. Abbo ...

as Kaspar Andropolous

Reception

Critic

Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fi ...

said of the film, "Third Whistler entry is a little padded but still genuinely eerie."Maltin, Leonard
Film review at

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of At ...

. Accessed: July 15, 2013.

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Power of the Whistler, The 1945 films 1945 mystery films American mystery films American black-and-white films Columbia Pictures films Film noir Films about amnesia Films based on radio series Films with screenplays by Aubrey Wisberg The Whistler films 1940s English-language films Films directed by Lew Landers 1940s American films