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The Secret of the Whistler

The Secret of the Whistler
Secret of the whistler poster small.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by George Sherman
Produced by Rudolph C. Flothow
Screenplay by
Based on The Whistler
1942-85 radio series
by J. Donald Wilson
Starring
Narrated by Otto Forrest
Music by Herschel Burke Gilbert
Cinematography Allen G. Siegler
Edited by Dwight Caldwell
Production
company
Larry Darmour Productions
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date
  • November 7, 1946 (1946-11-07) (United States)
Running time
65 minutes
Country United States
Language English

The Secret of the Whistler is a 1946 American mystery film noir based on the radio drama The Whistler. Directed by George Sherman, the production features Richard Dix, Leslie Brooks an Michael Duane. It is the sixth of Columbia Pictures' eight "Whistler" films produced in the 1940s, all but the last starring Dix.

Ralph Harrison (Richard Dix) is married to Edith (Mary Currier), a rich woman who has been suffering heart attacks. Upset by her condition he finds consoling companionship with an artist’s model, the unscrupulous gold-digger, Kay (Leslie Brooks).

He falls in love with Kay. But, Edith's health improves. Then, Edith overhears Ralph professing his love for Kay. Edith threatens Ralph, saying she’s going to take him out of her will. So, he decides to poison her, with her own medicine, before she can meet with her lawyers.

After Edith dies, Ralph marries Kay. But, Kay becomes suspicious of how Edith died; and, worried for her own fate. Finding incriminating diary pages and the medicine, she has the medicine analyzed, discovering that it was poisoned.

Ralph overhears the phone conversation with the lab. So, pretending to embrace her, he strangles Kay to death, just as the police arrive and arrest him for murder —a murder he didn’t need to commit because Edith hadn’t taken the poisoned medicine after all, but died of a heart attack, before she could take it.

TV Guide rated it 3/5 stars and called it "engrossing as usual and well acted".


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