Sun 4 Oct 2009
On TCM tomorrow, an all-day marathon. They’ve shown these movies many times before, but here’s your chance to watch (or record) them back to back to back …
Monday, October 5th —
6:00 AM Whistler, The (1944)
A grieving widower hires an assassin to kill him only to have his late wife turn up alive. Cast: Richard Dix, J. Carrol Naish, Gloria Stuart. Dir: William Castle. BW-60 mins, TV-PG
7:15 AM Power of the Whistler, The (1945)
A young woman seeks an amnesiac’s true identity in the clues in his pockets. Cast: Richard Dix, Janis Carter, Jeff Donnell. Dir: Lew Landers. BW-66 mins, TV-PG
8:30 AM Voice of the Whistler (1945)
A dying millionaire marries his nurse for companionship, only to experience a miracle cure. Cast: Richard Dix, Lynn Merrick, Rhys Williams. Dir: William Castle. BW-60 mins, TV-PG
9:45 AM Mysterious Intruder, The (1946)
A detective discovers the woman he’s been hired to track down is the key to an unusual inheritance. Cast: Richard Dix, Barton MacLane, Nina Vale. Dir: William Castle. BW-62 mins.
11:00 AM Secret of the Whistler, The (1946)
An artist plots murder when his rich wife when she catches him in an affair with one of his models. Cast: Richard Dix, Leslie Brooks, Michael Duane. Dir: George Sherman. BW-64 mins, TV-PG
12:15 PM Return of the Whistler, The (1948)
When a woman goes missing on the eve of her wedding, her fiancee hires a detective to track her down. Cast: Michael Duane, Lenore Aubert, Richard Lane. Dir: D. Ross Lederman. BW-63 mins, TV-PG
1:30 PM Whistling In The Dark (1941)
A radio detective is kidnapped and forced to plan the perfect murder. Cast: Red Skelton, Ann Rutherford, Conrad Veidt. Dir: S. Sylvan Simon. BW-78 mins, TV-G, CC
3:00 PM Whistling In Dixie (1942)
A radio detective’s southern honeymoon is cut short by the discovery of a murder. Cast: Red Skelton, Ann Rutherford, George Bancroft. Dir: S. Sylvan Simon. BW-74 mins, TV-G, CC
4:15 PM Whistling In Brooklyn (1943)
A radio sleuth infiltrates the Brooklyn Dodgers to solve a murder. Cast: Red Skelton, Ann Rutherford, “Rags” Ragland. Dir: S. Sylvan Simon. BW-87 mins, TV-G, CC
October 4th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
Whistling in the Dark is a remake of a 1933 film of the same name written and directed by Elliot Nugent from a popular play by Laurence Gross. The film, with Ernest Truex, Una Merkel, and Edward Arnold is a crisp little mystery comedy, with Truex a mystery writer (Skelton is a radio sleuth called the Fox) who finds himself forced to plot the perfect murder. It has played once or twice on TCM and it worth seeing on its own merits.
October 4th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
The last time TCM showed WHISTLING IN THE DARK, they played the two versions back to back. But have I watched them? No, not yet, but they’re in the queue!
October 5th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
The ’33 WHISTLING is worth seeing just for the off-beat casting!