The return of Whistler

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Movie
German title The return of Whistler
Original title The Return of the Whistler
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1948
length 60 minutes
Rod
Director D. Ross Lederman
script Edward Bock , Maurice Tombragel based on the short story All at once, no Alice by Cornell Woolrich
production Rudolph C. Flothow for Larry Darmour Productions
music Mischa Bakaleinikoff
camera Philip Tannura
cut Dwight Caldwell
occupation
chronology

←  Predecessor
The Thirteenth Hour

The Return of the Whistler (Original title: The Return of the Whistler ) is an American mystery - film noir of the Whistler series , in which eight feature films were produced from 1944 to 1948 . They were based on the popular radio series The Whistler , which aired from 1942 to 1955. The script is based on the short story All at once, no Alice by Cornell Woolrich . It premiered on March 18, 1948. The film was broadcast along with four other productions in the 1980 series by WDR and other third programs .

action

A rainy night, it was thunderstorm. The long shadow of a man dressed in a trench coat and slouch hat enters the picture. The invisible whistles a scary-sounding melody and introduces himself:

I am the Whistler, and I know many things, for I walk by night. I know many strange tales, many secrets hidden in the hearts of men and women who have stepped into the shadows ...

Ted and Alice drive up in a car, Whistler's shadow falls briefly on the car, then the invisible one withdraws. The couple want to get married, but the pastor they are supposed to marry has not yet returned home. His wife recommends that they both go to a hotel in the next town. While the couple are still in the pastor's house, a car pulls up and its occupants manipulate the engine of Ted's car. When Ted and Alice start, the car runs out of round. While Alice gets a room in a small hotel in exchange for a bribe from the night porter, Ted goes to a workshop so that the car can be repaired.

When he returns from the workshop in the morning, not only has Alice disappeared, but also every trace of her. The porter claims he never put them up. The room in which she was quartered is being renovated. Ted is desperate because the local police are not taking the case seriously either. The private detective Trainor approaches him in front of the hotel and offers to help. Ted trusts him. But when he shows Trainor a picture of Alice and documents that prove her existence, the detective knocks him down and disappears with the papers.

Trainor works for Mr. Barkley, Alice's allegedly deceased husband. Ted visits Barkley, who explains that Alice is delusional. He had never been to France during the war and therefore did not die there as a soldier ; Alice never left the USA . However, Ted is skeptical and discovers that Alice is being held by the family against her will. He learns that Alice was married to the "real" Barkley, who actually died in the war. The family wants to prevent the widow Alice from inheriting the deceased. But Ted still has no evidence of a plot. By chance he finds Alice's passport in the glove compartment of his car, which shows that she only entered the States from France a few weeks ago.

Ted returns to the Barkley's house and learns that the Barkleys are away and that Alice, who is said to have become increasingly delusional, is being placed in a sanatorium . Independently of Ted's investigation, the detective Trainor, who has since realized that he was abused by the Barkley family, continues to investigate. Trainor discovers a photo of Alice and her fallen husband who is definitely not the Mr. Barkley he knows. Ted finds out which sanatorium Alice is staying in. When he arrives, Barkley and the doctor treating her are making their financial arrangements to have Alice disappear from the sanatorium forever drugged . When it comes to the fight between Ted and Barkley and the staff of the sanatorium, Trainor arrives with the police and clarifies the background of the affair. The dead man's mother, Alice's mother-in-law, and a cousin who pretended to be him wanted to prevent Alice from taking on the inheritance that was due to her. The police arrest Barkley, the mother-in-law and the doctor. Whistler's shadow appears one last time.

literature

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