Comments on: “I am The Whistler”

By: Danny52

Danny52 — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 20:13:02 +0000

As a graphic designer, I'm a fan and ardent observer of movie titles. Typical of budget-minded Columbia in the '40s, this title card for The Whistler uses identical fonts to their short subjects of the era, most notably The Three Stooges.

By: moira finnie

moira finnie — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 14:10:09 +0000

Hi RHS,I've enjoyed The Whistler series on TCM very much, especially since each of them differs from the other, though all feature that air of doom that you noted so well in your article and the work of Richard Dix, a wonderfully old-fashioned actor, whose occasionally grand manner sometimes makes me think of 19th century melodramas and other times brings greater depth to the material than is in the script. Btw, Mr. Dix will be popping up on TCM later this month in a truly obscure but intriguing 1935 British film about a tranatlantic tunnel from Britain to North America, called natch, Transatlantic Tunnel. With C. Aubrey Smith, Madge Evans and Helen Vinson rounding out the cast, along with attempts at futuristic depictions of two way television, amusing large sets meant to depict miracles of engineering and Mr. Dix doing his "dedicated man of action" bit, it should be promising. I've seen about five minutes of this one and while it did, at times seem to be moving underwater (dramatically, that is), it was a hoot. Besides, those visions of the future from that period, (i.e. Things To Come), are always a riot, even if the "peace-through-technology" theme doesn't seem to have solved all human problems since then. The script passed through the hands of Curt Siodmak and Clemence Dane, among others, so it may be worth a look on March 26th at 8pm ET. Here's an article about the Dix vs. Tunnel film: http://tinyurl.com/38a6gc

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:03:06 +0000

Mike,Don't Rush to any conclusions. Maybe they were just keeping Castle hungry. Ah well, that would be Moving Pictures for you.From this blog one realizes how many B-flicks were made and shown throughout the years. When TCM can show five or six Boston Blackie movies back to back, or Nancy Drew or … you get the picture. I like to see them as a little slice of Hollywood we can nibble on now and then. Now I'm the hungry one.

By: MikeJ

MikeJ — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 16:06:12 +0000

Columbia pocketed the difference, of course. Plus �a change plus c�est la m�me chose.