The Secret of the Whistler (1946)
IMDb meta-data is 1 hour and 5 minutes run time, rated 6.5 by 326 cinematizens.
Genre: Noir
Verdict: Twisted
Middle aged man (MAM) meets Blonde Ice. Shiver! He’s loaded with his wife’s money which he is free to spend these days since Wife is off-camera bedridden. Blonde Ice plays him like a fish and he doesn’t know it, but his first friend does.
MAM pays Blonde Ice to stand around skimpily clad while he pretends to paint her. The fraternity brothers found all this standing around fascinating.
It comes to the MAM that when Wife croaks — fingers crossed — in the near future, he and Blonde Ice will make two. What a genius to think of that all by himself with his first friend. Blonde Ice continues to play him.
Then thanks to the miracle of modern screenwriting, Wife recovers. Hubbie’s plan B involves poison. Spoiler: Then there is the O’Henry twist at the end. He didn’t do it but then he did do it. For that to make sense, watch the movie on You Tube.
Virginia Leslie Gettman from Lincoln Nebraska took the nom de theatre of Leslie Brooks. She plays Blonde Ice perfectly, never once indicating by word, deed, or look her gold-digging ways, yet the viewer knows it from the get-go. Nicely understated. She starred in Blonde Ice (1948), hence the sobriquet above, which does not view up to its arresting title.
Director George Sherman turned out ten B features a year in his heyday. He started in the film business as a mailroom sorter at Warners and was always there, ready and willing to do what had to be done.
Richard Dix as MAM is, as always, superb in the transformations from dutiful husband to puppy lover to wannabe adulterer to attempted murderer to the real thing. In this role in particular he is well cast as he looks older than his years, and Blonde Ice, if not his first chance at lust, will certainly be his last. Ravaged by the bottle, Dix only lasted two more years.