NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Indicator Blu-ray (May 2024): Indicator have transferred the entire eight "The Whistler" series films to their sixth Columbia Film Noirs boxset. The eight films, shared two each, are on 4 Blu-ray discs; The Whistler (1944,) The Mark of the Whistler (1944,) The Power of the Whistler (1945,) Voice of the Whistler (1945,) Mysterious Intruder (1946,) The Secret of the Whistler (1946,) The Thirteenth Hour (1947) and The Return of the Whistler (1948).

Indicator's Columbia Noir #1 Blu-ray set was voted the third best Boxset of the Year in our 2020 Poll. Volume 2 came out on February 15th, 2021. Irresistible Volume 3 came out in May 2021, reviewed HERE. Columbia Noir #4, reviewed HERE and Columbia #5 (Humphrey Bogart,) HERE are, likewise, very appreciated by 'Dark Cinema' aficionados. The Whistler series, one of the most requested film series from the Columbia library, was soooo welcome.

Firstly, we have to give a huge shout-out to DVDBeaver's most loyal and intrepid contributor; Gregory Meshman. I doubt that this website would exist without him. Thank you, my friend... include Eric Cotenas, Henrik Sylow-Madsen (RIP), Leonard Norwitz, Pavel Borodin, Nick, Trond, Doug, even Eddie - and many more. Back in the day, Gregory compared seven of the eight films on DVD (Onesmedia' The Whistler' Collection vs. Sony Pictures - Choice Collection) with The Whistler, HERE, The Power of the Whistler HERE, Voice of the Whistler HERE, Mysterious Intruder HERE, The Secret of the Whistler HERE, The Thirteenth Hour HERE, The Return of the Whistler HERE, with The Mark of the Whistler skipped by Sony. We've compared a number of SD captures to 1080P below.

It seems The Mark of the Whistler, the second entry in the series, apparently was avoided as it has a compromised source being the weakest of the eight film image quality in this Blu-ray set. It's thicker and hazier than the rest - appearing like an SD-bump. Also the last 1/2 hour of The Thirteenth Hour shows a similar weakness (and some vertical scratches also present on the Sony DVD - see below.) Other than that it is all good - very clean, heightened contrast and detail - plus rich, fine, grain texture. They look great with max'ed out bitrates for the format. This is a very welcome upgrade. I was impressed.  

NOTE: We have added 250 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Indicator use linear PCM mono tracks (24-bit) in the original English language. There are few audio effects in the series. Along with the theme music by Wilbur Hatch (The Scarface Mob - he also worked in a lot of TV series including Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, Mission: Impossible) there are stock music and score contributions in the series by Mischa Bakaleinikoff (The Scarlet Letter, The Werewolf, The Lineup, New Orleans Uncensored, The Crooked Web, Cell 2455 Death Row, Comanche Station, It Came from Beneath the Sea, The Giant Claw, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, The 27th Day, 20 Million Miles to Earth, Lady for a Day), Daniele Amfitheatrof (The Capture, An Act of Murder, The Last Hunt, I'll Be Seeing You, Edge of Eternity, The Lost Moment, The Desperate Hours, Human Desire, Letter From An Unknown Woman,) George Duning (Zombies of the Mora Tau. Two Rode Together, The Eddy Duchin Story, 3:10 to Yuma, Jeanne Eagels, The Shadow on the Window, My Sister Eileen, The Mob, Affair in Trinidad, Tight Spot, Johnny O'Clock, The Dark Past, Convicted, and Between Midnight and Dawn etc.,) Werner R. Heymann (Lubitsch's The Shop Around the Corner, Angel and Bluebeard's Eighth Wife), Paul Sawtell (It The Terror From Beyond Space, Five Steps to Danger, Island of the Blue Dolphins A Game of Death, Inferno, Silver City, The Fly, Denver and Rio Grande,  Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea), René Garriguenc (The Twilight Zone,) Lucien Moraweck (20 Million Miles to Earth,) Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (The Return of the Vampire, Night Editor, And Then There Were None,) Arthur Morton (Pushover, Gun Fury, his extensive music department work includes western TV series like Wagon Train, Black Saddle, 1959's Laramie etc.) and others. Clean, flat and flawless in the uncompressed audio transfer. Indicator offer optional English (SDH) subtitles on their Region 'B'-locked Blu-ray.

The Indicator Blu-ray offers six new commentaries by writer, broadcaster and academic Josh Nelson on The Whistler - by professor and film scholar Jason A. Ney on The Power of the Whistler - by historian Lee Gambin - author of Like Being on Mars - An Oral History of Carrie (1976) on Voice of the Whistler - by film historian Jeremy Arnold (author of The Essentials Vol. 2: 52 More Must-See Movies and Why They Matter) on Mysterious Intruder - and by academic and curator Eloise Ross (contributor to The Pre-Code Companion, Issue #2: Three on a Match, Female, & Other Men's Women) on The Thirteenth Hour. Josh Nelson discusses the various cast and crew involved in The Whistler, the origins and the radio program, the film's premise and the connection to film noir especially in the era of WW2 as well as the film's importance to the career of William Castle. Jason A. Ney talks about The Power of the Whistler and the series' roots, where it fits into The Whistler series, the stet of Columbia Pictures at the time, production details including behind-the-scenes anecdotes, how it was received upon initial release, and its place within the canon of film noir, the significance of various scenes and character beats. Lee Gambin talks about Voice of the Whistler and that film's focus of loneliness - social, emotional and existential. Also playing to the film is an optional audio track from 1958 of Stuart Holmes Oral History described as a rare archival audio recording of the prolific character actor in conversation with historian George Pratt. He has an uncredited role as the 'Sinclair Executive' in Voice of the Whistler and was an American actor and sculptor whose career spanned seven decades. Jeremy Arnold talks about the fifth entry in the series, Mysterious Intruder, and the fourth and last one to be directed by William Castle, that it was well-received by critics, the history of the film, its style - visual approach, and many of the cast and crew involved. Eloise Ross talks about the seventh installment, The Thirteenth Hour, filmed in 1946, she discusses the screenplay by Edward Bock and Raymond L. Schrock from a story by Leslie Edgley entitled The Hunter is a Fugitive, and the alt-titles of the film including The Whistler's Destiny, that it was Richard Dix last performance in the series and his career, plus much more. "A Whistle-Stop Tour has a new 22-minute in-depth exploration of the film series by the critic and author Kim Newman (author of Something More Than Night) who also does a new 21-minute video piece on William Castle, entitled, Working in the Shadows, as an overview of the cult filmmaker’s early career as a studio-contracted director, prior to his successes as an independent showman best known for his macabre genre movies. Included is a video of an interview of Richard Dix conducted by Alan K Rode following a screening of The Power of the Whistler at the Egyptian Theatre, Los Angeles, on April 17th of 2010. It’s Murder is a 1944 dramatized 10-minute documentary, produced by Columbia Pictures for the war effort and featuring a number of cast and crew members from The Whistler film series. It’s Your America is from 1945 - a dramatized documentary focusing on soldiers returning from World War II, directed by John Ford and featuring J Carroll Naish, the antagonist in The Whistler running over 36-minutes. Lastly are image galleries for 7 of the 6 films featuring promotional and publicity materials. The package has a limited edition exclusive 120-page book with a new essay by Tim Lucas (author of Pause. Rewind. Obsess. One Man’s One Year Escape into Cinema,) archival interviews with actor Richard Dix, an extract from director William Castle’s autobiography, an archival article on the popularity of the radio show, new writing on the short films, and film credits.          

It would be appropriate to acknowledge the immense desirability of The Whistler series to Blu-ray. Noir tropes are rife with a guilt-stricken male character who hires a contract killer... for himself (The Whistler), amnesia (The Power of the Whistler) with an amateur fortune teller sidekick, a homeless man providing a false-identity for money (The Mark of the Whistler.) We have a lonely, and terminally ill, millionaire exchanging security for female companionship (Voice of the Whistler), a missing girl (Mysterious Intruder)... and murder. The Secret of the Whistler has a murderous new husband and an investigative wife; The Thirteenth Hour echoes Jules Dassin's Thieves’ Highway centered the perilously competitive world of the trucking business, and The Return of the Whistler has Michael Duane taking the lead as a man whose fiancée is abducted on the eve of their wedding with flashbacks during a car-ride conversation with a private eye and the groom. Concluding twists are common, undisclosed shadows, revealing narration, building suspense and 'dark cinema' atmosphere(s.) Richard Dix is wonderful with, almost exclusively blonde, gal co-stars who include Janis Carter (twice,) Gloria Stuart (1933's Secret of the Blue Room and James Cameron's 1997 Titanic,)  Lynn Merrick, model and dancer Leslie Brooks, and Karen Morley (stand in for Greta Garbo.) It's a series I can watch at any time and I'm so pleased that Indicator took it on - knowing they would do the ultimate Blu-ray package. This has our highest recommendation.

Gary Tooze