Into the dull and illogical bin tumbles The Whistler (1944). An important and successful industrialist, fresh from his latest conquest, is not feeling well. His doctor prescribes a vacation, but on his way to the ferry that’ll take him to Duluth (I kid you not), he falls badly ill and the taxicab driver takes him home, instead.
To his own home.
Mistake #1.
The taxicab driver is part of a healthy, sociable, bubbling community of people, including a medical clinic for the poor, so the taxicab driver takes the industrialist there. That doctor gives a prognosis for the industrialist that is terminal, but in the meantime the industrialist, who has neither family nor friends, finds himself falling for the nurse, who happens to be engaged to the junior doctor. Persuaded to return to the clinic for a followup, the doctor prescribes a trip to Maine, and the industrialist decides to augment his treatment and proposes marriage to the nurse, who’s been waiting on loverboy-doc for four years and is getting itchy, so she …. oh …. accepts. After all, he’ll be dead in six months.
Mistake #2.
Loverboy-doc isn’t particularly nice about it.
Mistake #3. I mean, the rich guy’ll be dead and then he can marry the grieving widow – she promises him – and become rich himself.
In Maine, they rent an out of service lighthouse that is out in the middle of nowhere, and life rapidly sours for the nurse – after all, rich husband isn’t dying on schedule, he’s even getting better, and there’s nothing much to do at the lighthouse, miles from town. However, the taxicab driver just up and comes out with them, so he’s around for comedy relief. Then loverboy-doc shows up and proclaims all is well, and all he can think of is her.
Industrialist tells loverboy-doc exactly how he’d kill him if, you know, it came to that. This comes after observing a necking session out on the rocks of the coastline, so he’s feeling a bit peevish about the wife. The plan involves alleged sleepwalking and the windows at the top of the tower – and the rocks below.
In about the only clever bit, loverboy-doc asks the taxicab driver to get window locks from the hardware story, because he says the industrialist was sleepwalking and nearly tumbled out, but it’s Saturday night, meaning the store is closed Sunday. During the inevitable confrontation on Sunday, loverboy-doc gets brained, but when the industrialist tries to toss him out the window, it doesn’t work – the taxicab driver, without locks, decided to be safe and nailed the windows shut. Before the industrialist can find another way to make it all look like an accident, the cops show up, industrialist is arrested, and that’s the boring story. Bad pacing, bad behavior by people purportedly part of a good community, mediocre acting – it doesn’t really work out.
And the title? It refers to the narrator, who really adds nothing to the story.
Ho-hum.
