THE RETURN OF THE WHISTLER

THE RETURN OF THE WHISTLER (1948). Director: D. Ross Lederman. 

Ted Nichols (Michael Duane) leaves his fiancee Alice (Lenore Aubert) in a hotel, then learns that she ran out during the night and disappeared. There's a private eye named Gaylord Traynor (Richard Lane) and Olin Howlin/Howland of The Blob and Them plays the hotel desk clerk. The story is initially suspenseful, but once you learn what's really going on about halfway through, it just peters out. This might have made an effective half hour mystery program, but it's certainly no great shakes as a movie -- or a mystery. Ann Shoemaker plays a sinister older woman, and Ann Doran of It! The Terror from Beyond Space has a brief bit as a bad girl. Aubert was also in I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein as the evil Dr. Aubrey, who gets thrown through a castle window by the Monster. Narrated, sort of, by the shadowy "Whistler" of radio fame. 

Verdict: Just passable. **.

I WONDER WHO'S KISSING HER NOW

I WONDER WHO'S KISSING HER NOW (1947). Director: Lloyd Bacon.

Surely the life of performer and songwriter Joseph E. Howard was more interesting than this? Mark Stevens enacts the role capably and with charm, although he might seem a tad bland to some. June Haver plays his "kid sister," who was raised with him but is actually unrelated, and has an unrequited passion for him. Martha Stewart and Lenore Aubert are two women with whom he gets involved both professionally and romantically.

The movie is pleasant and easy to take, but there is no real drama in it, and no particular comedy, either, despite the presence of William Frawley (Fred Mertz). Gene Nelson is a featured dancer, but has few if any lines. Florence O'Brien makes an impression as the saucy, non-deferential maid, Marie, as does Lewis L. Russell as Milford. Reginald Gardiner is okay as a playwright. Sexy Martha Stewart didn't amass too many credits and Aubert's most famous role was as Sandra in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.

Besides the title tune, Howard's most famous composition is arguably the snappy "Good-bye, My Lady Love." This was one of the period tunes that Jerome Kern used in Show Boat which was not composed by Kern. A highlight of the film is the "Glowworm" number which, via rich orchestration, turns the simple melody into a veritable symphony.

Verdict: Minor-league musical. **1/2.

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948). Director: Charles Barton.

Costello (to pretty Lenore Aubert): How can you look me in the face and say that?

Abbott (to Aubert): How can you look him in the face?

Abbott and Costello's greatest movie pits them against Dracula (played by Bela Lugosi for only the second time), who wants to transplant Lou's brain into the Frankenstein Monster (Glenn Strange) so he'll have a more controllable ally. Lon Chaney plays Larry Talbot, the Wolf Man, for the fifth time, and is better in this film than he was in the "serious" ones. Talbot knows what Dracula's up to, and wants the boys to help him stop the evil count. Aiding the count is Dr. Sandra Aubrey (Lenore Aubert), who pretends she's smitten with Lou to keep him -- or rather his simple brain -- at the ready. Charles Bradstreet plays an out-of-the-loop doctor-associate of Aubert's, and Jane Randolph is an insurance investigator who attaches herself to the boys in the hopes of finding out what happened to the contents of two coffins the boys delivered to a House of Horrors. (Frank Ferguson is very good as the angry, exasperated owner of the House of Horrors.) Glenn Strange is effective and even has a couple of lines as The Monster (who only spoke in Bride of Frankenstein and in Ghost of Frankenstein after Igor/Lugosi's brain was transplanted into his head). Vincent Price has a very funny cameo.

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is not a parody a la Young Frankenstein so much as it's a Universal horror film into which the boys have been inserted. The guys do their amusing routines, while everyone else mostly plays it straight -- and it works! Funny, atmospheric, and creepy in equal measure, it has some genuinely suspenseful sequences and is bolstered by a terrific score by Frank Skinner. Bud and Lou are in top form and Bela Lugosi is simply splendid!

Verdict: Terrific horror comedy! ***1/2.