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Monday 11/05/07

3:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Whistler (1944 USA): Popular radio mystery show The Whistler got the ‘B' movie treatment for an eight film series in the late 1940s, and six of the films air in chronological order this morning on TCM. First up, of course, is the first of the series, a brisk William Castle-helmed entry introducing the enigmatic man of mystery as his presence intrudes on the case of Earl Conrad (Richard Dix), a distraught widower determined to end it all by hiring his own killer. When his wife shows up not quite dead yet, Earl has a change of heart - but finds he can't convince his would-be assassin (J. Carroll Naish) to take a powder. As much noir as second feature boilerplate, The Whistler oozes atmosphere, and Castle's penchant for the macabre is already evident at this early stage of his career. Dix went on to portray different characters in each of the preceding Whistler features, including The Power of the Whistler (1945), which airs at 4:15 AM; Voice of the Whistler (1945) at 5:30 AM, Mysterious Intruder (1946) at 6:45 AM, Secret of the Whistler (1946) at 8:00 AM, and Return of the Whistler (1948) at 9:15 AM.

6:00 PM IFC
Born Into Brothels (2004 IND-USA): This isn't the sort of documentary I usually find all that appealing, but it does provide the emotional uplift that Academy voters favor (the film won the Best Documentary Oscar in 2005), and ultimately it's hard to argue with the result. Filmed on the mean streets of Mumbai, Born into Brothels was intended to be about prostitution, but soon evolved into a film about the children of the city's red-light district. Though there is the whiff of cultural imperialism about this feature - the great white filmmakers come to save their little brown brothers - it is ultimately a very simple and moving tale of the human condition, and the economic and bureaucratic barriers assembled to impede its improvement.

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