Whistling in the Dark

Plot synopsis:
Wally Benton (Red Skelton) is the star of a mystery series on radio, The Fox, which he writes himself, inventing for each episode a crime that has "only one loophole" so the criminal can be caught. He is about to elope with Carol Lambert (Ann Rutherford), but his agent (Eve Arden) tells him he must go out with the sponsor's daughter, Fran Post (Virginia Grey), or risk his show being canceled.
Outside the city, at a mansion called Silver Haven, Joseph Jones (Conrad Veidt) runs a cult that promises serenity and contact with the dead, but is really just a scam to collect donations. He learns that a member has died and bequeathed a life interest in $1,000,000 to her nephew Harvey Upshaw (Lloyd Corrigan), with the principal going to Silver Haven on Upshaw's death. Jones, angry that she did not leave the money directly to his cult, determines to have Upshaw killed at once, but he must avoid suspicion. Some of Jones's henchmen are fans of The Fox and admire Benton's plots, so he gets the idea to kidnap Benton and make him invent a real crime with no loopholes. Learning that two different women are expecting to meet Benton that night and one is his fiancée, he has Lambert and Post kidnapped as well.
Benton tries to protect the women, but is out of his depth. After a bumbling escape attempt through a secret passage fails, he decides he needs to come up with a plot as Jones demands. He has the idea to substitute poison for the tooth powder that Upshaw will undoubtedly take along as he flies overnight to meet his aunt's lawyer. The women are aghast at Benton's cooperation, but when the poison is brought to Benton, he puts it in a packet but then substitutes another harmless one. However, this gets lost and another packet is made up with real poison: Upshaw is in real danger. And so are Benton, Lambert, and Post, as Jones will have no reason to let them live once the plot succeeds.
Benton finds a hidden telephone, but before he can reach the police, he is seen and the phone is ripped from the wires. Jones leaves and Benton is locked in with the women in the same room. He touches the telephone wires together to simulate dialing 0, but cannot talk to the operator without a telephone. But, noticing a radio in the room, he uses his knowledge of radio to improvise a way to use it as a phone: the loudspeaker will double as a microphone if they swap the right wires back and forth each time he starts or finishes talking.
He reaches the telephone operator and tries to get a message sent to Upshaw's flight, but Jones's man on the flight finds a way to disable the aircraft radio, and contact is lost. Benton then has the operator contact his radio station, where it is almost time for The Fox. They patch his phone call through to the transmitter and he begins telling all his listeners what has been happening.
But they have to speak loudly, and the one dim-witted guard who was left outside the door bursts in. They save themselves by convincing him they are just passing the time by pretending to do a radio show. He finds the idea fun and even participates, adding useful information such as the mansion's address. Unfortunately, the local police assume it is fiction, like the recent War of the Worlds broadcast, so the three hostages are not saved until Benton's friends from the radio station arrive with city police.
Meanwhile, on the flight, Upshaw learns of the plot thanks to a small boy who enjoys The Fox and listens to it by an ordinary radio on board. Warned not to brush his teeth, he remarks, "I won't even take them out".

Tags: romantic, cult, murder

Review:
A great comedy mystery film!.
While many pass this off as a B movie it is, indeed, a first class comedy that is well-written and acted.
Red Skelton is great as Wally Benton better known to radio fans as The Fox.
Ann Rutherford is perfect as Wally's fiance Carol Lambert.
Conrad Veidt leads a very well cast gang of criminals.
I read one account of this movie which states that Vincente Minelli directed this film, not unless he changed his name to S.
Sylvan Simon, who directed all three of the Fox movies.
This was also Red's first starring role.
Red Skelton (in his first starring role) plays Wally Benton who plays 'The Fox' on a radio show.
He writes the murder mysteries and as 'The Fox' solves them.
Joseph Jones (Conrad Veidt) is trying to figure out how to perform the perfect murder on someone.
He kidnaps Benton, his girlfriend (Ann Rutherford) and another girlfriend (Virginia Grey).
He tells Benton to write out the perfect murder...or his girlfriends get it...Very funny and enjoyable movie.
Fast-moving (it's only 77 minutes), a good script and perfect casting really puts this across.
Skelton is very good in his first starring role--very funny, fast, handsome and intelligent.
Rutherford and Grey are lots of fun as Skelton's girlfriends.
Also fun to see Eve Arden in a small role.Well worth your time..
Red Skelton plays a radio detective known as "The Fox" in "Whistling in the Dark," also starring Ann Rutherford, Conrad Veidt, Eve Arden, Virgina Grey and Rags Ragland.
Wally Benton, aka "The Fox" finds his plans to marry his fiancé Carol (Rutherford) thwarted when he's kidnapped by a the leader of a sham cult (Veidt).
Joseph Jones (Veidt) has just learned that his cult, The Silver Haven, is not getting a promised inheritance because of the existence of the old woman's nephew, who is going to be living off of the interest.
He wants Wally to devise a perfect murder plot so the man can be killed on the airplane en route to meet with his attorney.
For backup, and because he's not sure which one is Wally's fiancé, Jones kidnaps Carol and also the radio sponsor's daughter (Grey).This, to me anyway, is a superior film to the second entry in this series, "Whistling in Dixie." The plot is better, the cast is better, there is less slapstick and fewer corny jokes.
Skelton, when he's not making faces and rolling his eyes, is quite amiable, and Rutherford is very good.
Veidt always played these evil men to perfection.
Eve Arden is Wally's agent, who arranges a date for him and Grey to make sure his contract is renewed.
I had only seen Grey in films from the 1950s onward.
This is a fun film with a neat cast..
This film was the second done by Vincent Minelli in his movie directing career.
Like the first one I DOOD IT he was directing Red Skelton.
Skelton was shown to good advantage (in most of his comedies Skelton usually gave good performances) as a radio personality, "THE FOX" who knows all you need to know about crime to solve cases.
He is kidnapped with his girl friend by Conrad Veidt's gang.
Veidt is a cult leader, who learns he is a prospective heir to one of his rich followers, provided her direct heir (Lloyd Corrigan)predeceases her.
Veidt needs a perfect crime, and "The Fox" is just the man to give it to him.It is a wonderful comedy.
Besides Skelton's comic abilities, Veidt too shows a funny side rarely apparent in his dramatic (and villainous) roles - imagine Major Strasser telling Capt.
At the start of the film, having just given his stooge followers his typical guru speech on control and peace and love, Veidt learns about the existance of Corrigan as a threat to his plans for wealth.
He starts acting like another notable German of the 1940s, screaming and ranting, and yelling at his followers how can he teach the world of love and peace when this impediment is in his way!
Later, when part of the live audience listening to Skelton's "Fox" radio program, he learns that the villain in the program was an imposter that Skelton recognized, because he was wearing a turban the wrong way (it was tied on the left instead of the right, or something like that).
A surprised Veidt (who could very well wear a turban among his followers) tells his side-kick, "I didn't know that!" as though anyone is interested.
The lines go fast and furious in this film, up to a surprise at the end of the film from Corrigan, that actually makes much of the frantic antics of the forced "perfect crime" plot seem hopeless from the start.
Wally "The Fox" Benton (Red Skelton) is the star of a popular radio mystery program who is kidnapped by criminals.
They plan to kill somebody and want Wally to plan the perfect murder.
As added incentive for him to do as they want, they also kidnap Wally's fiancée (Ann Rutherford) and another girl who likes him (Virginia Grey).Fast-paced enjoyable Red Skelton comedy hits on all cylinders.
Skelton is wonderful in his first starring role.
Virginia Grey is the other girl who wants Red and she's fiery and spunky and lots of fun as well.
Conrad Veidt is excellent as the heavy, as are all of his henchman.
There's more support from the likes of the great Eve Arden, Lloyd Corrigan, and Henry O'Neill.
It's really a first-rate cast in a very fun and funny movie..
Red plays radio sleuth Wally Benton, aka The Fox who gets wrangled into solving real life crimes along with his fiance played by your typical wartime girl next door looker, Ann Rutherford.
Red Skelton has a surprisingly strong screen presence, surprising I say because I grew up with a much older version of the man who's charm really didnt play well in my formidable years.
Wartime is funny that way I guess, and so then again are these movies.
Red Skelton, achingly young but as engaging and comically flexible as ever, is ideally-cast as Wally Benton, a radio personality and fictional sleuth nicknamed "The Fox", who is kidnapped for real by a nefarious cult leader eager to get his hands on an inheritance--which means implicating Benton in a murder.
Adaptation of the play by Laurence Gross and Edward Childs Carpenter is pure fun, with an exceptionally strong supporting cast running high on adrenaline.
Conrad Veidt, that great eternal-villain, is the amusingly icy con-man who robs the rich and keeps for himself, while Ann Rutherford is charming as Skelton's girlfriend.
She and Red were quickly re-teamed for two more "Whistling" comedies.
On His Way Up. It's Red's first starring role and he plays it fairly straight only sometimes mugging it up in ways that would become his comedic trademark.
Grey's character "Fran" seems unnecessary to the comedy set-ups and the storyline, so perhaps there's an inside story on this odd bit of doubling-up.In my little book, the movie's only fitfully funny, mainly because the two comedy set-ups (the secret room and the radio trick) go on too long and lack the intensity of Red's better comedies.
All in all, this first of the "Whistling" series is not the best, but it does present a chance to catch one show-biz's brightest comedy acts developing his way up the Hollywood ladder..
If WARNER/MGM had their way (of which they DO!)....we will NOT LIKELY ever see these 3 Classic RED SKELTON "Whistling" series comedies on DVD!
RED SKELTON stars as Wally Benton, THE FOX ("OOOOOOO!"), a Radio star detective in WHISTLING IN THE DARK, WHISTLING IN DIXIE and WHISTLING IN BRROKLYN.
I purchased the VHS copies of these great films quite a few years back (before DVD's) ~ they are definitely 'keepers'!
Skelton makes promising debut as star but flat one-liners don't help....
You have to be awfully patient to sit through a film with one-liners so flat and unfunny that you wonder what all the fuss was about when WHISTLING IN THE DARK opened to such an enthusiastic greeting from audiences in the 1940s.On top of some weak one-liners and ordinary sight gags, the plot is as far-fetched as the tales The Fox (Red Skelton) tells his radio audience.
You have to wonder why anyone would think he could come up with a real-life solution on how to commit the perfect crime and get away with it.
But then, that's how unrealistic the comedy is.But--if you're a true Red Skelton fan and enjoy a look back at how comedies were made in the '40s--you can at least enjoy the amiable cast supporting him.
Ann Rutherford and Virginia Grey do nicely as his love interest and Conrad Veidt, as always, makes an interesting villain.
One of his more amusing moments is his reaction to Skelton explaining the mysteries of wearing turbans.
Not always easy for a discriminating viewer as many of them simply fall flat, the way many comedies of this era do because the novelty of the sight gags and one-liners has simply worn off..
If you're not amused, watch Red Skelton say it.
Otherwise, Whistling in the Dark is a good bet, even for family..
Like the Road To Singapore which was the debut and yet the weakest of the Road films for Crosby and Hope, Whistling In The Dark which was Red Skelton's starring debut was overall rather weak, but definitely shows Red Skelton's zany comedy style.
He did two more films as radio detective Wally Benton aka the Fox, Whistling In Dixie and Whistling In Brooklyn that were better than this one.The fact that smooth and clever villain Conrad Veidt who runs a spiritualist racket would need help from Red Skelton to construct a perfect murder is dopey on the face of it.
Still Skelton is kidnapped by Veidt and along with him are two women that he's been seeing, Ann Rutherford and Virginia Grey, and he's got to come up with a foolproof method of homicide.
Nobody notices that in addition to being a performer and writer, Skelton is also something of a fool.But that's what makes the weak premised film provide a lot of laughs with Grey, Rutherford, and even Veidt joining in on the general hilarity.
And I do love the way Red apparently has a knowledge of electronics and makes the villain's radio receiver set a broadcast method.
Can't be a complete fool to devise that.Though the succeeding Fox films were better, Whistling In The Dark will provide a great introduction to the comedy stylings of Red Skelton..
While the 1941 version of "Whistling in the Dark" is by far the most famous version, back in the 1930s there was a previous version and I enjoyed it very much.
Now, less than a decade later, MGM is back with a new version--this time starring Red Skelton.
Of course the original was more famous but it also didn't try so hard to be funny and was more subtle and likable.When the film begins, some evil scumbags are scamming lots of gullible ladies with their cult.
Their latest atrocity needs to be the perfect murder and instead of the boss (Conrad Veidt) planning it, he decides to force a radio program writer and performer, Wally Benton (Red Skelton) to plan this perfect killing.
And, to provide Wally with an incentive to cooperate, they also kidnap his two lady friends along with him.
How can Wally possibly escape or warn the authorities about the pending murder?This film is interesting and mildly funny--only mildly.
This is because many of the laughs are a bit forced and Skelton's almost constant one-liners are almost never funny.
I MUCH preferred Skelton's later roles, as his character was much sweeter and likable.
As for me, I really thought the original film was far better...and is the version to see if you get a chance.
However, the remake isn't bad...good enough at the time, that it spurred on two sequels--"Whistling in Dixie" (1942) and Whistling in Brooklyn (1943)..
I had never seen a Red Skelton film until now.
But he is also backed up here by a wonderful supporting cast: having to choose between Ann Rutherford and Virginia Grey would be any man's dream dilemma, and Conrad Veidt is perfectly cast as the bogus cult leader.
The Fox doesn't whistle, he howls!
While they are from competing studios, there are a few references to "Kane" here, including a couple notes about the famous "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast.The setup is pretty delicious.
Red Skelton is a radio star, who plays a detective called the Fox. This by itself is a joke because the man's humor is all in his face.
He is famous (in this movie) for writing complex mysteries, not for performing them.Superficially, the story has him kidnapped by the bad guys and forced to come up with a foolproof murder idea.
But look at how this is done.The bad guys operate a fake spiritualist cult that sells a "radio" service to the departed.
So the deal is fake radio versus real, and cleverly solved mystery versus cleverly concealed mystery.As a sort of mirror, Red's character has two women in love with him, and they are kidnapped with him.
The payoff is in how Red's character foils his own plot.
He literally — I am not making this up — figures out a way to talk backwards into a radio receiver.
(Red's radio show is sponsored by a soft drink.
She's referring to the two women chasing after radio mystery host Red Skelton, engaged to Ann Rutherford, but desired by Virginia Grey.
Somehow Skelton is desired by cult leader Conrad Veidt who fleeces vulnerable widowed society matrons out of their money by promising them peace in another world, wanted to figure out the perfect way to kill the co-heir to a fortune he coveted himself, split between him and the surviving nephew (Lloyd Corrigan).Skelton is fooled into going off with Veidt and his merry gang of fleecers, later held hostage with both Rutherford and Grey in an effort to prove that the poisoned mouthwash he's suggested actually works.
not in brain), Skelton comes up with a unique way of turning a radio into a telephone in an effort to warn Corrigan about his possible fate aboard a flight where one of Veidt's men intends to use the poisoned mouthwash to do his dirty deed.
It's a race to the finish, giving Corrigan a very funny exit line, and a comedy thriller that will have you both in stitches as well as your hands glued to your arm rests.Having made a few minor supporting appearances in a few films, this would be Skelton's very first lead, and he is indeed quite amusing.
Rutherford and Grey play great rivals for Skelton's affections, although it is obvious whom he prefers.
Ragland as usual plays a hysterically funny dumbbell, not overusing the malapropisms, but making each one hysterical.
This remake of a 1933 film spawned a brief series for Skelton that didn't overstay its welcome..
Red's first starring vehicle.
This was really the first film in which Red Skelton was the star, rather than a supporting character.
And while it was a B movie, it was a good one that received a fair amount of acclaim for Skelton.
The general shtick is a good, but common one in that era -- a sort of twist between gangsters and spooks.Here, Red plays Wally Benton, the star of a radio mystery series; he's "The Fox", an expert criminologist (and accidentally a goofball).
He plans to elope with his girlfriend Ann Rutherford, but his agent urges him to also date the sponsor's daughter to assure that his show is not canceled.
Meanwhile, Conrad Veidt runs a religious cult that preys on the wills of oldsters, mostly women.
Veidt is determined to have Upshaw murdered so that the money will come straight to the cult.
Members of the cult develop a plan to have "The Fox" develop a fool proof murder.
Can "The Fox" save the women and prevent the murder?
How he does it is rather clever.Red Skelton, in his first starring vehicle, is very good here, although he got even better in the two sequels.
This is a good role for Conrad Veidt as the head of the phony religion; must have been a nice change not playing a Nazi in the World War II era!
Ann Rutherford was a good romantic interest for Red.
"Rags" Ragland, who later played Red's pal, in this film was one of the reprobates, but did so nicely.
Venerable character actor Henry O'Neill is along as the sponsor of Red's radio program.
Eve Arden is here as Red's manager, but has little to do, and that's a shame...but she was a known scene stealer.If there's a criticism here it's that about two-thirds of the way through the film it lags a bit, but then comes on stronger at the end.
Recommended, particularly to see the young Red Skelton..
With the exception of the last 15 minutes or so, this was a pretty awful film.Red Skelton, as Walter Benton, radio show star of a crime show who along with his boss's daughter and fiancée is kidnapped by a sinister cult leader, Conrad Veidt, who wants Skelton to come up with a perfect murder so that he can kill the heir of a fortune left by one of his devotees.The film just plods along with ridiculous lines by Skelton and Crew.
Eve Arden is given very little to do as Skelton's agent, her wise-cracking is sorely missed here by the writers.
Ironically, Skelton is Walter Benton in this film; years later, we had the character of Walter Denton in Arden's hit television series "Our Miss Brooks." Richard Crenna played Denton.The film picks up in pace and comedy when the radio is able to be connected and everyone finds out about the plight of Skelton and the two women.