Mysterious Intruder

Plot synopsis:
Edward Stillwell, the aged proprietor of a music store, hires private detective Don Gale (Dix) to find Elora Lund, a then 14-year-old who vanished seven years ago at the time her mother died. Stillwell can only pay $100, but hints mysteriously that finding Lund could make Gale a rich man.
A young woman claiming to be Elora Lund shows up at Stillwell's shop, supposedly in answer to his newspaper advertisement. Stillwell tells her that her mother gave him some "odds and ends" to sell; he discovered something very valuable among them, but refuses to give her any details until he telephones Gale. Meanwhile, Harry Pontos sneaks into the basement and finds a package marked as belonging to Lund. He grabs it, then stabs Stillwell to death and kidnaps "Elora Lund". Gale informs the reporters at the murder scene that the woman is not Lund. The news results in her release unharmed.
Gale goes to see her; her real name is Freda Hanson, and she is Gale's accomplice. From clues that Hanson is able to provide, Gale retraces her steps and finds the house occupied by Pontos. Finding Pontos drunk and passed out, he looks around, but just then, Police Detectives Taggart and Burns bang on the door. Pontos awakens, grabs a gun and a shootout ensues. Gale sneaks away, but is seen by a neighbor and loses a shoe in the process.
Taggart and Burns question Gale, inform him that Pontos is dead and return his shoe. When he refuses to cooperate, they arrest him, but release him a little later (hoping he will lead them somewhere). He goes to see Hanson and finally gets her to admit that what she is after is worth $200,000. When there is a knock on the door, he hides and finds a newspaper clipping indicating that a magnate has offered $100,000 each for two wax cylinder recordings legendary Swedish singer Jenny Lind made shortly before her death.
Meanwhile, the real Elora Lund goes to the police. Taggert and Burns send her to see Gale to try to find out what he knows. She remembers the recordings; Gale offers to secure them for 25% of their value. He persuades her to stay with his associate Rose Deming while he does so.
James Summers, the manager of the apartment building in which Hanson lives, finds her strangled body in her closet. The police figure Gale is guilty, as he was seen leaving her apartment around the time of the murder. Joan Hill, Gale's secretary, warns him he is a wanted man.
He heads to Stillwell's place, finding his neighbor and friend, Mr. Brown, dead too. Down in the basement, he sees Summers and an accomplice. They have found the recordings. Summers offers to cut Gale in, but Gale does not like what happened to Summers' other partners: Hanson and Pontos. A gunfight breaks out. Gale shoots Summers, grabs the recordings and flees. He telephones police headquarters and announces he has the recordings. When he hears someone coming after him, he fires. He is shot and killed ... by the police. Taggart notes that one of the shots has shattered the recordings.

Tags: violence, murder

Review:
The fifth of the seven Richard Dix Whistler's is a complicated hard boiled affair, coming in at just under an hour with the usual high quota of dizzying plot twists to keep you on your toes.
Nicely noirish and a good print lend a doom-laden atmosphere which the excellent cast make the most of, and at warp speed.Seedy private eye Dix is hired by a trusting old shop owner to find his friend a missing girl who has an intriguing if extremely improbable present worth USD 200,000 awaiting her.
Favourite bits: Dix and his lady  friend tracking down and finding manic Mike Mazurki's house at night; the greed in weak-willed but still a goodie Dix's eyes when the real Elora Lund shows up.
Here's another fine entry in Columbia's noirish Whistler series, the fifth chronologically, and fourth directed by soon-to-be schlockmeister William Castle.
Like the first in the series, Castle imbues the film with an especially sleazy atmosphere.
Series lead actor Richard Dix, normally emotively challenged, gives a rather eccentric interpretation of a venal, socially inept gumshoe seeking a big score, who is ironically given the opportunity for redemption.
Buffs will certainly savor the parade of iconic supporting actors like Mike Mazurki and Charles Lane.
Much better than one would expect from a mystery series, this picture reflects the seamy side of life usually glossed over by the Hollywood veneer..
He's a distinctive creation of writer Eric Taylor's clever little screenplay, with more twists and turns than one of those old Toni home permanents.
Richard Dix is perfect as Gale with all the phony charm and shifty eyes of an oily medicine man.
If Gale has any redeeming qualities like Spade or Marlowe, I can't find them, making him one of the most unusual lead characters of the day.The movie starts off posing a neat little mystery-- why would anyone want to kill for some worthless old keepsakes.
The solution is a novel one, although the story sometimes unfolds in a complex fashion that's hard to follow.There're some nifty little touches, such as the trigger-happy neighbor who apparently shoots at anything that moves or the safe-house matron who looks like she could go a few rounds with Mike Tyson.
Little old man Stillwell should carry a sugar-overload warning, while plug-ugly Mike Mazurki mugs it up shamelessly as the towering menace.
The bare-bones street scenes might blemish most movies, but here they come across as just plain cheap like Gale himself.How surprising that the schlockmeister of 1950's gimmick movies, William Castle, stands as the moving force behind many of these little Whistler gems.
William Castle the director of many low B budget films made this into another great Whistler series starring Richard Dix as Don Gale, a rather shady private detective who had a nice brunette secretary named Joan Hill, (Nina Vale) who assisted him with all his clients and especially a little old man.
This little old man wanted to locate a young girl named Lund in order to tell her that she was worth lots of money and he wanted Don Gale to try and local this young girl from his past.
Enjoy, it is a good mystery, and Richard Dix had a certain charm that made his acting so suspenseful..
Tight little mystery in "The Whistler" series directed by William Castle....
The improbable plot for this entry in "The Whistler" series has something to do with valuable cylindrical disc recordings of Swedish nightingale Jenny Lind, a double-crossed antique dealer, a femme fatale blonde who knows the recordings are worth $200,000, and some crooked thieves.
RICHARD DIX is the gumshoe detective in the mold of Philip Marlowe, but his dialog isn't quite as sharp.Dix, of course, has to play fast and loose with the police on his trail and there are enough plot twists to keep any mystery fan mystified.
As you can see, for a film that only runs one hour there's enough to keep you busy watching for the next development.The supporting cast includes BARTON MacLANE, PAMELA BLAKE, CHARLES LANE, REGIS TOOMEY and MIKE MAZURKI.Crisply written and directed, it's a good series entry..
Richard Dix , Private Eye. A MYSTERIOUS INTRUDER kills Richard Dix's kindly client before Dix can find out why he wants to spend his meager earnings to find a girl the client adopted long ago.
Will Dix double cross his way into the big money before psycho-baddie Mike Mazurski kills him, or tough cop Barton McLane puts him away?
The full-blown crisis of conscience Dix endures through this movie anchors the fast-moving (and often incoherent) plot in something a little more substantial than is found in the usual private eye caper.
The ending to this one is a very good double twist, one of which is a little surprising.
The other actors play the usual set of tough cops, psychos, loyal secretaries and money grubbing blonds in the ways you might expect.In other words -- find this one if you like noir..
The Whistler was both a radio show and a B-movie series from Columbia Pictures.
Unlike the usual B-films (which were mostly detective films), this series was more like episodes of the "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" television series--each a unique story involving human nature and each one being unique and unrelated to the others.
Additionally, all but the final film starred Richard Dix--who played very different characters in all the films.In this film, Dix plays a private detective who isn't especially honest.
When a kindly old man comes to him for help, Dix appears willing to use a bit of larceny to cash in on the man's trust.
Throughout the film, you see that above all else, Dix is a man out for himself.
Additionally, other selfish characters abound--and soon practically everyone wants to cash in on the old man's secret.This film is probably the best in the series because the script is much tighter and without the plot holes that sometimes impeded the series.
Additionally, the supporting staff is much better than usual--having many great character actors on hand, such as Mike Muzurki, Barton MacLane and Charles Lane.The score of 8 is relative to other B-movies.
For the genre, it's among the best and not to be missed by old film buffs..
Mysterious Intruder (1946) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Fifth film in Columbia's The Whistler series has Richard Dix playing a private investigator who gets a case from an old man who is looking for his niece.
This is a pretty good entry in the series, although the screenplay falls short when compared to the previous film.
The film only ran 61-minutes so perhaps that's why the story didn't have time to work itself out as well as it should have.
Dix once again turns in a good performance with Charles Lane, Barton MacLane and Nina Vale offering fine support.
So the basic premise of "Mysterious Intruder" is feasible and broadly based on historical fact: the existence of such cylinders.Richard Dix does a good job in "Mysterious Intruder" as a sleazy private eye out to grab some lost cylinders of a famous singer from the 1880's.
It moves briskly and is filmed with stark noir-style lighting.Another thing I find interesting about this movie is its use of some talented and now totally obscure actresses, namely Nina Vale, Helen Mowery and Pamela Blake (no, not Amanda Blake).
The very solid actor Barton MacLane (Maltese Falcon '41) also is a great asset portraying a police detective.This movie has a unique story and is one of Dix's better performances (not great acting, but good for Dix) and is directed by William Castle.
Up to this point, I found the entries in "The Whistler" series to be enjoyable B movies, but with "Mysterious Intruder", something seems to have gone wrong.
And this particular detective story really requires you to pay close attention - if you are not keeping careful mental notes to what's going on, you'll likely get lost pretty quickly.
A nice old gentleman hires private detective Don Gale (Richard Dix) to find a girl named Elora Lund he hasn't seen in seven years.
Gale tries to rip the old man off by sending an impostor to pose as Elora.
But then the old man is murdered (in a surprisingly brutal scene) and Gale finds himself on the spot.Another entertaining entry in Columbia's always-fun Whistler franchise.
Good supporting cast includes Barton MacLane, Mike Mazurki, Regis Toomey, and Charles Lane.
It's a pretty good story, especially for a B movie.
Burns, show up at what you would expect to be, from watching Sam Spade & Philip Marlow like 1940's private eye flicks, his rundown and barley lit office in what looks like swanky Sutton Place, check out the 59th Street Bridge outside the office window, private investigator Don Gale, Richard Dix, is anything but interested in taking up his case.
Stillwell is willing to pay Gale all his life saving, $100.00, to track down and find 21 year-old Elora Lund, Pamela Blake, whom he hasn't seen or heard from for almost seven years.
Lund is to inherit a large amount of money that her widowed mother, who had just passed away, left with him that Gale suddenly got interested in the case knowing that he'll, if he finds Miss.
Lund, get a piece of it.The movie "Mysterious Intruder" is a lot like the "Maltese Falcon" with an unscrupulous private eye, like Sam Spade in the latter, breaking every rule in the book trying to get his hands on, instead of the legendary "Black Bird", a set of 1887 wax recordings cylinders of Swedish Nightingale Jenny Lind worth over $200,000.00.
Gale is in fact a lot more unscrupulous then Sam Spade ever was by using people to trick poor old Mr. Stillwell into getting hold of the wax recordings without even giving them to their rightful owner Elora Lund!Gale using one, of many, of his lady friends hot blond Freda Hanson, Helen Mowery, to impersonate Miss.
Lund to get a hold of the wax treasures has old man Stillwell murdered by the gorilla-like Harry Pontos (Mike Mazurki), who somehow got wind of what was going on, who ends up taking Freda hostage together with a package in Stillwell's store addressed to Elora Lund.
When Gale get's to Stillwell's store finding him murdered and Freda missing has the news get out, via the police, that she's not really Miss.
Pontos hearing this on his car radio, together with him finding nothing of value in the package that he stole from Stillwell's music store, lets Freda go as he heads home to his rooming house for a good nights sleep; it turned out to be the last good nights,or days, sleep that the big lug would ever have.Gale gets it from both sides in the movie, the police and those who work for him, with him getting the royal screwing from non other then Freda herself who's ***SPOILER ALERT*** working behind his back to get the wax cylinders off his hands and keep the $200,00.00 for both herself and her secret crime partner.
With him wanted by the police in Freda's, and possibly Mr. Stillwell's, murder Gale goes incognito, as a mummy-like looking bandaged crippled man, to the late Mr. Stillwell's music store knowing that the real killer, or killers, of Freda are there rummaging through the place trying to find the valuable wax recordings.The ending by far is the best part of the film "Mysterous Intruder" with everyone getting exactly what's coming to them including the on the lamb and under the covers, or bandages, Don Gale.
One of the best of the Richard Dix "The Whistler" series of films and at the same time one of most complicated.
Still "Mysterious Intruder" is more then worth watching a second time just to see the clues and subplots that you may have missed the first time around..
The screenplay of MYSTERIOUS INTRUDER is by Eric Taylor, based on his own story "Murder to Music," which appeared in the May 1936 BLACK MASK magazine.
Taylor was not one of the first tier BLACK MASK writers, and his work for the magazine varies in quality, but this was a good one, one of his best.
In the story one knows from the beginning that the first girl is the detective's stooge.
Actually showing the scene where she meets the old man means that, to fool the audience, she has to be afraid of Pontos (the only character name retained from the story), which makes no sense, since in fact he's her accomplice.
A strong moment of surprise in the story is when the detective suddenly accuses the fake girl of trying to get him killed.
In the film it seems like just another meaningless plot twist.
In the story, he has his secretary call in and say she's the real girl so that the phony will be released.
In the movie, he himself tells the newspapermen, so of course the cops know he sent the phony.
The denouement of the story is a great scene where the detective seems to be in a bad spot, with the bad guys having their guns on him, but he calmly points out that they have limited options unless they want to kill off "half of San Francisco." And a significant point in the story is that they're not really professional tough-guy crooks except for their hired man Pontos, so the detective's sudden action play after he has them unnerved makes sense.
The stooge girl isn't killed, and there's no final scene back in shop, and of course the detective is not killed and the rightful owner, the authentic girl, gets the recordings.
Having the recordings broken seems a little hard on the character of the innocent young girl who deserves a break.
There are other plot flaws in the end of the film.
It ends with the ironic note of the cops thinking the detective was guilty.
Also, at the beginning of the film Pontos apparently takes the recordings with him, yet at the end they are found in the store.
Aside from being more logical, the original story has a more authentic atmosphere, and Taylor adds a number of telling, small details not in the film.One doesn't necessarily expect a strong plot from a series film like this, but in this case the author based the screenplay on his own tightly plotted, excellent story.
But instead of following the story, he restructured it so there are plot flaws and loose ends.
Ah, well.The best thing about the film, and the biggest surprise, is that Richard Dix is perfect as the sleazy, not-so-smart, PI; who would have thought it?
And Castle doesn't do such a bad job with the script that he's given; the film is reasonably atmospheric and the pace is good.
If you like series programmers this film should satisfy..
Another strong entry in the Whistler series with Dix as yet another dark character, this time an unscrupulous private eye who is hired by a music store owner to try to find Alora Lund (Nina Vale) a young girl who grew up next door.
Poor old Richard Dix, after a career of dashing heroes, must have wondered what happened when he found himself appearing in one oddball part after another!!
He was very good and gave the parts a lot of gusto!!Don Gale (Dix) is all for fobbing Stillwell off until the elderly man states that if found Alora holds the key to untold wealth.
- that night a girl purporting to be Alora Lund visits Stillwell but she is an imposter, sent by Gale to try to find out about the real girl's inheritance.
The night ends with a murder and a kidnapping.Meanwhile the real Alora is recuperating in hospital due to an accident and the police (Charles Lane and the gruffly likable Barton MacLane) contact her, hoping she can fit some of the pieces together.
Dale takes Alora to be "looked after" by a feisty old lady, he then goes to have it out with his partner Freda who informs him she is just about to double cross him with Stillwell's killer, then she is murdered.
Hovering over the whole show is Freda's creepy building janitor Mr. Summers (Regis Toomey).An involved plot and good performances make this an excellent entry..
Some great character actors liven up this convoluted entry in a series that started off intelligent and clever, and over the time has gotten full of itself to where much of the proceedings are incomprehensible.
Murders surrounding a rare record shop and missing persons result in a lot of headaches in trying to keep up with what is going on.
In this entry, Richard Dix is a cynical private investigator, often at odds with detectives Barton MacLane and Charles Lane, out to solve the sudden death of an elderly music store owner, the disappearance of the girl he was searching for, and the odd assortment of characters coming in and out searching for valuable musical artifacts.
In addition to MacLane and Lane are Kathleen Howard, Regis Toomey and Mike Mazurki, but the intrusion of too many characters leads to a seeming dead end in the plot.
Even at just over an hour, this gets puzzling and ultimately frustrating, especially after watching two previous entries in "The Whistler" series that showed its smarts.
This lacks the artistic genius of the cult director William Castle who moved from series writer to behind the camera..
Unquestionably the weakest of the first five "Whistler" films.
The first four "Whistler" films may have been low-budget, but they were neither cheap nor dull; "Mysterious Intruder" is both.
It plays more like a run-of-the-mill private-eye film, and the revelation of the killer(s) is pretty ho-hum as well.
It doesn't really feel like a part of the series, apart from the ironic ending, which at least remains intact.
The film is not without interest - however all its predecessors in the "Whistler" series are significantly better.