I am the Whistler, and I know many things, for I walk by night. I know many strange tales, many secrets hidden in the hearts of men and women who have stepped into the shadows. Yes, I know the nameless terrors of which they dare not speak…
The Whistler managed to be popular enough to warrant a series of movies and a TV show and is still well remembered despite the fact that, for most of its run, its broadcast was restricted to the West Coast. The stories would be about a person who commits a dirty deed (usually murder) and his or her attempts to cover it up, though occasionally it would be a relatively innocent person falsely accused of something and be on the run. While sometimes these persons were professional criminals, more often than not they would be ordinary Joes and Janes caught up in bizarre circumstances for which there seemed to be no legal means of getting out of. The narration was done in the second person and delivered in a mocking tone, almost as if the Whistler was talking directly to the protagonist (in fact, in the early episodes, there would sometimes be dialogue between the two). No matter how perfectly the crime seemed to have been executed, the protagonist would always get caught in the end. This would be accomplished due to either an unforeseen flaw in the plan, which would be obvious in retrospect, or (for maximum irony) the attempt to cover up would end up actually implicating instead. For most of its life, the Whistler was portrayed by Bill Forman. However, others have performed the role in early episodes as well as during the time Forman got drafted and in a short-lived Chicago-produced version of the show. Among these people were Gale Gordon, Joseph Kearns, Bill Johnstone, Everett Clarke, and Marvin Miller (who was normally the show’s announcer). The actual whistling in the theme was done by Dorothy Roberts.
A Helping Hand
While stealing some incriminating cancelled checks, a man winds up killing his boss. Even though he didn't get identified, he fears that he's being watched for any false move he might make.
A Pattern for Terror
A man finds hints that he committed a murder he can't remember doing.
A Woman's Privilege
Accident According to Plan
The Accounting
The Alibi
Ambassador of Death
An Eye for an Eye
Apparition
The Avengers
Backlash
A man is getting increasingly annoyed with his wife’s aunt who has been trying to get them separated due to the fact that she holds the fact that his brother was convicted for murder against him.
The Blank Wall
Blue Alibi
The wife of a city treasurer discovers that her husband is accepting bribes from an organized crime syndicate and demands that he stop. Since this would probably result in him being fitted with a cement overcoat, he decides to shut her up by killing her and takes advantage of the fact that she likes to go on nighttime swims on the beach. Starring Willard Waterman.
Review: Overall an enjoyable story. However, I'm a bit skeptical that the forensics of the time could do what they supposedly did.- Webmaster
Blueprint for Suicide
The Body Wouldn't Stay in the Bay
The Brass Ring
A dancer in a carnival sideshow attracts a rich man and it's not long before they're hitched. However, it isn't long before she tires of him and arranges an accident for him on a roller coaster.
Review: One of the charms of The Whistler is that the stories could happen (though not likely). However, this story is so idiotic that it's a wonder that the writers even considered adapting it.- Webmaster
The Broken Chain
A man has a persistent idea of killing his gregarious wife that becomes appealing over time, so he does so. But he has trouble keeping calm after the event. Starring Bob Bailey.
Caesar's Wife
A crime syndicate boss thinks his wife is cheating on him and plans to take care of it personally. Starring Gerald Mohr.
Chain Reaction
A down on his luck pilot gets a job from his girlfriend's husband as a scout for a salvage operation. But what's really happening is far less legal.
The Cistern
The Clayton Affair
A recently widowed woman is suspected by her in-laws of being behind her husband's murder and one of them has found a man who could link her to it.
The Clever Mr. Farley
A counterfeiter taking some of his product on a train west gets mixed up with jewel thieves. Starring Gerald Mohr.
The Clock on the Tower
A man who is on death row because he was found guilty of killing his wife goes over the trial transcript to see if he can spot an instance of perjury from the prosecution's witnesses and therefore get a reprieve.
Coincidence
Comeback
The Confession
Cover Up
Dark Voyage
A former diver arranges for a contact to assist him with a salvage operation. When his girlfriend falls for the contact, he plans for an "accident" during the dive. Starring William Conrad.
The Deadly Innocent
Death Has a Thirst
A man whose alcoholism has brought out some inherited mental problems is forced to go on a nice relaxing ocean cruise. However, in his paranoid state, he's convinced that it's all part of a plot to do away with him.
Death Laughs Last
Death of Mr. Penny
Two blackmailers disagree on how to proceed with their current victim. One plans for the murder of his partner, while the other considers presenting evidence that his partner arranged a deadly accident a while back to the authorities. Starring Gerald Mohr.
Death Pays a Visit
Death Watch
Decision
A doctor who has fallen for the wife of his current patient is alarmed when he dies in a suspicious manner. Assuming that she had put poison in the medicine he prescribed, he covers up for her by writing the death certificate as heart failure.
Desert Reckoning
A pilot's plan to fake engine trouble over the Mexican desert and ditch his business partner and his girlfriend while keeping the proceeds of selling the business for himself goes somewhat awry.
Double Exposure
A druggist reveals to an architect that he's aware that the architect arranged for the accident that killed his wife. He bludgeons the druggist to death, wipes his fingerprints, and sneaks out the back way, but shortly gets word that someone claims to have seen him.
Doublecross
Escape to Danger
Evening Stroll
Fatal Error
The co-owner of an air freight company that has been doing some smuggling decides that he wants the illicit gains for himself, so he arranges to ambush his partner in a dark alley. He gets a nasty shock the next morning when the papers report that he plugged the wrong guy. Starring John Dehner.
Fateful Friday
Final Return
Finale
A Broadway actress is contacted by two persons who are aware of a not-so-minor indiscretion she committed eight years back and will only keep quiet if she gives them a boost in show biz. She considers the price to be too high, so she plans to put them out of the way.
Review: Quite a story. After the main character had finished committing the murders, I just couldn't figure out how she screwed up, as it seemed she had covered all her tracks. While I wouldn't call the solution was so obvious that it got overlooked, it's a real humdinger.- Webmaster
The First Year
Flee from Evil
A man is being blackmailed by an unknown person through a private detective and is quite paranoid about who the blackmailer is.
Fog
A fisherman is going to meet a man who owes him money when he takes a spill and loses his memory for a short period of time. When he recovers, he learns the debtor has been shot and he finds two bullets missing from his gun.
Fool's Gold
Gateway to Danger
The Gentle Way
The Golden Penny
A man infiltrates himself as a captain for a yacht so as to make off with it as well as $100,000 from the owner.
Review: While an interesting scam, the ending is unusually predictable for a Whistler episode.- Webmaster
Guilty Conscience
An escaped convict who has managed to go unnoticed for the past twenty years is blackmailed by a former cellmate who claims to have proof of his true identity.
Harvest of Death
High Death
A man wishes to kill his wife so he can have her money and marry another. And there should be plenty of opportunity while they're mountain climbing in the Alps.
Highway of Escape
House of Greed
A businessman who is a bit of a sucker for a sob story is startled when he learns that his wife has left him. Seventeen years later he has remarried when his first wife returns with a daughter who had been born seven months after she left, asking that she take her on. The current wife is unhappy with this development since he might decide to leave everything to his newly discovered offspring.
The House on Sycamore Road
Impulse
Coming home late one night, a man finds parked in the front of the garage a getaway car with the driver dead and a satchel containing $50,000. It's a big temptation to take that money, but it turns out to be more trouble than it's worth.
Incident at Arroya Grande
The Intruder
A history professor divorces his wife so that he can marry a writer. But she finds his friends and colleagues to be not all that receptive to her.
The Jackson Street Affair
A woman kills one of her boarders who has experienced a windfall and apparently had no friends or living relatives. So naturally a seaman friend of his he never mentioned arrives to stay a couple of days.
Jealousy
A woman is convinced that her husband plans to poison her so he can marry her sister.
Jessica
A publisher kills a writer in a rage when he names his price to not publish a book about her family's dirty little secrets. This is witnessed by her sales manager who promises to cover up for her, but these sorts also have their price.
Juggernaut
The Killers
Kind Thought
A businessman attempts to kill his partner before he presents evidence of his shady deals to the authorities and doesn't really care if hapless bystanders go with him.
Lady in the Snow
A commercial artist is on the run after his assistant frames him for the murder of her husband. When the police believes he's dead, he settles down in an isolated mountain town, but finds that the past isn't so easy to evade.
Lady with a Key
A smuggler accepts a woman's request to take her down to San Diego. When she doesn't appear at the agreed time, he goes ahead anyway, only to later discover her corpse in his backseat. Starring Gerald Mohr.
The Last Curtain
When a temperamental opera singer discovers that her fiancé now loves her replacement, a murderous plan forms in her head.
Last Message
A former felon who had faked his suicide and gone straight had been doing fairly well for himself since. That is until an old associate arrives in town and recognizes him.
Legacy of Death
Before dying, a plantation owner tells her husband that her previous husband had a hereditary condition which induced homicidal tendencies. She asks that he make sure that the daughter she had by that marriage avoids any extreme emotional distress which could cause the condition to surface.
Let George Do It
The Letter
A mild-mannered biologist living in pre-WWII Vienna is ordered by a society he's a member of to kill the leader of a pro-Nazi movement. Such a task is difficult enough for him, but it's made worse when he's told the target is is benefactor.
Review: Like most of the early episodes, the story logic is painfully contorted, only more so.- Webmaster
Letter from Cynthia
A hospital intern who was disgraced in his previous job through no fault of his own is faced with temptation when the man responsible arrives in the ER from a car accident.
The Little Things
A recently released safecracker is hired to help rob a bank with obsolete security systems. When he learns that he's being set up to be a fall guy, he plans for turning the tables on his employers.
Local Storm
In a small village in Devon, a neurotic invalid is at home alone on a stormy night, scared that the man who recently killed the vicar’s wife is going to come for her.
The Lovely Look
Lucky Night
The miserly owners of a cheap boarding house find one of their boarders a victim of a hit-and-run and carrying five thousand dollars. They take the money without thinking of where it might have come from.
Malice
A doctor with an elitist attitude is outraged that his son is quitting medical school and plans to marry a woman from a poor family and might do anything to put an end to it.
Man in a Corner
A man finds out that not only is his business partner philandering with his wife, but they're also trying to dig up evidence of his shadier transactions so that they can put him out of the way.
Man in the Storm
A town treasurer has been embezzling the insurance premiums for the new recreation hall, figuring it'll never be needed. Mother Nature calls his bluff and a flood comes that looks like it'll destroy the recreation hall. Starring William Conrad.
The Man Who Came to Murder
The Man Who Died Twice
The Man Who Waited
Manhunt
Married to Murder
A thrill-seeking society girl covers up for and marries an artist who killed his girlfriend. After a while, she gets bored with him and decides to knock him off.
Meet Mr. Death
Mind Over Matter
Mirage
The owner of a low-class nightclub is extremely upset that the attorney she's been attracted to has decided to hitch up with the D.A.'s daughter. Once an opportunity is available, she arranges for the death of the subject of her jealousy.
Murder Arrangement
A woman plans to kill her boyfriend and pin it on a recent parolee whom she has framed before.
Murder Has a Signature
Murder in Mind
A couple arrange some "accidents" for his stepmother before she spends all their inheritance, but she proves to be exceptionally lucky. When she finally dies in a genuine accident, her driver engages in blackmail when he reveals a letter in which she states that she wasn't as clueless about the attempts as she acted.
Murder in Paradise
Murder is Blind
Nemesis
Next Year is Mine
Night Final
Nightmare
Notes in the Night
A man is concerned about his mental health when he starts finding notes in his handwriting stating the desire to kill his business partner.
The Oriana Affair
An Assistant D.A. who has recently committed a murder finds out there was a witness. So he needs to figure out a way to have her stay quiet.
The Other Woman
Perfect Alibi
A disgruntled private detective is hired by a woman to knock off her rich uncle. He works it out so that it'll be pinned on the owner of the gambling joint she's in debt to. Starring Jack Webb.
Phone Call from Death
Practically Foolproof
The proprietors of a rental library who are planning the theft of some negotiable bonds from a bank hit a snag when trying to figure out how to get through the building’s small windows. They may have found their answer when they learn that a midget has recently moved into town.
The Rawhide Coffin
A woman down to her last few dollars gets a serendipity when she unexpectedly acquires a purse containing the owner's ID forms and a letter about an inheritance from a rich uncle not seen since a child. She then conducts some research so that she can bluff her way into a fortune.
Rebound
A broker embezzles some of his aunt's bonds to cover his losses on the stock market. She eventually learns of it and he finds his non-lethal options for coming out clean drying up. Starring John Dehner.
Retribution
A man who got a life sentence for the second degree murder of his wife and her demented son escapes from prison and goes to the old homestead to locate her hidden stash of negotiable bonds. The situation is made complicated when a young couple get stranded nearby on A Dark and Stormy NightTM.
The Return
A woman who has quietly murdered her husband is pretending that he's just gone missing and even goes as far as hiring a private investigator for appearances. So she's a bit disturbed when he starts reporting results.
Return Engagement
The Return of the Innocent
Return to Riondo
Return with the Spray
Search for Maxine
A newspaper man loses his temper with his obnoxious cousin and strikes him, seemingly killing him. He now worries about finding the woman who was on the other end of the phone when this all happened and keep her quiet.
The Seeing Eye
Seven Steps to Murder
The sniping that occurs between a newspaper critic and a syndicated columnist that started when the former panned a play written by the latter escalates in its nastyness.
The Sheriff's Assistant
The Shrunken Head
A young woman goes to live with her jungle explorer uncle who is now an invalid and, shortly after looking at his collection of shrunken heads, starts having nightmares about them.
The Silent City
A publishing company reader is frustrated by his inability to get his own material published. He comes across a brilliant first attempt and plans to claim it as his own, going to extremes to cover up his plagiarism.
Silent Partner
Sing a Song of Murder
Smart Boy
A collector for a bookie skips out of the country with the $60,000 he was entrusted with. After a while, he returns and establishes an honest business in a backwoods town. It's not too long before a goon who had been out of favor with his former boss arrives to try some blackmail.
Smart Girl
The secretary of a night club owner and her partner-in-crime disagree on how quickly they should go about blackmailing her boss. She arranges for him to be put out of the picture, but all sorts of unknown facts take things beyond her control.
Spell in Green
The secretary of a columnist defenestrates her boss and gets his job. While the death was ruled an accident, she worries about the emerald earring she lost that night and how it might implicate her.
Still Death
The new patron of an unsuccessful artist causes him all sorts of trouble that might end up sticking him in jail.
Stormy Weather
Strange Meeting
When arriving at Paris, a photographer finds some interesting X-ray negatives planted on him that could be worth lots of money to the right people.
The Strange Sisters
Stranger in the House
A woman whose foster brother was presumed dead in the Philippines is informed that he's returned, but she's convinced he's an imposter. Everyone else, however, seems to think he's the genuine article.
The Stray Dream
Summer Thunder
Swan Song
A nightclub singer plans to kill her indifferent boyfriend while pinning it on another girlfriend of his. Of course, it's difficult to foresee every possible hitch in such a complex scheme.
Tale the Dead Man Told
A man who is philandering with his business partner's wife finds him at his office one night having apparently committed suicide. They alter certain key elements to make it look like murder so that they can collect the insurance money.
Telltale Brand
Terror Stricken
A businessman has done quite well for himself ever since he testified against another businessman for grand larceny. But ever since the prison term ended, he's received some near miss attempts on his life.
The Thief
A woman married to a millionaire is contacted by the brother of her previous safecracker husband and tells her that he has the son she had by that marriage. He also informs her that her previous husband is not dead as she thought and the fact that she never divorced him could bring up some unpleasant legal problems.
Three Times a Sinner
A woman gets a bit impatient for her husband's eventual heart failure, so she decides to speed things up.
Till Death Do Us Part
Rather sloppily, two completely different stories have been given this title, one from 1948 and one from 1950.
1948: An art dealer sells some forged manuscripts to an infirm collector. The collector's young wife recognizes them as such but buys them anyway so she can blackmail it back and have more than the relatively small trust allowance she gets when her husband dies. Starring Gerald Mohr.
1950: A man down to his last few dollars meets a woman who offers him $5000 to marry her so that she can meet the conditions of her uncle's will and then have a quiet divorce. But he'd prefer to have the entire take.
Treasure Hunt
During at a stopover at a small town, a con man learns of a hidden fortune, the location of which is encrypted in a bit of verse. Starring Gerald Mohr.
Review: I could have sworn that there couldn't be a Whistler episode that was worse than The Brass Ring, but this one sure gives the old college try. I suspect that the writers were intending to break from the formula, but the results are disastrous.- Webmaster
Two Year Plan
Undercurrent
A man kills a passenger on a liner and makes it look like suicide. But when he goes to "discover" the body, he finds a completely different person claiming the deceased's identity and the ship's crew doesn't seem to notice.
Undertow
The Urge to Kill
The co-owner of a factory who does most of the work is finding the strain to be getting him down and possibly causing repressed urges to surface.
The Wall
A man believes that his aunt suspects that he killed his uncle and the constant "remodeling" she has done is an attempt to find where he hid the body.
Warm Reception
A con man returns to the hometown he left ten years ago where the residents don't know of his sordid doings and finds some easy blackmailing concerning a murder committed shortly after he left. Starring Gerald Mohr.
The Waterford Case
A woman kills her uncle and pins it on his son so that he'll get the chair and she'll get the inheritance she considers rightfully hers.
What Makes a Murderer?
The Weakling
A District Attorney faces the prospect of prosecuting his son for two murders.
Wedding Gift
Whirlwind
A columnist who covers the Hollywood night scene finds his habit of muscling in on some other guy's woman is starting to have some adverse effects. Starring Paul Frees.
With My Own Eyes
On her first night at her new lodgings, a woman sees a man carrying the strangled corpse of the landlady. Reporting it to the police turns out to be no good because the man was the police commissioner and it was his home.
The Witness
An egotistic architect is finding that his temperamental manner is causing him more trouble than he can handle.
Witness at the Fountain
A reporter has had it with an increasingly bold blackmailer, so he plans to murder him in a manner indistinguishable from those random killings that are near impossible to solve. Starring Howard Duff.
X Marks the Murderer
A housewife gets more than she bargained for when she sends an idea to the police on how to catch a serial killer who is currently on a rampage.