VividSimon Simply Perfect

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Ceticultsot Beautiful, moving film.

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

gridoon2018 I had never seen a Red Skelton film until now. Based on "Whistling In The Dark" alone, I think he is probably an underrated comedian. Some of his expressions and double takes are quite funny. 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. Pleasurably, the women don't just sit back and scream when a big fight breaks out at the end - they (literally) jump right into it! The movie offers laughs (nearly all of the characters have some gems in their dialogue - "You can put my mind at ease by not using yours" - but you must listen carefully) and some genuine suspense as well - but as has already been mentioned, what's up with the title? The Fox doesn't whistle, he howls! *** out of 4.

tedg Here is an early example of what I call narrative folding. "Citizen Kane" had just been released when this started filming. 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 dependent on film — and later TeeVee to be successful. 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. He does, but is able to foil the plot. Bad guys are captured. All is well. But look at how this is done.The bad guys operate a fake spiritualist cult that sells a "radio" service to the departed. In order to keep their enterprise going, they will get a million dollars if they kill some innocent guy and get away with it. 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. Many of the jokes have to do with the confusion and conflict between these. 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. Now I believe that this sort of construction is no accident. But I also hold that it is not an intellectual exercise either. Narrative folding comes as naturally as a sort of analogy-based equivalent of the puns on which this is based. (Red's radio show is sponsored by a soft drink. When capturing him, the cult wants him to sell a drink in an identical bottle that contains Vitamin O. )Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

theowinthrop 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. The two films were assigned to Minelli as a test of his abilities, and he did so well that he was never assigned to B-Features again. 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. Reynaud an off-colored joke in CASABLANCA. 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. Definitely worthwhile if you want some good laughs.

J. Wellington Peevis There are 3 of these movies, all similarly crafted and each extremely amusing. 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. Many of the one-liners and gags are dumb and probably were in the 1940s which I anticipated. But, just as many actually made me laugh out loud, which was unexpected to say the least. 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. I have to give these movies the go ahead though -if your in the mood for this type of nostalgic fare. I almost threw in light hearted, but in truth people get wasted and beaten up and dare i say it, the suspense at times is well above average. As with most movies from this era, it gets a PI (politically incorrect) rating for reasons you can well imagine. Wartime is funny that way I guess, and so then again are these movies. Watch one, watch them all.