WHISPERING CITY is that rarity: a Canadian film noir, and from the 1940s to boot. Director Ozep does a reasonable job, helped by the great background music (André Mathieu's Quebec Concerto), the lovely city of Quebec, and the Montmorency Falls landscape, but the real quality comes from the superior acting of the sinister Paul Lukas, who had already made a classy villain in Hitchcock's THE LADY VANISHES (UK 1938).
In fact, WHISPERING CITY appears to have had some impact on Hitchcock: he proceeded to pick up on the idea of traded murders by turning Patricia Highsmith's book, Strangers on a Train, into a film in 1950, and subsequently directed I CONFESS in Canada.
Unfortunately, Helmut Dantine and cigarette chain smoker Mary Anderson are rather weak actors, and I was only truly interested in the action whenever Lukas reappeared.
WHISPERING CITY is a watchable film noir, despite the script's over-elaborate twists and turns.
In fact, WHISPERING CITY appears to have had some impact on Hitchcock: he proceeded to pick up on the idea of traded murders by turning Patricia Highsmith's book, Strangers on a Train, into a film in 1950, and subsequently directed I CONFESS in Canada.
Unfortunately, Helmut Dantine and cigarette chain smoker Mary Anderson are rather weak actors, and I was only truly interested in the action whenever Lukas reappeared.
WHISPERING CITY is a watchable film noir, despite the script's over-elaborate twists and turns.