Michael Shayne: Private Detective ***½ (1940, Lloyd Nolan, Marjorie Weaver, Joan Valerie, Walter Abel) – Classic Movie Review 11,238

Lloyd Nolan stars as Brett Halliday’s wisecracking private detective Michael Shayne in the first of the actor’s seven 20th Century Fox support thrillers.

Director Eugene Forde’s 1940 black and white mystery thriller Michael Shayne: Private Detective stars Lloyd Nolan as private investigator Michael Shayne, who is employed by millionaire rich racing commission boss Byram P Brighton (Clarence Kolb) to watch over his gambling debutante daughter Phyllis (Marjorie Weaver) after she bets on a 100-1 outsider when she has been given a tip by notorious racetrack tout Harry Grange (George Meeker).

To scare Phyllis, Shayne announces Grange’s ‘murder’, but then it happens for real and Shayne finds that his gun is the murder weapon.

Lloyd Nolan stars as private investigator Michael Shayne.

A solidly entertaining stock mystery thriller story is packed with bafflingly complicated plot, and the film moves swiftly and smoothly along in a relatively short running time of 77 minutes, lifted with lively handling and colourful performances. Nolan turns in a very sturdy and effective performance as Brett Halliday’s cocky, wisecracking, tough-and-ready private detective in the first of seven 20th Century Fox support thrillers from 1940 to 42. It gets the series off to a cracking start. The huge cast certainly keeps Fox’s roster of character actors gainfully employed. Elizabeth Patterson has a great time as detective fiction-fixated Aunt Olivia and Marjorie Weaver is spry and sprightly as Phyllis Brighton.

Only this first one used a Halliday story (Dividend on Death), though it takes only some elements from Brett Halliday’s 1939 first novel and is largely based on Halliday’s 1940 second novel The Private Practice of Michael Shayne. Dividend on Death introduces the character of Phyllis Brighton, who becomes Shayne’s wife. Intriguingly the last entry in the Fox series, Time to Kill, is based on Raymond Chandler’s The Brasher Doubloon.

Hugh Beaumont starred in five more, far less successful Shayne films in 1946-47 for the Producers Releasing Corporation company: Murder Is My Business (1946), Larceny in Her Heart (1946), Blonde for a Day (1946), Three on a Ticket (1947), and Too Many Winners (1947).

Also in the cast are Marjorie Weaver, Joan Valerie, Walter Abel, Elizabeth Patterson, Donald MacBride, Douglass Dumbrille, Queenie Vassar, Charles Coleman, Clarence Kolb, George Meeker, Adrian Morris [Michael Morris], Robert Emmett Keane, Frank Orth, and Irving Bacon.

The 20th Century Fox film series is: Michael Shayne, Private Detective (1940), Sleepers West (1941), Dressed to Kill (1941), Blue, White and Perfect (1942), The Man Who Wouldn’t Die (1942), Just Off Broadway (1942), and notably Time to Kill (1942), the first screen adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s novel The High Window and the final Michael Shayne film starring Lloyd Nolan made at Fox, which then closed down their popular B-movie unit.

The cast are Lloyd Nolan as Michael Shayne, Marjorie Weaver as Phyllis Brighton, Joan Valerie as Marsha Gordon, Walter Abel as Elliott Thomas, Elizabeth Patterson as Aunt Olivia, Donald MacBride as Chief Painter, Douglass Dumbrille as Gordon, Clarence Kolb as Hiram Brighton, George Meeker as Harry Grange, Charles Coleman as Ponsby, Adrian Morris as Al, Robert Emmett Keane as Larry Kincaid, Frank Orth as Steve, Irving Bacon as Fisherman, Jimmy Aubrey as Mac, Don Brodie as Reporter, Paul E. Burns as Furniture Company Mover, James Conaty as Gambler, Robert Conway as Riverside Terrace Desk Clerk, Sayre Dearing as Racetrack Spectator, Ralph Dunn as First Bartender, Fern Emmett as Jenny, Bess Flowers as Racetrack Spectator, Dick French as Reporter, Harold Goodwin as Reporter, Sherry Hall as 2nd Bartender, Paul Kruger as Parking Attendant, Hamilton MacFadden as Reporter, Tony Martelli as Gambler, Major McBride as Croupier, Frank Mills as Counterman, Edmund Mortimer as Gambling Casino Patron, Field Norton as Gambler, Paddy O’Flynn as Reporter, James Pierce as Burly Man Downstairs, Dick Rich as Mover, Jack Richardson as Gambler, Cyril Ring as Reporter, Bob Rose as Freddy, S.S. Simon as Nightclub Patron, and Larry Steers as Racetrack Spectator.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,238

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