Just Off Broadway *** (1942, Lloyd Nolan, Marjorie Weaver, Phil Silvers, Janis Carter) – Classic Movie Review 12,155

Phil Silvers plays annoying news photographer Roy Higgins, who gets in the way of private detective Michael Shayne, in Lloyd Nolan’s penultimate film appearance in the series. 

Director Herbert I Leeds’s 1942 black and white mystery thriller Just Off Broadway stars Lloyd Nolan and Marjorie Weaver in the sixth of a series of seven B-movie films in which Nolan plays detective Michael Shayne for 20th Century Fox.

Brett Halliday’s private investigator Michael Shayne (Nolan) is a juror who believes Lillian Hubbard (Janis Carter), the woman accused of the murder of Harley Forsythe, is innocent after a witness is killed by a knife thrown from inside the courtroom at the murder trial. So, having secreted the knife, he sneaks out of his shared jury hotel room that night by drugging his juror roommate, and sets off to investigate the crime himself with the help of keen news reporter Judy Taylor (Marjorie Weaver).

Just Off Broadway is an enjoyable, undemanding caper taken at a canter, with amusing performances. Nolan centres the film and gives it integrity and authority. And Marjorie Weaver is an asset, sending in a lively performance as the sparring co-sleuth. Unexpectedly, Phil Silvers plays annoying news photographer Roy Higgins, who tries to get in Shayne’s way by trying to take a photo to show that he has left the hotel. The script offers no major surprises, though the complicated, highly improbable plot thickens intriguingly, and the identity of the villain is reasonably well concealed.

[Spoiler alert] The film’s mystery and sleuthing elements go really well, and the first three quarters of an hour is most entertaining, engrossing and satisfying, though the film is undermined by its silly, untruthful comedy, defying even Phil Silvers to be amusing, while Chester Clute is struggling to be funny too as Shayne’s juror roommate Sperty. The film falls apart at the end after Shayne gets back to his hotel bed and rejoins the jury next day for the resumed trial, as credibility goes out of the window when Shayne leaves the jury box to question the key witness. This keeps Shayne in the driving seat, instead of the Defence Attorney, but everyone knows this could never happen in court. The hard-to-fathom plot finally having kicked back in, then the film ends with more silly comedy, as Shayne is jailed for contempt and Marjorie Weaver arrives to tell him she’s managed to get his sentence greatly increased. There has to be a basis of truth and reality in these stories, and this one leaves those ideas far behind, and too often forgets the hardboiled detective film it is supposed to be.

Nevertheless, Arnaud d’Usseau’s screenplay, based on an idea by Jo Eisinger, is witty and well organised, a model of good mystery movie writing, taut and de luxe constructed. How much he packs into just 66 minutes! It’s incredible!

The cast are Lloyd Nolan as Michael Shayne, Marjorie Weaver as Judy Taylor, Phil Silvers as Roy Higgins, Janis Carter as Lillian Hubbard, Richard Derr as Defence Attorney John Logan, Joan Valerie as Rita Darling, Don Costello as George Dolphin, Chester Clute as juror roommate Sperty, Francis Pierlot as jeweller Sidney Arno, Grant Richards as District Attorney John F McGonagle, George M Carleton as Judge Robert Walters, Alexander Lockwood as Count Edmond Telmachio, William Haade as Warehouse Watchman, Leyland Hodgson as Henry Randolph, Butler, Oscar O’Shea as Stage Door watchman Pop, Jean del Val, Ralph Dunn, Mary Field, Pat Flaherty, James Flavin, Grace Hayle, Mae Marsh, Tim Ryan, Charles Tannen, Charles Trowbridge, Hank Worden, Edna Mae Jones, Ivan Miller, Tom O’Grady, and Ben Pitti.

Just Off Broadway is directed by Herbert I Leeds, runs 66 minutes, is made and released by 20th Century Fox, is written by Arnaud d’Usseau, based on an idea by Jo Eisinger, is shot in black and white by Lucien N Andriot, produced by Sol M Wurtzel, and scored by David Raksin and Emil Newman (musical director). The sets are designed by Chester Gore and Richard Day.

It was released on 25 September 1942.

It is Weaver’s third and final appearance in the Shayne series, playing a different character each time: she played Phyllis Brighton in Michael Shayne: Private Detective and Catherine Wolff in The Man Who Wouldn’t Die.

The 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 final Michael Shayne film starring Lloyd Nolan made at Fox, which then closed down their popular B-movie unit.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,155

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