Michael Shayne: Private Detective

"Michael Shayne Private Detective" (1940), is an unexpected charmer: a delightful hardboiled private eye movie that will have you chuckling to the very last frame while trying to figure out the murderer before Mike Shayne (Lloyd Nolan) does.

Starring that thoroughly likable no-nonsense pro, Lloyd Nolan ( who appeared in the first seven of a dozen Shayne movies), and set in the last peaceful days before World War II, "Michael Shayne Private Detective" – the first in the series -- is an enjoyable gift box of welcome surprises: a period piece where the cars are both boxy and racy, men's suits are double-breasted and boxy, and the private eyes think best when they're boxed in.

Private detective Shayne, broke as usual, suddenly gets a juicy assignment. All he has to do is nursemaid a spoiled rich girl (Marjorie Weaver), who has the gambling bug and all the wrong friends. Mike's attempt to show her a lesson backfires, and suddenly he's the chief suspect in a murder.

A little thing like that's not going to stop Mike Shayne. Ingenious and inventive, fast-thinking and fast-talking, he has to dodge the cops while finding the real murderer. And now he's acquired a zany assistant, a proper old lady with a surprising taste for blood.

Aunt Olivia: It was the great piano mystery. The body was found under the piano, his throat was strangled with piano wires, the soft pedal was found embedded in his neck, and somebody had completely severed the head from the body. He was dead!

Michael Shayne: (dryly) Oh, suicide, hmmm?

Mike's proficient with both a riposte and a pistol. ("Hey, that brooch is as phony as a mother-in-law's kiss!") And he's not bad with badinage.

Cop: When are you gonna start talking straight?

Mike: Not until my attorney gets out of law school!

Shayne may have a quip for every question; but he's also sentimental, full of malarkey and blarney, whimsical, perpetually broke and a sucker for a pretty face.

Add a batch of odd characters played by a superb supporting cast: Douglas Dumbrille, Elizabeth Patterson, George Meeker, Walter Abel and Irving Bacon; and you've got a screwball comedy with smooth ensemble acting, an ample supply of corpses and a solution that actually makes sense.

An appreciation of Lloyd Nolan: "The actor who was generally credited with 'A' performances in a decade-long series of 'B' films became so good, in fact, that he permitted himself the luxury of turning down work, a privilege that ordinarily falls to far better known stars." -- The Los Angeles Times.

I like the Michael Shayne films, and this one from 1940 has humor, a decent mystery, and is generally fun.

Millionaire Hiram Brighton hires Michael Shayne (Lloyd Nolan) to watch his daughter Phyllis (Marjorie Weaver) - she's a compulsive gambler. In fact Shayne moves into the house, to no avail, because Phyllis escapes him.

Shayne fakes the murder of her gambler boyfriend to frighten her, but it doesn't come off, since upon his discovery, Shayne realizes he's been shot. Gun mix-ups, a frustrated and furious police chief (Donald McBride), and the casino owner's wife (Joan Valerie) are all present to mix things up.

The end of this film falls apart and gets a little confusing with people faling down stairs and coming out of closets, but in reality, the lively characters are what keep this film going.

Just about stealing the show is Phyllis' eccentric aunt (Elizabeth Patterson). She and the butler are mystery fanatics - she is a great follower of the "Baffle Book" and is always telling Shayne about different stories. She actually proves to be a great help to Shayne. Patterson is best remembered, of course, as Mrs. Trumble on I Love Lucy.

Enjoyable.

Lloyd Nolan stars as Michael Shayne, a down-on-his-luck P. I. who's having trouble paying his bills. His luck changes when he's hired to keep watch over rich girl Phyllis (Marjorie Weaver) who's been spending too much of daddy's money lately losing at the gambling house. A simple babysitting job gets complicated when a dead body pops up and Shayne looks like the guilty party.

This was the first in a series of Shayne mysteries starring Nolan, based on books by Brett Halliday. Nolan is very good as the genial Shayne, a decent guy who isn't afraid to use his fists but prefers using his wits. I liked that he's shown to be fallible, making clumsy mistakes like ripping his pants while sneaking around, which helps to humanize him compared to other movie sleuths who never seem to make a misstep. Weaver's spoiled rich girl act is irritating at first, but her character makes a big turnaround, and Elizabeth Patterson is a delight as Weaver's detective-story-addict aunt who helps out on the case. This movie doesn't do anything groundbreaking, but it knows its lane and travels it well.

Fun start to a fun series of B detective movies starring Lloyd Nolan as the titular private eye. Probably my pick for most underrated classic detective series. This film, like the rest, is driven by Nolan's screen presence and memorable character actors in supporting parts. Here we have the extremely likable Elizabeth Patterson giving a standout performance. Marjorie Weaver does her best Ann Rutherford. Donald MacBride is also fun. The mystery here is pretty good but the comedy and likable characters are what really works. All in all it's an entertaining picture that moves along quickly. If you're a fan of detective movies from the 30s and 40s I'm sure you'll enjoy this one.

Lloyd Nolan is Michael Shayne, a private eye hired to keep an eye on a young woman with a penchant for gambling. Shayne intends to save her from herself but ends up as the prime suspect of a murder. Shayne will have to act fast and untangle a web of gambling, drugged horses, a jilted lover, an overly zealous mystery fan, and a dead body if he's to stay out of the County Jail.

I had never heard much about the Michael Shayne movies before I found a set of four on DVD. Being a fan of 1940s era mystery/thrillers, I decided to give them a chance. And the ridiculously low price didn't hurt matters any. I was hoping for something along the lines of Charlie Chan or The Thin Man. While I didn't enjoy this, the first in the series, as much as the better known movies I mentioned, Michael Shayne: Private Detective is a decent enough watch and worth the 77 minutes I put into it Lloyd Nolan gives a solid, albeit unspectacular, performance. The problem - while Nolan is a good actor, he is not what I would call a leading man. Nolan is joined by a capable cast that includes Douglass Dumbrille, Elizabeth Patterson, and Donald MacBride (who seemed to make a career out of playing the beleaguered, put-upon police inspector). Much of the movie has a feeling or atmosphere about it that many of the "light" detective movies of the period had that I find appealing. This feeling was almost undone, however, by a plot that seemed a little overly complicated for a throwaway B-movie. Maybe I was just too tired when I watched, but I found it difficult to follow - not that any of it was that interesting to begin with. So in the end, while I've given Michael Shayne: Private Detective a 6/10, I can't say I'm not a bit disappointed. Here's hoping the next three in the series are even more entertaining.