The Man Who Wouldn't Die

This mystery has everything: dead bodies that won't stay buried, a weird laboratory, an old house during a thunderstorm, and a "phantom" (with "glowing" eyes) that appears in the house and attempts to kill someone!

The hero & heroine add both a comedic and suspenseful touch to the entire proceedings.

This film is difficult to find, but I highly recommend it!

What a great old film. I am lucky enough to have found over the years a mint 16mm sound print an a very good vhs copy (Captain Bejoiu). The story starts out with a very mysterious burial scene on a cold windy nite. There is the "Old Forboding Mansion" and the usual cast of 20th Century stock players including Paul Harvey who is great as Dudly Wolfe. But as usual, Lloyd Nolan steals the show as Shayne with his whimsical irish humor and dapper acting. Marge Reynolds is great as his wife? With the reoccuring thunder storm as a backdrop and the "undead" body with glowing eyes trying to kill any and everyone in the house, it makes for a spine-tingling murder mystery that is as good as most of the sad new ones w/o the sex and overdone violence. 1942 appears to be one of the best years for movies in Hollywood. So many great features with outstanding character actors of the time. LeRoy Mason is great as the "undead" killer who stocks the remaining frightened guests and family at the Wolfe Mansion. If it shows up on Fox Movie Channel, do yourself a favor and watch it!

Lloyd Nolan is Michael Shayne, private detective in "The Man Who Wouldn't Die," a 1942 entry into this short series from Twentieth Century Fox.

A friend of Mike's, Catherine (Marjorie Weaver) gets him to pose as her husband while investigating a shooting at her family home. Her father (Paul Harvey) is in government and under investigation by the Senate, and one night, Anna is shot at. Mike finds plenty to investigate. He also has plenty to explain when Catherine's real husband shows up unexpectedly.

There's lots of humor and "dark stormy night" atmosphere in this neat programmer, which also features Henry Wilcoxon and Helen Reynolds as Anna, Catherine's stepmother.

Nolan is a delight as a singing, happy but very clever Shayne. I'm surprised that Marjorie Weaver didn't get further in her career, though by all accounts, she loved the career she had - she's very pretty and vivacious.

Very enjoyable.

I ended up catching this on the Movies!network-the digital TV channel broad-casted by a lot of fox affiliates. I thought it was a fun movie. Lloyd Nolan was great. I knew him more from his character bits on TV in the 1970s. I really enjoyed him in the McCloud episode of the western cowboys that rob an armored car. This movie had a nice mix between comedy and a nice if not ground breaking mystery story. Great chemistry between Nolan and his costar. I had not seen others in this series but would not mind checking it out. The style reminds a little of the Thin Man series or some of the better written Abbott and Costello movies (I always liked their two mystery type movies Who Done It and Meet The Killer Boris Karloff).

A young woman awakens at night to see a man with glowing eyes staring at her. This man shoots at her but misses and when she tells others, there's no evidence she was there! They act as if it's some sort of dream, but she's sure it isn't.

Now how Michael Shayne gets involved is pretty odd. This same woman later meets him along the road and asks him to pose as her husband. She is apparently married but wants to pass Shayne off as her new husband. None of this made sense--why didn't she just bring her real husband? Why didn't she just tell people that he was a private detective--especially when he found the bullet shot at her--proving someone DID shoot at her! Odd indeed!

In the midst of this mystery, a man takes off from the mansion and is chased by Shayne and the police chief. The car crashes and the man is thrown. The chief very quickly pronounces him dead. Inexplicably, the body disappears later! Was he really dead or did someone steal the corpse? This is all getting very strange and confusing (especially for the audience), as there are lots and lots of seemingly divergent plot points in the film. Supposedly, this is all related somehow to some strange magician, Zorah Bey.

This is an enjoyable Michael Shayne film, mostly due to the seemingly relaxed performance by Lloyd Nolan as Shayne. However, the story is a tad confusing and seems to perhaps have too many twists and turns...but it never is dull. For lovers of B-detective films, this one is certainly worth finding.