Larceny in Her Heart

PRC was a distributor known for some of the cheapest and crappiest B-movies during its day. However, even rotten PRC was occasionally capable of making a good B...and this is the case with the five Michael Shayne movies starring Hugh Beaumont. They are not to be confused with the earlier series starring Lloyd Nolan for Twentieth Century-Fox...which were also very good and most enjoyable.

"Larceny in Her Heart" is the second of five PRC Shayne films. And, as often is the case, Shayne and his girlfriend are about to go on vacation...and their plans are altered when a new case presents itself...and Shayne can't resist. Burton Stallings wants to pay Shayne a fortune to locate his step-daughter, Helen. However, as is often the case, his client is less than truthful about the situation! And, a body keeps appearing in Shayne's apartment...even after he keeps getting rid of it!

This is pretty good...much like the other Mike Shayne films. I must admit it's a bit talky (especially at the end) and is worth your time.

Unlike the legend says, Sam Mewfield did not only offered craps, lousy pictures, most of the time because of tiny budgets; But this guy had skills in film making, just check the number of movies each year. This one is pretty well done, especially if you like this gumshoe plots. I don't, but this doesn't spoil my opinion about this one. Plus I saw it in good copy, which is agreeable and easy to appreciate the film itself. Newfield made many films like this one, not only westerns. So, if you don't have anything important to do, just try this one, if you can get it on a channel or youtube. But I guess it is not available.

Larceny in Her Heart (1946) - don't ask where the title came from - is a Michael Shayne mystery done by PRC in starring Hugh Beaumont as Shayne. Up to now I have only seen Lloyd Nolan as Shayne. Directed by Sam Newfield.

This was pretty good in that there was some good humor along with appearing and disappearing bodies.

Private eye Shayne delays his vacation to locate the stepdaughter of one Burton Stallings, Helen Stallings. But when she turns up dead, Shayne wants to get rid of the body and put it where the police will find it, unconnected to him! Alas, it keeps showing back up just where he doesn't want it.

As part of his investigation, he has himself committed to a sanitarium for alcoholics.

Beaumont handles the humor well. This is a cut above a lot of B movies. Newfield keeps it moving, and the actors have good chemistry.

Hugh Beaumont as Mike Shayne is about to take a vacation with with Cheryl Walker. His plans are interrupted when the corpse of a woman turns up in his office and her stepfather hires him to investigate; when the police try to confirm it, he denies it.

I didn't expect much from this PRC production, certainly not when the screenwriter is named Raymond L. Schrock -- which I read off the screen as "Raymond Schlock" -- but it's a nice, twisty little mystery that winds up in a drying-out farm for diposmaniacs;Beaumont is pretty good as the glib Shayne.

Shayne's creator was Brett Halliday, nee Davis Dresser, and he came up with Shayne as a marketing scheme. There were stories, novels, movies, radio shows, and even a long-running mystery magazine that paid royalties for using the Mike Shayne name. Halliday died in 1977, aged 72.