Testemunha Ocular

For the first 40 minutes of Sleepers West, one of the Michael Shayne quickie B movies starring Lloyd Nolan, I thought we might be in the middle of tense Narrow Margin territory. Mike Shayne is hiding a secret witness on a train barreling through the night between Denver and a high profile trial in San Francisco. Her testimony can prove the innocence of a man framed for a murder...a murder that involves some very powerful people who want the case closed fast and permanently. And on that train is a killer determined to identify the witness and stop her from testifying. That's not all. Also aboard is a smart, shrewd and sexy newspaper reporter, Kay Bentley (Lynn Bari), an old romance of Mike's who is determined to find Mike's witness and get a scoop. Then there's the tall guy with a suitcase full of cash who might just be a poor shrump...or a killer, too. If that's not enough for Mike, his witness, Helen Carlson (Mary Beth Hughes), is a lush piece of frosting who enjoys a drink, has lazy eyes and lips as plump as Angelina Jolie's collagen injections.

If Sleepers West, a great, odd-sounding title, settles down to standard B movie fare toward the end, the ride at least is a lot of fun. Lloyd Nolan remains the reason to see this comedy/ mystery. Lynn Bari adds style and sexiness and has a great voice. She was a good actress who could handle comedy, drama, weepies or romance. Over a long career, she'd shrug and do the movies she was offered, and never was able to break out of the B's.

Blue, White and Perfect (1942), directed by Herbert I. Leeds, is the fourth and last in the Michael Shayne Mysteries - Volume I. In some ways, it's the best of the four. Once again we have an economical set, this time on an ocean liner steaming from Los Angeles to Honolulu. There's espionage involving industrial diamonds, murder, fist fights and a nice near- drowning in a flooding ship's compartment. The story is as complicated than the other three were, but it hold ups for the length of the movie. In this one, the ruthless Mr. Big is well disguised until the end. The confined quarters of the ship means there are lots of scrambles up and down stairways and people following each other at night in the halls. Lloyd Nolan continues his pitch-perfect portrayal of Shayne as cocky, funny, tough when he has to be and veering closely, but not close enough, toward getting married. Shayne's escape from marriage this time is cleverly handled by a corpse with a knife in its back.

Don't blame yourself if you get confused over some of the characters in these films. Mary Beth Hughes appears in three of them, Helene Reynolds in two and Marjorie Weaver in two. And they're all in leading roles never playing the same characters. Lloyd Nolan must have been as confused as Mike Shayne sometimes appears to be. And let's hear it for double- breasted suits. That's what Shayne always wears, and they look good on him.

In terms of suspense and action, this is one of the weaker entries in the Shayne series. Most of the storyline is confined to a train ride carrying a secret witness to a west coast trial, who Shayne is supposed to protect from those who don't want her to appear. Unfortunately, not much use is made of the confined conditions to build suspense. Then too, we know early on the identity of the witness and who's on board to silence her, so there's not much mystery, either.

Fortunately, there is a sparkling cast, led by the breezy Nolan, along with a brassy Hughes and a bumptious Bari. In fact, Bari and Hughes are natural personality rivals, setting off some delicious undercurrents. Then there's an unheralded threesome of black porters, who contribute humorously to the overall lightweight mood. Look also for Louis Jean Heydt, a familiar face from that era, who does well with a larger than usual role. All in all, it's an entertaining 70-minutes, but not up to the series' trademark mix of suspense plus humor.

'Sleepers West' has a complicated pedigree. In the early '30s, pulp-magazine novelist Frederick Nebel wrote a detective story called 'Sleepers EAST'. The Fox studio bought the rights and filmed this in 1934, but the film 'Sleepers East' is spoilt by some boring romantic elements that dilute the mystery plot. In 1941, Fox remade the story ... changing the plot to make this film an appropriate entry in their 'Mike Shayne' series. They also retitled it 'Sleepers WEST'. The directional change is appropriate to a private-eye story, as westward is the most noir-ish direction: the progression towards sunset ... and death. (Compare this with Rodgers and Hart's 'All Points West', in which the main character dies at the end ... or Lucille Fletcher's radio script and Twilight Zone episode 'The Hitch-Hiker', in which Death and his victim are both heading west on the highway.)

'Sleepers West' is a nice taut little B-picture, a splendid example of those second-feature low-budgeters that Hollywood did so well in the great studio era. Even the film's title pleasingly evokes the 1940s, when sleeping-cars ('sleepers') on American railway trains were commonplace. (On a British railway, 'sleepers' are the wooden ties that hold up the rails.) Movies that take place aboard moving railway trains are always enjoyable: the characters are hurtling along at top speed even if the plot goes off the rails.

Lloyd Nolan had a mug that usually cast him as criminals, but here he's perfect as Mike Shayne, the hard-bitten yet incorruptible private eye. Shayne is escorting Helen Carlson from Denver to San Francisco, where she's to testify in court. Helen's testimony will free a man who's been falsely convicted of murder ... but her testimony will also expose a powerful corrupt politician. So, of course the train to Frisco is chock-full of passengers who want to kill Helen. As if Shayne hasn't enough troubles, there's also one of those stereotypical 1940s 'girl reporter' types (well-played by the vivacious Lynn Bari), who keeps getting in Shayne's way at inconvenient moments.

There are lots of those great supporting roles that nostalgic movie-goers expect in 1940s films like this: I especially enjoyed the great Edward Brophy and the underrated (but prolific) character actor Harry Hayden. Unfortunately, another typical trait of 1940s Hollywood movies makes an unwelcome appearance here: the gratuitous Negro stereotype. In the days of Pullman sleeping-cars, there was a well-organised union of Pullman porters: all of them African-American men. It makes perfect sense that a black actor is cast as the porter in 'Sleepers West'. Regrettably, the role is played by Ben Carter: a plump, simpering, pop-eyed, high-pitched, effeminate black man whom I always find painful to watch on screen. Ben Carter's character portrayals were consistently much more annoying (and possibly more racist) than those of the notorious Stepin Fetchit ... though never quite so annoying as those of Edgar Connor, possibly the most offensive Negro actor in the (no pun intended) dark days of Hollywood stereotypes. Couldn't the railway porter in this movie have been depicted as an ordinary human being: a black man just trying to make an honest living, like pretty much everyone else?

Despite that one cavil, I eagerly rate 'Sleepers West' 9 points out of 10. They don't make 'em like this any more!

Lloyd Nolan is back as Mike Shayne, Private Detective. This time he's escorting Mary Beth Hughes from Colorado to San Francisco. She's a moderately hard-boiled showgirl, and her testimony will make all the difference in a trial. There's a wide variety of characters aboard the train, like reporter Lynn Bari, who's sometimes Nolan's fiancee, now engaged to high-powered attorney Donald Douglas, whose boss is running for governor. There's also Edward Brophy, who's supposed to be a detective, Don Costello, who looks rather suspicious, and Louis Jean Heydt, who claims to be running away from a dull life. But not everyone is who they claim. Some of them are looking for Miss Hughes, hoping to stop her from testifying.

Seems familiar? Yes, it's a remake of 1934's Sleepers East -- sounds like they didn't think too hard about the title. It's based on a story by Frederick Nebel, and the basic situation has been used many times with many variations. This one is pretty good, with Brett Halliday's character slipping right into the proceedings, thanks to Nolan's typically solid performance. There are also a large number of supporting actors that 20th Century-Fox's B division could summon forth, like Oscar O'Shea, Harry Hayden, Ferike Boros, and Mantan Moreland. Just right for a snappy second feature!

This mystery is fun. It is loaded with lots of suspects. Also, some slimy characters. A bright spot is having been Ben Carter and Mantan Moreland which livens up the movie. They should have had more screen time to-gether. It is nice to see Mary Beth Hughes. She was very attractive and had natural talent.