Time to Kill

Time to Kill is a fast-paced, thrilling Michael Shayne mystery adapted from a Raymond Chandler novel and sped up to fit just inside an hour. Mrs. Murdock hires Shayne to find her daughter-in-law, a chorus girl who stole a precious coin from her home. Murdock's son is an odd sort of fellow who appears now and then to create a sense that Shayne is being watched, not the sort of guy that could be trusted. When Shayne meets the daughter-in-law, aptly named Miss Conquest, he discovers a beautiful girl just as eager to get out of the Murdock family as Mrs. Murdock is to get her out. Something doesn't quite fit.

Don't blink your eyes or you'll miss something; you have to be able to keep up with this one to truly enjoy it. Maybe some practice with other Lloyd Nolan movies will do the trick.

Nolan gets some great lines and utilizes them well. His tough guy might not be as memorable as Edward G. Robinson's, Humphrey Bogart's, or Dick Powell's, but he gets the job done. He is flanked by a b-movie cast, including the lovely Heather Angel, but don't see b-movie and think you'll be losing out on quality. You don't want your murder mysteries to be polished anyway; the dirtier, the better.

Lloyd 'Michael Shayne' Nolan is hired by Ethel Griffies to retrieve a valuable coin for her, the Brasher Doubloon, which she is convinced was stolen by chorus girl Doris Merrick, who is also involved with her son James Seay. What starts out as a routine assignment quickly becomes a puzzle for Nolan as he finds the coin, but then Griffies informs him she also found it back in her personal belongings! Something is not right, and it includes murder, blackmail, Griffies' fidgety secretary Heather Angel and a seemingly inconspicuous photo taken years earlier...

Even tho this is a Michael Shayne movie, it's the first screen adaptation of Raymond Chandler's novel 'The High Window', which would be remade a few years later as 'The Brasher Doubloon' starring George Montgomery as Philip Marlowe. The plot is a maze, twisting and turning non-stop in its 60-minute runtime, as the always wise-cracking Nolan ('Lady In The Lake') goes from one clue/red herring to the next. You really need to pay attention or you'll miss things. This was the last of the Shayne movies starring Nolan and it does feel a bit rushed and less fun compared to the other ones. Having said that, it's still got its moments, and Nolan is always a blast as Shayne. But part of what made Nolan's Shayne movies so much fun was the continuous back&forth witty banter between him and the leading ladies (Mary Beth Hughes, Lynn Bari, Marjorie Weaver)... And this movie really lacks it as Angel's ('Lifeboat') character is nothing of the sort, and tough cookie Merrick ('Sensation Hunters') doesn't have quite enough screen time.

Director Herbert Leeds had already directed a few Shayne movies like 'The Man Who Wouldn't Die' so he knew how to direct these quick 'blink or you'll miss a clue' mysteries. DoP Charles G. Clarke ('Moontide', 'Violent Saturday') does a decent if unremarkable job. As mentioned, the movie does feel rushed, and while the crew obviously knew how to get the job done in a timely manner, it also shows. Not the best way for Nolan's Shayne to end, it's a slightly disappointing movie due to the high expectations created by the previous Shayne movies plus using a Chandler novel. A few years later Hugh Beaumont would take over as Michael Shayne for a new series of movies (which I've yet to see). Still good enough to watch for people interested in either Michael Shayne or Raymond Chandler.

Lloyd Nolan plays Michael Shayne in the last of his appearances in the 20th Century Fox B series. He's called in by Ethel Griffies. She wants him to find evidence to get her son out of his marriage to a showgirl. She also believes her daughter-in-law has stolen a Brasher doubloon, a rare coin from her late husband's collection. Nolan takes the case, which leads to a lot of corpses.

It's derived from THE HIGH WINDOW, and is the second movie made from a Raymond Chandler story -- the first was THE SAINT TAKES OVER, based on FAREWELL, MY LOVELY; Hollywood had noticed Chandler, liked him and how his work fit into their plots, but of course, knew much more about how do it than the third best crime fiction writer ever. Having purchased the story from Chandler, they remade it in 1947 with George Montgomery as THE BRASHER DOUBLOON.

It's a nice effort for Nolan's Mike Shayne to go out on. The settings range from a rich woman's home and a swanky nightclub to a transient's hotel a step above a flophouse, and director Herbert Leeds shows how Nolan uses his fees to fix himself up in a lovely cinematic manner: in the first scene, we see Shayne with his feet on the desk, eating. It's a shot showing the bottom of his shoes, which need resoling, while he eats his his meal straight from a can. In a later iteration of the shot, his shoes have been resoled and he's eating off of china.

A Ray Chandler tale. In fact, it was remade in 1947 as the Brasher Doubloon. In this earlier version, Lloyd Nolan is Shayne, hired by an old widow to find a stolen coin and return it to the family. Co-stars Ethel Griffies, Heather Angel, Doris Merrick. The film is all washed out, with bad sound, jumps and cuts. Badly in need of restoration. And while looking for the coin, Shayne opens up a whole counterfeiting ring, and of course, the bodies are piling up. Can they solve the crimes before they run out of suspects? The story is quite good, in spite of the poor quality film. Directed by Herb Leeds. Died young at 54, suicide.

Just a note of correction. On the previous post, the actor cited for his role in The Brasher Doubloon should be George Montgomery, rather than Robert Montgomery, who was featured in several films noir of his own, Lady in the Lake and Ride the Pink Horse, to name a few.

Lloyd Nolan himself can be seen in quite a few noir films, usually, but not always, on the side of the law (House on 92d Street, Somewhere in the Night, and Two Smart People.

It is a shame that The Brasher Doubloon (or Time to Kill, for that matter) have not been released on DVD as yet. Brasher is a 20th Century Fox production and perhaps it will be released in the near future as part of their Fox Film Noir series.