Boring

A Disappointing Continuation

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Blistering performances.

But it really is! This is a fast-paced comedy/mystery starring Lloyd Nolan as Private Eye Michael Shayne, attempting to solve a double-murder. Nolan seems to figure everything out before the bewildered police inspector, played by William Demarest. The banter between Nolan and Demarest is great. Demarest rolls with the punches, getting conked on the noggin twice, and even getting a chair wrapped around his head. Mary Beth Hughes appears in a subplot as Shayne's fiancée, but their wedding plans keep getting interrupted by Shayne's pursuit of the killer (whose identity did surprise me). Milton Parsons has a juicy part, and Henry Daniell shows a flare for slapstick. Mantan Moreland is hysterical, and I do hope that he laughed all the way to the bank given the roles he was given during his career. Don't think too hard about this one, and you'll have a good time.I have to admit, though, that just once, it would be interesting if the dumb police inspector actually turned out to be the killer. Now that would be a real surprise. And no, I don't think I'm spoiling anything by saying that.

***SPOILERS*** Just when private detective Michael Shayne, new suit and all, was about take his long suffering girlfriend night club singer Joanna La Marr down to city hall to tie the knot things really started jumping. That's when he hears a scream upstairs from his hotel room at the Du Nord and gets himself involved in a double murder of both Broadway producer Louis Lathrop and his lead singer Desiree Vance. Putting the wedding off Shayne soon starts to poke his nose into the crime to the distaste of the man in charge of the murders Inspector Pierson who feels, rightfully so, he's messing up the evidence at the crime scene.Shayne not at all disturbed in what Inspector Pierson feels about him soon uncovers evidence that the two were involved in a reunion of their 1915 hit play "Sweethearts of Paris" who's star in the play Carlo Ralph played the leading role of "Beppo the Dog". Shayne indistinctly feels that somehow Ralph, he doesn't really say why, somehow had something to do with both Lathrop and Vance's murders in finding a dog custom, as a calling card, over Lathrop's dead body. The problem is that Ralph supposedly died in German captivity during WWI back in 1916 some 25 years ago.****SPOILERS Shayne uses all his skills and talents to track down Lathrop and Vance's killer and in the process has the hotel maid Emily found dead in her room from poison that she supposedly took. In a suicide letter Emily states that not only is she former actress Lynne Evens but that she murdered both Lathrop and his lover Desiree Vance for cheating on her. That's because Vance was romantically involved with Lathop who dropped her for Vance when her back was turned! As Shayne soon found out this was all a BS story on the real murderers part who in fact turned out to be the supposed long dead Ralph coming back from the dead or so everyone thought. That's to get his revenge for being chested out of his salary in his leading part as "Beppo the Dog" in the play by Lathop while in German custody. As for Shayne his involvement in the case got his soon to be fiancée Joanne La Marr so mad that she dropped him and went back to her first love Bruce who at least unlike Shayne put her first before anything else!

I sat bolt upright at the end of this movie because it looked as if there was a serious error in the credits. No, I thought, I must be wrong. But I'm not. The movie's streaming on Netflix, so you can see for yourself: 20th Century Fox reversed the names of the two African-American actors who provide some of the brightest points in this bright little movie. They often entertained as a team, and in this movie Mantan Moreland and Ben Carter play two theater janitors who first appear doing a sweet backstage dance sequence with their brooms while Mary Beth Hughes (too little of her in this movie) sings on-stage but off-screen. I loved it that the filmmakers ignored the girl singer for the greater talents of these two hoofers. Their characters are called Rusty and Sam, with the bigger part going to Rusty, who is played by Moreland, the more famous of the two. But in the final credits, the names are reversed with the roles, crediting Ben Carter as Rusty. Inexcusable. I doubt it ever happened to the Marx Brothers, and there were four of them, and they each had goofball names. Yet IMDb has it right in its Cast and Crew listing. I find that impressive.The movie's impressive, too-- a B movie with a ridiculously complicated plot with a lot of theatrics, quick-witted dialog, and sure-footed performances by Lloyd Nolan, William Demarest, Henry Daniell, Moreland and Carter, and Mary Beth Hughes-- of whom, as I said, there was far too little screen time. Far too little of her in movies in general, in fact.

Despite some notable features, this programmer fails to rise above standard detective shows of the time. Nonetheless, the opening scene is a hoot, as a double-breasted Shayne (Nolan) gets harassed by an aggressive clothing salesman. In fact, Nolan's the best thing about the film. His fast-talking brash personality holds a center of attention. I'm just sorry we don't see more of Mary Beth Hughes whose brassy personality is a perfect foil for her meandering fiancée, Shayne. Then there're two exotics from the period—creepy Milton Parsons (Max) in a beard no less, plus snooty Henry Daniell (Julian) getting sympathetic treatment for a change.That initial murder scene remains a grabber. The dog's head plopped onto one of the corpses is like nothing I've seen and shows real imagination. The trouble, for me at least, is that the whodunit part never really gels, despite clever touches with the murder weapon. At the same time, the pacing is uneven, better suited at times to character study than to plot. There's also the standard dumb cop humor, plus Mantan Moreland doing his familiar bug-eyed comedic bit.All in all, it's an unexceptional entry, mainly for fans of Nolan, myself included.