Sadly Over-hyped

I'll tell you why so serious

Best movie ever!

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

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!

Detective Michael Shayne (Lloyd Nolan) and his girlfriend Joanne (Mary Beth Hughes) are on their way to be married when a scream from a nearby hotel room draws his attention to a pair of theatrical murders.This was the fourth in a series of Michael Shayne detective films. The first seven were made by 20th Century Fox and starred Lloyd Nolan. The final five were made by Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC) and starred Hugh Beaumont. There were also three radio shows (1944–1953) and a television series (1960–1961) based on the Michael Shayne character.Interesting racial stereotypes, with Otto Han as a Japanese servant with poor English skills and the humorous Mantan Moreland (who was in "King of the Zombies" this same year).

Lloyd Nolan's Michael Shayne is a refreshingly human private detective, jumping to wrong conclusions and once not even being able to say his own name correctly (you'll see why). The two policemen assigned to the case are delightfully dense.Shayne is within hours of being married when he and his bride-to-be hear a scream that he investigates. He has to spend the rest of the movie not only attempting to solve the crime but placating and putting off his impatient fiancée. Secret passageways and trapdoors, people who have changed their identities, magicians' sleight of hand, and a hilarious singing-telegram scene add to the tasty mix.I really enjoyed this and found the humor a welcome addition to the murder investigation.