Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

It's one of those inexpensive B features that were ground out by the studios to accompany their major releases. The direction and editing, by studio hacks you never heard of, rush the pace so there's never a dull second as brash Lloyd Nolan, as Private Investigator Mike Shayne, unravels a somewhat complicated plot involving blackmail, murder, and a magician's act.The plot is almost dispensable. It opens with a dark and stormy night and a body being buried hurriedly in somebody's back yard. The central figures are Marjorie Weaver, who is petite, sassy, and cute. She hires Nolan to find out why someone took a shot at her in the dark bedroom of her father's country mansion. It HAS to be a mansion because there's so much rushing about from room to room that you could hardly place the story in a mobile home.I rather like Lloyd Nolan. He sounds a lot like a New Yorker but was born in a San Francisco neighborhood populated with immigrants from New York City. His features are those of everyman. They have all the interest of a hard-boiled egg, yet they're reassuring. Lloyd Nolan -- movie star. Why, he's a beacon for all of us.The Michael Shayne movies were a series similar to many others. If it wasn't Mike Shayne it was The Falcon. They were all unpretentious time fillers and kept the kids involved through sheer mindlessness. The Shayne series would occasionally come up with some bon mots and they'd be done effortlessly. In one of them, a dead body is found strangled with piano wire, it's head under the pedals. "Oh, suicide, eh?" Here, a butler is "as quiet as a moose." And someone wasn't really eavesdropping, he just happened to be passing by and got his ear caught on the door knob.If you're not in search of a challenge, this is a satisfying flick.

Detective Shayne helps out an old girlfriend, following some mysterious happenings at her family mansion.That Gothic opening is a real grabber. So what's going on with guys that are digging a nighttime grave in the middle of a storm with a sinister mansion in the background. It takes the rest of the 60-minutes to find out. Speaking of spooky effects, there're also the two glowing eyes in the dark looming over an hysterical Cathy (Weaver). No wonder she screams bloody murder.But these creepy effects, along with the ever-reliable Lloyd Nolan as Shayne are probably the best parts of a sometimes murky narrative. The whodunit part is treated rather casually; at the same time, maybe you can figure out the solution-- I got lost. But that's okay, because the Shayne series depended more on characters than mystery. Here, Nolan and Weaver spark the proceedings with some lively dialog, including some surprisingly suggestive bedroom banter. Include Olin Howland as the addled hayseed sheriff, plus an ambulatory corpse, and it all adds up to an entertaining, if unexceptional, series entry.

Lloyd Nolan is Michael Shayne, private detective in "The Man Who Wouldn't Die," a 1942 entry into this short series from Twentieth Century Fox.A friend of Mike's, Catherine (Marjorie Weaver) gets him to pose as her husband while investigating a shooting at her family home. Her father (Paul Harvey) is in government and under investigation by the Senate, and one night, Anna is shot at. Mike finds plenty to investigate. He also has plenty to explain when Catherine's real husband shows up unexpectedly.There's lots of humor and "dark stormy night" atmosphere in this neat programmer, which also features Henry Wilcoxon and Helen Reynolds as Anna, Catherine's stepmother.Nolan is a delight as a singing, happy but very clever Shayne. I'm surprised that Marjorie Weaver didn't get further in her career, though by all accounts, she loved the career she had - she's very pretty and vivacious.Very enjoyable.

What a great old film. I am lucky enough to have found over the years a mint 16mm sound print an a very good vhs copy (Captain Bejoiu). The story starts out with a very mysterious burial scene on a cold windy nite. There is the "Old Forboding Mansion" and the usual cast of 20th Century stock players including Paul Harvey who is great as Dudly Wolfe. But as usual, Lloyd Nolan steals the show as Shayne with his whimsical irish humor and dapper acting. Marge Reynolds is great as his wife? With the reoccuring thunder storm as a backdrop and the "undead" body with glowing eyes trying to kill any and everyone in the house, it makes for a spine-tingling murder mystery that is as good as most of the sad new ones w/o the sex and overdone violence. 1942 appears to be one of the best years for movies in Hollywood. So many great features with outstanding character actors of the time. LeRoy Mason is great as the "undead" killer who stocks the remaining frightened guests and family at the Wolfe Mansion. If it shows up on Fox Movie Channel, do yourself a favor and watch it!