Product Description

Disc 1 Side A: MICHAEL SHAYNE, PRIVATE DETECTIVE (1942) Disc 1 Side B: THE MAN WHO WOULDN'T DIE (1942) Disc 2 Side A: SLEEPERS WEST (1941) Disc 2 Side B: BLUE, WHITE, & PERFECT (1942)

**Plus Featurettes **Packaging designed by Michael Shayne and artist Robert McGinnis

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30769 in DVD
• Brand: TCFHE
• Released on: 2007-03-20
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .40 pounds
• Running time: 278 minutes

Amazon.com
This very welcome box set turns up the heat on one of detective films' cold cases. Created by Brett Halliday, Michael Shayne appeared in 31 books between the 1940s and '70s. He is not as popularly known as other screen shamuses, but he's good company. As portrayed by Lloyd Nolan (best known as curmudgeonly Dr. Chegley on the groundbreaking sitcom Julia), Shayne is not as hard-boiled as Sam Spade or as sage as Charlie Chan. But, as one shady character observes to someone whom Shayne has just pasted, "You know better than to mix with Shayne." He's a working-class mug ("His office is in his hat, his home is in his car," he remarks), usually "down on his luck" and short on cash. As Michael Shayne, Private Detective (1940) opens, the furniture from his office is being repossessed. Still, Shayne has ethics enough to turn down $5,000 for a suspicious-sounding case. ("$5,000 will buy a lot of ethics," he's told). He's got some odd habits, from twirling his keychain to singing the odd Irish ditty. In each film, Shayne manages to get himself into some "screwy scrapes." In Private Detective, a "gag" backfires when an attempt to scare a gambling heiress straight results in a murder with Shayne's gun at the scene of the crime. In The Man Who Wouldn't Die (1942), Shayne pretends to be a wealthy woman's husband to get the lowdown on a body that won't stay buried. In Sleepers West (1941), he's on the right track when he accompanies a murder witness by train to San Francisco. Blue, White and Perfect (1942) is a real gem that finds Shayne embroiled in wartime espionage, smuggled diamonds and dodging his jealous, matrimonial-minded girlfriend.

These lively B-films each clock in at less than 80 minutes. What they lack in budget they more than make up for in shadow-drenched, dark, and stormy atmosphere, Shayne's moxie and inestimable support from some great character actors, such as Clarence Kolb (the crooked mayor in His Girl Friday) and Douglass Dumbrille (the nasty racetrack owner in A Day at the Races), who appear in Private Detective. For a collection of obscure films, this box set has all the trimmings, with three original featurettes that provide efficient primers on Halliday, Shayne, and Robert McGinnis, the artist who created luscious and lurid covers for the Shayne paperbacks. There is also an interactive trivia guide that makes the six-degrees connections between cast members and the film-noir world. This is volume 1, to which we can only say, "Come back, Shayne." --Donald Liebenson

Customer Reviews

A great hardboiled series
This series of movies was a contemporary of the Chan and Moto films. This is a reliable set of B movies with good writing and lots of good characters. One distinguishing feature of these films comes from the writing. While the character and first feature are based on the stories of Brett Halliday, many of the films were based on or written by some of the best pulp writers of the day. Good workmanship is apparent in all these films. Lloyd Nolan does a very credible job as the lead. True, he may not be Humphrey Bogart, but is very watchable nonetheless. If you like a good, quick mystery or a fan of Chan or Moto, get this set. You will not be disappointed.

What a great surprise!
First off, I must warn you that I've only rented disc 1 of this, but I would guess that the second disc isn't going to be a drastic change in quality, so I'm going to comment now since I'm full of enthusiasm.

I checked MICHAEL SHAYNE out because I've been enjoying the Mr. Moto movies that Fox has been reissuing. Like the Moto movies, Fox has done a great restoration and remastering job on these. But the real appeal is the movies -- full of humor, snappy dialogue, and solid performances, this is truly a superior B-movie mystery series.

Lloyd Nolan plays Shayne as a smart-aleck, with an insanely acute sense of comic timing, especially with his throwaway one-liners. But Shayne also portrays an intelligence that you get the sense that he's just playing the fool so that you don't notice how far ahead of the game he is. (In fact, the mysteries always seem to have bewilderingly convoluted solutions that might leave you scratching your head during the end credits.)

A real fun set of pulp pictures.

Lloyd Nolan excels as the cocky, tough...and funny...private eye, Michael Shayne
"With your nerve, I'd hate to have a tooth pulled!" That's Phyllis Brighton speaking indignantly to Mike Shayne (Lloyd Nolan) in the movie Michael Shayne, Private Detective. Mike has just intervened to keep her from betting a bundle she can't afford on a possibly rigged horse race. It doesn't help minutes later when the nag wins.

Lloyd Nolan was one of those first-rate actors who had plenty of charm, energy and charisma, with confidence to spare. He always came across as smarter than he might seem, whether he played good guys or, more often, tough good guys. He had a long career and was 83 in his last movie, Hannah and Her Sisters. He is one of the best things about that fine movie. Michael Shayne, Private Detective was the first of seven Shayne movies Nolan starred in. He crammed them all in a three year contract period. They're all comedy-mysteries, all B movies, made quickly on tight budgets by journeymen, then shot out for quick play on the lower half of double bills across America. Four of these movies are in Michael Shayne Mysteries - Volume I. Nolan gives us a character who is tough, resourceful and cocky. He's usually good natured and usually impertinent. He runs rings around the cops, who are usually portrayed as dunderheads. He's attractive to the the ladies but always manages to escape a wedding ring.

----In Michael Shayne, Private Detective, the script has Shayne deal with fixed horse races, gambling debts, sleazy opportunists and a strong-willed young woman. Besides Nolan, it's always good to see Douglas Dumbrille (as a confident crook), Walter Abel (as a weak crook) and Elisabeth Patterson (as a crime-loving aunt).

----The Man Who Wouldn't Die has the old dark house cliche down pat. Mike Shayne is called upon to pretend to be the new husband of the daughter of a wealthy businessman. The man has a lush, young wife, an obsequious male secretary, an older and discrete butler and a live-in, tall and handsome doctor/scientist. Most of all, the man has a huge, isolated mansion with lots of corridors and rooms. And at night, the shadows are dark, the grounds are scary, a murderer creeps about and a buried corpse has trouble staying buried. It's always fun to see Olin Howland do his gullible hayseed routine, this time as Police Chief Meek.

----For the first 40 minutes of Sleepers West 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 scoop of frosting who enjoys a drink, has lazy eyes and lips as plump as a grouper's. 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. 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 was never able to break out of the B's.

----Blue, White and Perfect 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, industrial diamonds, murder and a nice near-drowning in a flooding ship's compartment. The story is as complicated as the other three were, but it holds up for the length of the movie. The ruthless Mr. Big is cleverly disguised until the end. 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. They're all in leading roles and never play the same characters twice. 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.

All four movies in the package have excellent DVD transfers, crisp and clear. There are some extras on each disc which I didn't sample.