MURDER IS MY BUSINESS (1946)

The rich Mrs. Eleanor Ramsey is stuck in an unhappy marriage with two grown stepchildren who don't like her; her lover Carl has left her for young Dorothy, one of the stepchildren, but is willing to leave the girl alone if Eleanor will pay him off. Now she's getting threatening letters which she suspects are from Carl, but she doesn't want to go to the police for fear of public scandal, so she calls private eye Michael Shayne to investigate. Shayne is smarting from a public spanking (verbal) from police chief Rafferty who uses him as a prime example of the unscrupulous detective, but he takes the job, with some help from his secretary Phyllis. Shayne immediately gets thrown a curve when Mr. Ramsey, in deep financial trouble, asks for Shayne's help to stage a robbery of his wife's jewels so he can get the insurance money on them. Joe, an ex-con pal of Shayne's, gets wind of the plan and, against Shayne's wishes, heads to the Ramsey mansion to pull off the fake robbery. Next morning, both Joe and Eleanor are dead; Mr. Ramsey shot Joe when it appeared he was attacking Eleanor. Rafferty assumes that Joe was working with Shayne and threatens to pin something on Shayne. Meanwhile, two sideline characters, ex-con Duell Renslow, now a night club manager, and Mona, a hostess at the club, become suspects (Duell is revealed as Eleanor's brother) as do the nasty stepkids, Dorothy and Ernest. When Phyllis insists on helping out more directly by working her way into the affections of the slimy playboy Carl (still a suspect), all hell breaks loose until Shayne gathers the suspects in one room for the unmasking of the killer.

Michael Shayne had been played in a series of B-mysteries by stalwart supporting actor Lloyd Nolan. When the series went to Poverty Row studio PRC (Producers Releasing Corporation, not Poverty Row Company, though that name would fit, too), Hugh Beaumont, who had been appearing in mostly uncredited roles in films since 1940, took over for a short run in the role and, though it didn’t raise his profile much in movies, he did go on to fame as the dad in TV's Leave It to Beaver. He doesn't really set Shayne apart from other B-movie detectives, but he is breezy and pleasant, and knows how to take a beating—he gets his ass kicked about four times in the movie but never gives up. The overall tone is light, not noir, and the one hour running time keeps things moving. The supporting cast is undistinguished but not without its high points. Cheryl Walker, who had only a few credited roles in 40s B-movies, retired not long after this, though she's fine as the buttinsky secretary. Well-established character actor Lyle Talbot isn't given enough to do in the red herring role of Eleanor's brother. George Meeker makes Carl nicely slimy, and Julia McMilan and David Reed are promising as the stepchildren but don't get enough screen time to develop their characters beyond their initial impression as unlikeable. Not exactly a buried gem, but I'll probably watch more of these now that they are available on DVD as a set from Classic Flix. [DVD]