MICHAEL SHAYNE, PRIVATE DETECTIVE (1940)

Phyllis Brighton, headstrong daughter of horseracing official Hiram, is losing too much family money on racetrack betting, so Hiram hires out of work private eye Michael Shayne (Lloyd Nolan) to keep her out of trouble. When she tries to bet on Banjo Boy, a horse owned by Elliott Thomas whose odds are 15 to 1, Shayne stops the bet, but when the horse wins, Phyllis is pretty pissed off. Dad finds out that Phyllis was relying on a tip from shady character Harry Grange. (In a convoluted plotline, it turns out there are two Banjo Boys with similar markings; the winning horse was doped up, but the drug test is done on the real horse who didn’t actually run.) With Hiram leaving town, Shayne moves into the family mansion to keep a closer eye on Phyllis. He discovers that she has switched to casino gambling, encouraged by Grange. (In another convoluted plotline, a man named Kincaid tries to hire Shayne to get money out of Grange.) In a plan to keep Phyllis away from Grange, Shayne spikes Grange's drink, then spills ketchup on his passed-out body to make it look like he was shot dead. But the next day, it's discovered that Grange actually is dead with Shayne's gun left nearby. Police chief Painter arrests Shayne but he wriggles out of it and Phyllis, a bit spooked by all this, agrees to help Shayne find the real killer, in addition to investigating the horse race shenanigans of Thomas. Like many a B-mystery, this storyline gets unnecessarily complicated so I quit worrying about following it. The climax involves getting everyone to Thomas's house where suspicions are confirmed and an arrest is made. A breezy performance by Lloyd Nolan is the main reason to watch this movie, the first in a series of Michael Shayne movies (based on books by Brett Halliday). Nolan appeared in several, and when the series went from Fox to a Poverty Rio studio, Hugh Beaumont took over. There was nothing special about the Shayne character; he was just your standard-issue detective trying to stay in business and get through his cases with wisecracks and some mild romancing. But Nolan is charming and amusing and, despite the silly plot contrivances, makes it worth your time to stay until the end. The supporting cast is also quite good. Perennial supporting character old lady Elizabeth Patterson is very funny as a fan of detective novels who tries to help Shayne out—she thinks it’s "just wonderful" to confront a real murder. Other standouts include Walter Abel as Thomas, Douglas Dumbrille as the casino owner, Donald MacBride as the police chief, George Meeker as Grange, and Clarence Kolb as Hiram. Marjorie Weaver (pictured with Nolan) is OK as Phyllis. Not a must see, though I'll probably catch a couple of the Nolan entries in the future. [DVD]