Tue 31 Jul 2018
A MIKE SHAYNE PI Movie Review: BLUE, WHITE AND PERFECT (1942).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[9] Comments
BLUE, WHITE AND PERFECT. 20th Century Fox, 1942). Lloyd Nolan (Michael Shayne), Mary Beth Hughes, Helene Reynolds, George Reeves. Based on a serialized story by Borden Chase (Argosy, 18 Sept-23 Oct, 1937; reprinted in book form as Diamonds of Death [Hart, paperback, 1947] and reviewed here ). Director: Herbert I. Leeds.
Blue, White and Perfect is the fourth of seven Mike Shayne movies made by 20th Century Fox in the early 40s, all starring Lloyd Nolan as author Brett Halliday’s famed private eye, Michael Shayne. As far as I know, I’m the only one who doesn’t care for any of them, although certainly some are better than others.
This, I think, is one of the others, but the reason I don’t particularly like any of them is that Lloyd Nolan, with his brash New York accent — not to mention the comedy aspects of the films — comes nowhere near the image of Mike Shayne I have in my mind. If the films had been made with a totally different fictional character’s name to them, I might like them more.
The Mike Shayne stories in the books and magazine were at least medium-boiled. The Lloyd Nolan movies were comedies, as far as I’m concerned, with lots of humorous banter between the characters, with hints of actual detective work breaking out only every once in a while. In this one, facing an ultimatum from his steady girl friend (Mary Beth Hughes), Shayne gives up his job as PI and takes a job as a riveter at a defense plant. Secretly, of course, he’s hired as a security expert.
And wouldn’t you know it, his first day on the job and a sizable amount of industrial diamonds is stolen. The trail leads Shayne to several stores, business establishments and other locales all around Los Angeles, and I have to admit the story really does along in very fine fashion.
All of sudden, though, about halfway through, the scene shifts to one aboard ship, bringing in two brand new characters: a glamorous girl (Helene Reynolds) Shayne knows from before, and a shady-looking fellow named Juan Arturo O’Hara (George Reeves) whom Shayne decides to keep close eyes on.
And instead of zipping along, the story stops almost dead in its tracks, the action limited to only what take place in cramped hallways, decks and the stairs connecting them. Only the occasional shots (not) ringing out liven things up (a silencer is used). Nor are there any surprises detective story wise, either. I’ll give the first half a B, but the second half? No more than a D.
July 31st, 2018 at 10:22 pm
Nolan’s Shayne is Nolan and not Shayne, but I have to say I find this one of the best series of the era with, ironically, the only weak entry the first one actually based on a Halliday book.
And look at the material they adapted, you can tell someone thought these were worthwhile; CLayton Rawson, Borden CHase, Fred Nebel, Richard Burke, and Raymond Chandler (the best film version of THE HIGH WINDOW).
Nolan’s wisecracking fast talking and thinking Shayne is true enough to the Halliday character who may be bigger and tougher, but is equally unbothered by the technicalities of the law.
Honestly I didn’t think Mark Stevens, Hugh Beaumont, or Richard Denning were anything like the character Dressler claimed was based on a tough Texas based private eye he met in a bar. Physically I always saw Dennis O’Keefe as Shayne circa films like T-MEN and WALK A CROOKED MILE.
I grant the films depend on your tolerance for Lloyd Nolan, but mine is quite high as he is one of my favorite character actors, that rarity, an actor who never made a movie worse for being in it.
I particularly like this one for the by play between Nolan and Reeves, both seeming to enjoy the tongue-in-cheek approach.
DRESSED TO KILL, THE MAN WHO WOULDN’T DIE, and TIME TO KILL (THE HIGH WINDOW) are probably the best of the series with SLEEPER’S WEST a close runner up.
July 31st, 2018 at 10:47 pm
I know that everyone likes these Nolan-Shayne movies more than I do, but they rub me the wrong way from the get-go, and I don’t even get to enjoy the good parts.
My idea of a good Mike Shayne is Kenneth Tobey.
July 31st, 2018 at 10:40 pm
David,
Dennis O’Keefe is Michael Shayne. And Lloyd Nolan was a great actor. I saw him in The Caine Mutiny Court Martial with Frank Lovejoy and Maryk and Barry Sullivan playing Barney Greenwald. All were good, but Sullivan outstanding and Nolan beat Bogart by several lengths. As for the Michael Shayne films, and I have seen them all, but once was enough. I tried a second go-round, and came up empty.
July 31st, 2018 at 10:48 pm
Dennis O’Keefe works for me as Choice #2.
July 31st, 2018 at 11:03 pm
I like Ken Tobey too.
August 1st, 2018 at 9:25 am
I’ll confess I Never read a Mike Shayne novel, though the covers often tempted me. I can watch the Mike Shayne movies, but they don’t often click with me because, as others have noted, they emphasize comedy, and it’s hard to do comedy on a low budget.
August 1st, 2018 at 9:44 am
I like the Michael Shayne films just fine, having seen them as a kid before I’d read any of the novels.
I also like the other Fox “B” adapted from one of Chase’s Smooth Kyle stories, MIDNIGHT TAXI (1937). Nice, snappy little picture.
August 1st, 2018 at 8:08 pm
Re the Shayne series Nolan did, they were made by Fox and fairly expensive for B programmers. And historically they are important because this is the first series of films about a hard boiled private eye not counting Nick Charles. Most of the tropes we associate with the private eye first appeared in the Shayne films and not the various versions of THE MALTESE FALCON, and the films followed the screwball school of writers like Latimer, Adams, Steel, and Rice.
Jon Tuska and William Everson both have nice things to say about the Shayne series in their books on detective film as does Bob Thomas in his excellent book of B movies.
I find the comedy in the series refreshing because the writing is good and the wisecracks for once wise. I’m not tryng to convince anyone, but for me the films work even if they aren’t Shayne. Also THE MAN WHO WOULDN”T DIE features the only actual appearance of Clayton Rawson’s the Great Merlini in a book adapted from his series.
Also TIME TO KILL is an excellent adaptation of THE HIGH WINDOW, certainly better than John Brahm’s THE BRASHER DOUBLOON with George Montgomery.
The Tobey Shayne sounds ideal, O’Keefe only edges him out because he is a big guy the way the character is described. Either face could be the model for the Robert Stanley and McGinnis Shayne portraits on the Dell paperbacks and both have the toughness and wry sense of humor I associate with the mercenary Shayne of the books.
December 14th, 2023 at 1:10 pm
I’ve just realized there’s another actor I’d have enjoyed seeing cast as Shayne:
Paul Kelly
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Kelly_(actor)
A seasoned actor with a hefty filmography. He was a tall, rangy Irishman with a lantern jaw, pug nose, devilish grin, and thick shock of hair (unfortunately, not red).
I saw him in some romp where he either played the city-desk editor of a New York newspaper, or else he played one of the reporters. James Gleason was paired with him somehow; they made a superb team. A couple of streetwise, fast-talking smartguys, for sure.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Gleason
Kelly knew how to carry himself in real life; knew how to use his dukes. And he has the ‘impulsive streak’ found in the Shayne character.
If swapped in for Lloyd Nolan, might’ve really been sumptin’ quite interessin’