mark.waltz It was on a dark stormy night when a wealthy man and his second wife played witness to the bearing of a body. The interruption of his daughter with the news that she has just married brings more problems to her family. Along comes Lloyd Nolan as her old pal, Detective Michael Shayne, who pretends to be her husband, and of course, he finds himself become involves with the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the corpse.A delightfully fast moving mystery with both supernatural and comic elements, this is one of the better B mysteries of the golden age of B movies. Nolan gets lots of opportunity to display his knack for street smarts and wisecracks. Paul Harvey is also very good as the wealthy political bigwig with scandal breathing down his neck as well as an obvious opportunistic wife and incorrigible daughter who has given him nothing but trouble. There's also a dumb private detective who needs some education from Shayne as to how to handle such complicated cases. This is truly enjoyable with a great conclusion that isn't quite a surprise but handled quite nicely.

Eric B I ended up catching this on the Movies!network-the digital TV channel broad-casted by a lot of fox affiliates. I thought it was a fun movie. Lloyd Nolan was great. I knew him more from his character bits on TV in the 1970s. I really enjoyed him in the McCloud episode of the western cowboys that rob an armored car. This movie had a nice mix between comedy and a nice if not ground breaking mystery story. Great chemistry between Nolan and his costar. I had not seen others in this series but would not mind checking it out. The style reminds a little of the Thin Man series or some of the better written Abbott and Costello movies (I always liked their two mystery type movies Who Done It and Meet The Killer Boris Karloff).

reve-2 Any movie from the Michael Shayne Detective series can be counted on to deliver an enjoyable mystery story. In this film Lloyd Nolan once again delivers a good performance as he works to solve a murder which took place at the estate of a wealthy US Senator. Everything wraps-up neatly in about 65 minutes which means that there is no wasted time with boring sub plots or long talky scenes ala todays' crop of over hyped and over long releases. A good supporting cast helps Nolan turn this into a fine stylish film. Olin Howlin does a great job and provides just the right amount of restrained comic relief as the police chief. Enjoy

Norm-30 This mystery has everything: dead bodies that won't stay buried, a weird laboratory, an old house during a thunderstorm, and a "phantom" (with "glowing" eyes) that appears in the house and attempts to kill someone!The hero & heroine add both a comedic and suspenseful touch to the entire proceedings. This film is difficult to find, but I highly recommend it!