Starring Lloyd Nolan, Lynn Bari, Mary Beth Hughes, Louis Jean Heydt, Edward Brophy
Directed by Eugene Forde
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)
Detective Michael Shayne meets a reporter and former old flame on a train to San Francisco, and tries to conceal the surprise witness he's escorting back on the same train from her.
Rather surprisingly this entry in the Michael Shayne series of films isn't based on a novel by the character's creator, Brett Halliday, but one by Frederick Nebel, which the studio clearly refashioned to be a Shayne vehicle. It's not a bad story, but is somewhat atypical for the series as there is no real mystery, and this is more a straight thriller, albeit with a good deal of comedy worked in. I thought it was well-directed and photographed, with plenty of notable actors in the cast. Strangely though a subplot in which Hughes and Heydt make plans to elope seems a bit tacked on and distracting from the rest of the narrative. Nevertheless it's still a charming picture.
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