This two DVD collection collection collects four of the seven Michael Shayne films: Michael Shayne, Private Detective, The Man Who Wouldn’t Die, Sleepers West, and Blue, White, and Perfect. 

These are the cream of the series. Nolan plays Shayne with loads of light-hearted charm and street smarts. In general, the writing is solid as it avoids the flaws of other films in the series that have since been released as solo stories. The films are detective comedies but do a good job providing a great balance between detective story and comedy.

Each film is based on a different book. However, only one of those was a Michael Shayne book. The other three were from other detective writers. While the films have a light comedic touch to them, each is also influenced by its source material and so each feels a little different.

Michael Shayne, Private Detective is the only one based on an actual Shayne book, and it finds Shayne watching an underage heiress who has a bad gambling habit. Shayne undertakes to keep her safe but quickly finds himself mixed up in a murder.

In The Man Who Couldn’t Die, Shayne goes undercover as a woman’s new husband to help her find out the secret behind strange goings on at her father’s estate. This is an atmospheric “old house” mystery with lots of comic misunderstandings thrown in.

Sleepers West has Shayne transporting a key witness on a train where he runs into an old flame and her fiance, who has a secret. Shayne has to keep the witness safe from the mob and also ensure she makes it to the trial. This one becomes a little more drama than mystery towards the end, but has a positive message and a lovely performance by Nolan.

Finally in Blue, White, and Perfect, Shayne pretends to quit the private detective business for the benefit of his fiancee, but in reality he’s going undercover to investigate the theft of diamonds. However, he’s fired from the job after a complaint is lodged against him by the perpetrators (who he can’t prove are guilty), so he does the only sensible thing he can: tricks his fiancee into giving him a thousand dollars so he can book passage on a boat to Hawaii and follow the crooks across the sea,  intending to capture the crooks, claim the reward, and pay her back. This film is enjoyable, particularly for featuring future Superman star George Reeves as a Spanish/Irish mystery passenger, but it is probably a little too convoluted for its own good.

It’s worth nothing that the films all seem to have an obsession with Shayne being Irish, with the theme being an Irish jig and Shayne whistling Irish songs.

Beyond that, the films are incredibly entertaining. The DVD boxset contains a nice booklet, and the CDs are in two slip cases, each with gorgeous artwork related to the films. In addition, there are four mini-documentaries about the Michael Shayne books and movies that make for great viewing for the true mystery fan.

Compared to other mystery box sets, the current $9.99 price on this set is dirt cheap. The reason for the price is that 20th Century Fox packaged the set as a double-sided DVD which is generally a cheap option. That’s ironic because everything else in the set is quite exquisitely done. However, the result of this is that this is a great bargain for fans of classic mystery movies.

Rating: 4.25 out of 5.0

This DVD  is available as a thank you gift for our listener support campaign with a donation of $50 or more through Sunday, March 7, 2016.

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