Come Back, Shayne!

Remember how much I liked that Michael Shayne movie with Lloyd Nolan? Well, there are at least four more: Michael Shayne: Collection 1 - 2 double-sided discs, 2 movies each.

I'm not going to go over the movies in the set - they aren't exactly interchangeable, but they share a strong family resemblance. In every movie:

• Shayne is broke and trying to get married
• The mystery is in the "classic" style, with clues, twists, fake alibis, etc.
• Shayne is no Sherlock Holmes, being just barely smart enough to beat the crooks
• Shayne does something outrageous, like swindling his fiancee out of a thousand dollars to chase a beautiful female crook to Hawai'i

Hey, that Hawai'i interlude is great - from Blue, White and Perfect. At least some of the cast is actually Hawai'ian, including a cop who loses a couple nickles from Shane in a card game.

There's a lot of wise cracking, which Nolan is great at, and the action is as snappy as the patter. This isn't the Thin Man series, but it isn't far off. 

In conclusion, one of the sides of one of the discs wouldn't play for us. And there doesn't seem to be any Collection 2. But I want to see more of these!