Artivels Undescribable Perfection

Colibel Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Noutions Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

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).

gridoon2018 An intriguing and surprising mystery, an exciting car chase, a killer whose eyes glow in the dark, a pretty leading lady, a great femme fatale (I cannot understand why Helene Reynolds did not have a better career - maybe it was her own choice to retire early?), and some well-placed bits of comedy (like Michael Shayne stalling for a moment to see if any more beautiful showgirls will run in front of him, of the butler giving an irritated look when the door bell rudely interrupts his eavesdropping!) make "The Man Who Wouldn't Die" (great and appropriate title for this movie, by the way) one of the best entries in the "Michael Shayne" series - for me, it's between this one and "Blue, White And Perfect" for the top spot on the list of the first five films at least. **1/2 out of 4.

Robert J. Maxwell It's one of those inexpensive B features that were ground out by the studios to accompany their major releases. The direction and editing, by studio hacks you never heard of, rush the pace so there's never a dull second as brash Lloyd Nolan, as Private Investigator Mike Shayne, unravels a somewhat complicated plot involving blackmail, murder, and a magician's act.The plot is almost dispensable. It opens with a dark and stormy night and a body being buried hurriedly in somebody's back yard. The central figures are Marjorie Weaver, who is petite, sassy, and cute. She hires Nolan to find out why someone took a shot at her in the dark bedroom of her father's country mansion. It HAS to be a mansion because there's so much rushing about from room to room that you could hardly place the story in a mobile home.I rather like Lloyd Nolan. He sounds a lot like a New Yorker but was born in a San Francisco neighborhood populated with immigrants from New York City. His features are those of everyman. They have all the interest of a hard-boiled egg, yet they're reassuring. Lloyd Nolan -- movie star. Why, he's a beacon for all of us.The Michael Shayne movies were a series similar to many others. If it wasn't Mike Shayne it was The Falcon. They were all unpretentious time fillers and kept the kids involved through sheer mindlessness. The Shayne series would occasionally come up with some bon mots and they'd be done effortlessly. In one of them, a dead body is found strangled with piano wire, it's head under the pedals. "Oh, suicide, eh?" Here, a butler is "as quiet as a moose." And someone wasn't really eavesdropping, he just happened to be passing by and got his ear caught on the door knob.If you're not in search of a challenge, this is a satisfying flick.

dougdoepke Detective Shayne helps out an old girlfriend, following some mysterious happenings at her family mansion.That Gothic opening is a real grabber. So what's going on with guys that are digging a nighttime grave in the middle of a storm with a sinister mansion in the background. It takes the rest of the 60-minutes to find out. Speaking of spooky effects, there're also the two glowing eyes in the dark looming over an hysterical Cathy (Weaver). No wonder she screams bloody murder.But these creepy effects, along with the ever-reliable Lloyd Nolan as Shayne are probably the best parts of a sometimes murky narrative. The whodunit part is treated rather casually; at the same time, maybe you can figure out the solution-- I got lost. But that's okay, because the Shayne series depended more on characters than mystery. Here, Nolan and Weaver spark the proceedings with some lively dialog, including some surprisingly suggestive bedroom banter. Include Olin Howland as the addled hayseed sheriff, plus an ambulatory corpse, and it all adds up to an entertaining, if unexceptional, series entry.