Blonde for a Day

 

Michael Shayne--the hardboiled private detective created by Brett Halliday (Davis Dresser) had a lively film career. He was played by Lloyd Nolan in a series produced by 20th Century Fox--seven movies made from 1940 to 1942. It was their attempt to set up a B-production line to compete with series such as The Saint and The Falcon. These were often based on non-Shayne novels (including Chandler's The High Window) because the studio had paid for the rights to the name and basic setup of the character--not any of the individual novels. So they pulled out novels they already owned film rights for and stuck Shayne's name on the main character. 

Then Shayne moved to PRC, one of the Poverty Row outfits. Oddly, they did retain the rights to several of Halliday's novels. There were five films--two loosely based on stories by Halliday (though one of those is based on a non-Shayne tale) and three with original screenplays--produced in 1946 and 1947.

The Nolan movies are a ton of fun. And I've just watched one of the PRC films for the first time. PRC's Shayne was played by Hugh Beaumont and 1946's Blonde for the Day is the third of the five. So I can now say that the PRC Shayne is also a ton of fun. This is, by the way, one of the movies using an original screenplay.

It's always neat seeing someone play a part so different from what they would become famous for--in this case, Beaver's dad Ward Cleaver is a tough P.I. who clearly enjoys being one step ahead of the homicide detective, making fun of the poor guy whenever he can. It's the sort of behavoir that would have gotten him a good talking too from Ward.

In this case, he's looking into the attempted murder of a reporter friend. That friend had been looking into a gambling ring and a series of murders linked to the gamblers. Superficially, that seems to point towards the gamblers as the main suspects. But there's also at least three different unidentified blonde women involved in the case and someone is also being blackmailed.

Shayne and his secretary/girlfriend Phyllis look into things and Shayne gradually evolves a plan to lure some of the bad guys into a trap and find the clues necessary to nail the killer.

Phyllis is played by Kathryn Adams--Beaumont's real-life wife. Her schtick about getting jealous whenever another woman comes within five feet of Shayne gets old, but she is otherwise a clever lady who does her share in helping Shayne and--it turns out--has a wicked right cross.

Blonde for the Day makes me want to watch the other PRC Shayne movies. This one, at least, really is a ton of fun.