TV Review: Michael Shayne

TV Review: Michael Shayne

Michael Shayne is a private detective who works out of Miami.  He was created in 1939 by Brett Halliday (pen name of David Dresser) for the novel Dividend On Death.  He went on to star in a long-running book series (the later ones produced under the Halliday house name by other authors), several movies,  a radio show, and the television series in 1960.

In the TV series, Mr. Shayne (Richard Denning) is a bit older (he’s a widower) but still in fine physical shape.  He has a close (but not too close) relationship with his secretary Lucy Hamilton (played in the episodes I have by Patricia Donohue.)  Unofficial assistants of Mr. Shayne are Tim Rourke (Jerry Paris), a newspaper reporter who exclusively covered Shayne, and Lucy’s college-aged brother Dick Hamilton (Gary Clarke) who was invented for the show.

Mr. Shayne’s contact on the police force  is Lieutenant Will Gentry, who usually backs Shayne all the way, but is quick to turn on him when things look bad.  (He’s an amalgam of the books’ Gentry, and a more hostile cop who showed up sometimes.

I watched three of the hour-long episodes.

“Shoot the Works” has Michael Shayne called into the case by one of Lucy’s friends, whose husband was found shot dead, but packed for a trip to France with two tickets.  Also, $100,000 in bonds is missing.  Was the murder due to the deceased cheating on his wife, or was it purely for monetary gain?  Dick gets to show off his talent with the bongos, not that anyone else in the cast is appreciative.   Content warning for spousal abuse.

“Murder and the Wanton Bride”  features a client who dies with no identification except a matchbook with an appointment with Michael Shayne–that neither Michael nor Lucy knows anything about!   The trail leads to a health spa, and Lucy must go undercover to help discover just what’s actually going on there.  It’s a tangled web, helped not at all by a conniving woman (Beverly Garland) who’s manipulating everyone around her.

“Murder in Wonderland” has an accountant murdered in a cigar store while telephoning Michael Shayne.  He works for the mob, and supposedly was carrying a coded list of illegal business contacts, but all that’s found in the man’s briefcase is a copy of Alice in Wonderland.   While the police try to figure out how the code is concealed, Lucy is kidnapped in an effort to force Mr. Shayne to steal the book for an unknown person.  The accountant’s daughter seems very bitter and hostile, does she have something to do with his death?  Or is an even younger girl the real key?

The hour format allows these episodes to actually have a little mystery in them, with twists and turns.  The cast is good, even if some of the attitudes are dated.  This is some fine television viewing for the private detective fan.