The Complete PRC Michael Shayne Mystery Collection DVD

We have started a Patreon page with the hopes that some of our followers would be willing to donate a small amount to keep DVDBeaver alive. We are a tiny niche, so your generosity is vital to our existence.

We are talking about a minimum of $0.10 - $0.15 a day, perhaps a quarter (or more) to those who won't miss it from their budget. It equates to buying DVDBeaver a coffee once, twice or a few times a month. You can then participate in our monthly Silent auctions, and have exclusive access to many 'bonus' High Resolution screen captures (in lossless PNG Format) - both 4K UHD and Blu-ray (see HERE).

To those that are unfamiliar, Patreon is a secure/verified third-party service where users can agree to a monthly donation via credit card or PayPal by clicking the button below.

Search DVDBeaver

S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

Directed by Sam Newfield / William Beaudine
USA 1946 - 47

Murder Is My Business (1946) Larceny in Her Heart (1946)

Blonde for a Day (1946) Three on a Ticket (1946)

Too Many Winners (1946)

Locked away for decades, all five Michael Shayne films made at PRC Studios are making their DVD debut in this special collection from ClassicFlix! Lloyd Nolan starred as Private Detective Michael Shayne in seven features made at 20th Century-Fox in the early 1940s. After the major studio dropped the series, Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC) brought Brett Halliday's ace crime-solver over to Poverty Row in 1946 for these five fun, action-packed whodunnits starring Hugh Beaumont (Leave it to Beaver) as the famed fictional detective. Whether you're a fan of Brett Halliday, B-mysteries, or Hugh Beaumont, The Complete PRC Michael Shayne Mystery Collection delivers the goods with over five hours of crime-solving excitement that will keep you guessing until the very end. Murder Is My Business (1946, 64 min.) Larceny in Her Heart (1946, 68 min.) Blonde for a Day (1946, 66 min.) Three on a Ticket (1947, 62 min.) Too Many Winners (1947, 60 min.)

Posters

Theatrical Release: June 10th, 1946 - May 24th, 1947

Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews

Review: Classicflix - Region 1 - NTSC

Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Classicflix - Region 1 - NTSC
Runtime	1:03:56 / 1:08:21 / 1:06:36 / 1:01:44 and 0:59:54
Video	1.33:1 Dual-layered DVD Disc Size: 8,219,283, 872 bytes Average Bitrate: 3.22 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate:
Audio	Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps
Subtitles	None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Classicflix 1.33:1 Dual-layered DVD Disc Size: 8,219,283, 872 bytes Average Bitrate: 3.22 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s Edition Details: • Restoration Comparison (2:50) DVD Release Date: November 12th, 2019 Transparent Keep Case

Comments:

ADDITION: Classicflix DVD (April 2020): Classicflix, part of their 'Silver Series", have transferred all five PRC - Producers Releasing Corporation (aka "Poverty Row") Michael Shayne 'B' mysteries. They all star Hugh Beaumont as our milk-drinking 'gumshoe' - to DVD. Thee are cool short detective yarns - each running just over an hour.

Michael "Mike" Shayne is a fictional private detective character created during the late 1930s by writer Brett Halliday, a pseudonym of Davis Dresser. 4-5 years prior to these film releases, Lloyd Nolan played the detective onscreen in the early 40s - and after Hugh Beaumont, both Jeff Chandler and Wally Maher portrayed the detective on radio and Richard Denning on television. The 'pulp' novels were notable for being reproduced with salacious covers:

Back to the 2019 Classicflix DVD release. Unfortunately, packing over 5 hours onto one lone DVD - albeit dual-layered - the image quality suffers. Despite the included supplement indicating some restoration - it is not extensive and there is plenty of light to moderate damage, speckles - and frequent cue-blips throughout the frame (see samples below). 20th Century Fox (2 double-sided-discs) release of The Michael Shayne, Private Detective Collection Vol. 1 (reviewed HERE) is vastly superior in terms of a/v. While this is not at the poor level of, say, Alpha Video levels - it still exhibits some notable weaknesses. Frankly, I wasn't bothered too much - I just wanted to see them - the audio weaknesses are a bit more noticeable - but I also suspect I am spoiled by 1080P Blu-ray and lossless audio.

Classicflix offer no optional subtitles on their Region 1 - NTSC DVD.

The Classicflix DVD offers a brief split-screen restoration comparison video. Meh.

I don't mean to sound too harsh on this DVD - I, honestly enjoyed the five 'B' mystery films although they aren't as 'hard boiled' as one might hope. There is some murder and a significant gunfight. I've always been a big Hugh Beaumont fan (from many Noir supporting roles - The Blue Dahlia, Railroaded, Danger Zone, etc. to the Universal horror The Mole People to Leave it to Beaver). Anyway - now you know what to expect (or not to expect) - less a/v-picky fans of these vintage-era detective 'B' motion pictures might wish to pick this up.