Time to Kill

The seventh in Fox's B series starring Lloyd Nolan as Brett Halliday's private eye Mike Shayne. Tough, wisecracking and down-at-heel (the opening shot displays large holes in his shoes as he answers the phone with his feet on the desk), Shayne is hired by a venomous old battleaxe (Griffies) to retrieve a stolen doubloon (and a matching shot shows he's collected his advance: the shoes have been soled). Three murders later, the plot has become distinctly déjà vu; that's because it's borrowed intact from Chandler's The Brasher Doubloon. Cheap and cheerful, this lacks the fine Gothic atmospherics John Brahm brought to his version four years later, but it does have pace, wit, and an excellent performance from Nolan (he'd have made a fine Philip Marlowe).