Time to Kill (1942) User Reviews

Slightly disappointing Michael Shayne/Raymond Chandler movie

[XhcnoirX · 6/10 · 25 November 2016]

Lloyd 'Michael Shayne' Nolan is hired by Ethel Griffies to retrieve a valuable coin for her, the Brasher Doubloon, which she is convinced was stolen by chorus girl Doris Merrick, who is also involved with her son James Seay. What starts out as a routine assignment quickly becomes a puzzle for Nolan as he finds the coin, but then Griffies informs him she also found it back in her personal belongings! Something is not right, and it includes murder, blackmail, Griffies' fidgety secretary Heather Angel and a seemingly inconspicuous photo taken years earlier...

Even tho this is a Michael Shayne movie, it's the first screen adaptation of Raymond Chandler's novel 'The High Window', which would be remade a few years later as 'The Brasher Doubloon' starring George Montgomery as Philip Marlowe. The plot is a maze, twisting and turning non-stop in its 60-minute runtime, as the always wise-cracking Nolan ('Lady In The Lake') goes from one clue/red herring to the next. You really need to pay attention or you'll miss things. This was the last of the Shayne movies starring Nolan and it does feel a bit rushed and less fun compared to the other ones. Having said that, it's still got its moments, and Nolan is always a blast as Shayne. But part of what made Nolan's Shayne movies so much fun was the continuous back&forth witty banter between him and the leading ladies (Mary Beth Hughes, Lynn Bari, Marjorie Weaver)... And this movie really lacks it as Angel's ('Lifeboat') character is nothing of the sort, and tough cookie Merrick ('Sensation Hunters') doesn't have quite enough screen time.

Director Herbert Leeds had already directed a few Shayne movies like 'The Man Who Wouldn't Die' so he knew how to direct these quick 'blink or you'll miss a clue' mysteries. DoP Charles G. Clarke ('Moontide', 'Violent Saturday') does a decent if unremarkable job. As mentioned, the movie does feel rushed, and while the crew obviously knew how to get the job done in a timely manner, it also shows. Not the best way for Nolan's Shayne to end, it's a slightly disappointing movie due to the high expectations created by the previous Shayne movies plus using a Chandler novel. A few years later Hugh Beaumont would take over as Michael Shayne for a new series of movies (which I've yet to see). Still good enough to watch for people interested in either Michael Shayne or Raymond Chandler.

"Business is really picking up when the worm comes to the early bird."

[utgard14 · 7/10 · 24 June 2017]

Entertaining Michael Shayne movie, the seventh and final in Fox's series starring Lloyd Nolan. A few years after this, PRC would restart the series with Hugh Beaumont. Nolan's Shayne goes out on a high note here with a story adapted from Raymond Chandler's "The High Window." Here Shayne is hired by a nasty old lady to recover a missing coin she believes her daughter-in-law stole. Shayne investigates and finds more to the story. Decent support from Heather Angel, Richard Lane, Ralph Byrd, Morris Ankrum, Doris Merrick, and Paul Guilfoyle. As with the other Shayne movies, Lloyd Nolan carries the movie. This one's a bit "tougher" than the others. Perhaps that's Chandler seeping through. It's no "The Big Sleep" but it's a good way to pass an hour.

Corpse-laden crime comedy

[gridoon2024 · 6/10 · 29 December 2012]

Raymond Chandler's "The Big Sleep" is famous for being SO complicated that, when the screenwriters asked the author himself who committed a murder, he couldn't answer! "Time To Kill", based on another Chandler story, plays a lot like that - person A kills person B, who had killed person C, who was working for person D, who had killed person E, and so on. And murder is not the only crime featured here - counterfeiting and blackmail turn up as well. At the same time, this film contains probably more comedy than any previous Michael Shayne outing; the fact that wherever Shayne goes a corpse awaits him, becomes a running gag. And there are some above-B-level performances in this B-level production, particularly from the women (the men are a little harder to tell apart). At the end, it seems that Shayne finally accepts his fate to get married - a fitting farewell for Lloyd Nolan, whose last appearance in the role this was. **1/2 out of 4.

Not too bad at all

[McGonigle · 29 July 2003]

This is a fun little detective movie. It actually follows the storyline of The High Window a lot more closely than the later (and much inferior) The Brasher Doubloon. I gather that Michael Shayne's character is quite the wise-ass (he certainly is in this movie), but that's not too much of a stretch from the original Philip Marlowe, and Lloyd Nolan is quite enjoyable in the role.

Of course, like all Chandler adaptations, this one moves much too quickly to capture the hot, sticky southern California atmosphere that pervades so many of the original novels. The running time is too short to include every aspect of the novel, of course, and a couple of my favorite parts were left out, but overall, this is far superior to the version of the same novel that came out a few years later starring George Montgomery (The Brasher Doubloon). One of the better "second-tier" 40s mysteries I've seen.

Very good....but it's an odd case where I prefer the remake!!

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 10 January 2020]

Back in the early 40s, Twentieth Century-Fox made seven Michael Shayne films starring Lloyd Nolan. Generally, they were very good B-movies....quite a bit better than the average B crime film of the day. Much of it was because Nolan was so good in the films...much because the studio put more money and better scripts into the movies. This is the final Michael Shayne film starring Nolan. And, if you care, this movie was remade in 1947 as "The Brasher Doubloon"...an excellent crime film....one that is actually a bit better than this original!

When the story begins, a crabby rich lady pays Michael Shayne to recover a lost rare coin, the Brasher doubloon. However, this is a ruse and soon the bodies are piling up around Shayne and he starts to realize that there is far more to the story than that....and the key is a very timid lady who lives with the oldster.

There are a few off-putting things in this film, such as a violent couple who fight like dogs (this is somehow supposed to be funny) and Shayne pretending to like an unattractive woman in order to manipulate her. These just felt out of place. Otherwise, it's a competent and enjoyable tale...and it really makes you wish the studio had made more. Sadly, the subsequent films were made elsewhere and didn't even star Nolan...and are less interesting.

The Last Lloyd Nolan Mike Shayne Movie Is A Good One

[boblipton · 6/10 · 27 July 2019]

Lloyd Nolan plays Michael Shayne in the last of his appearances in the 20th Century Fox B series. He's called in by Ethel Griffies. She wants him to find evidence to get her son out of his marriage to a showgirl. She also believes her daughter-in-law has stolen a Brasher doubloon, a rare coin from her late husband's collection. Nolan takes the case, which leads to a lot of corpses.

It's derived from THE HIGH WINDOW, and is the second movie made from a Raymond Chandler story -- the first was THE SAINT TAKES OVER, based on FAREWELL, MY LOVELY; Hollywood had noticed Chandler, liked him and how his work fit into their plots, but of course, knew much more about how do it than the third best crime fiction writer ever. Having purchased the story from Chandler, they remade it in 1947 with George Montgomery as THE BRASHER DOUBLOON.

It's a nice effort for Nolan's Mike Shayne to go out on. The settings range from a rich woman's home and a swanky nightclub to a transient's hotel a step above a flophouse, and director Herbert Leeds shows how Nolan uses his fees to fix himself up in a lovely cinematic manner: in the first scene, we see Shayne with his feet on the desk, eating. It's a shot showing the bottom of his shoes, which need resoling, while he eats his his meal straight from a can. In a later iteration of the shot, his shoes have been resoled and he's eating off of china.

It was a good hour to kill, that's for sure.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 8 January 2020]

While I found "The Brasher Dubloon" to be a much better, more detailed film, I found this original version of Ray Chandler's novel to be equally as enjoyable, even if it is plagued with a sudden jarring ending that didn't work as well as its remake. That version restored Philip Marlowe to being the lead detective, while here, it's the final entry in a series of low budget programmers starring Lloyd Nolan as Michael Shayne. "The Brasher Dubloon" is highlighted by a flashy performance from character actress Florence Bates, and here, that part is played by veteran actress Ethel Griffies who would continue acting well into her old age in Hitchcock's "The Birds". She actually never looked young, having played old women throughout the 1930's and scoring with me as the evil matriarch of the hideously nasty Pringle family in "Anne of Windy Poplars".

As the overly aggressive Mrs. Murdock, Griffies is one of those feisty old dames who could do cartwheels, get back up on her legs, grab a gun, shoot someone and do another cartwheel before calling her attorney and telling him to get her off for murder. Griffies pretty much does that here (minus the cartwheels), hiding a sordid past and utilizing Shayne to locate the Brasher Dubloon, a valuable coin which has been stolen from her late husband's collection. This sends Nolan out on a wild turkey chase where he encounters a bunch of criminals, nearly ends up a corpse himself, and recovers enough after a nasty fall down the stairs ("I forgot to pull the ripcord", he wisecracks) to reveal the truth about the case.

While out and about, Nolan encounters Griffies' much hated daughter-in-law (Doris Merrick, an interesting femme fatale), questions her secretary (Heather Angel) and deals with such sordid types as Ralph Byrd and Morris Ankrum. There's also Shayne's girl (Sheila Bromley), Griffies' no good son (James Seay) and lieutenant Richard Lane, all of whom add complexity to this comic detective thriller with lots of comic elements and a bit of film noir. The moment Griffies mentions the dubloon, I knew exactly that I had seen this story done before, yet both versions are different enough to make them individually enjoyable on different levels. Griffies steals every scene she's in with her delicious unapologetic nastiness, yet Nolan gives back a bit of abuse to her as well, especially when he calls her "toots" and she looks off at him wistfully and repeats the word. In its compact hour, it provides plenty of excitement, laughs and mystery, but I still felt that it wrapped up jarringly which prevented it from getting a higher rating.

a chandler noir. the story is good.

[ksf-2 · 7/10 · 27 November 2021]

A Ray Chandler tale. In fact, it was remade in 1947 as the Brasher Doubloon. In this earlier version, Lloyd Nolan is Shayne, hired by an old widow to find a stolen coin and return it to the family. Co-stars Ethel Griffies, Heather Angel, Doris Merrick. The film is all washed out, with bad sound, jumps and cuts. Badly in need of restoration. And while looking for the coin, Shayne opens up a whole counterfeiting ring, and of course, the bodies are piling up. Can they solve the crimes before they run out of suspects? The story is quite good, in spite of the poor quality film. Directed by Herb Leeds. Died young at 54, suicide.

Fast-Paced and Exciting

[Maleejandra · 8/10 · 30 May 2009]

Time to Kill is a fast-paced, thrilling Michael Shayne mystery adapted from a Raymond Chandler novel and sped up to fit just inside an hour. Mrs. Murdock hires Shayne to find her daughter-in-law, a chorus girl who stole a precious coin from her home. Murdock's son is an odd sort of fellow who appears now and then to create a sense that Shayne is being watched, not the sort of guy that could be trusted. When Shayne meets the daughter-in-law, aptly named Miss Conquest, he discovers a beautiful girl just as eager to get out of the Murdock family as Mrs. Murdock is to get her out. Something doesn't quite fit.

Don't blink your eyes or you'll miss something; you have to be able to keep up with this one to truly enjoy it. Maybe some practice with other Lloyd Nolan movies will do the trick.

Nolan gets some great lines and utilizes them well. His tough guy might not be as memorable as Edward G. Robinson's, Humphrey Bogart's, or Dick Powell's, but he gets the job done. He is flanked by a b-movie cast, including the lovely Heather Angel, but don't see b-movie and think you'll be losing out on quality. You don't want your murder mysteries to be polished anyway; the dirtier, the better.

Disappointing!

[JohnHowardReid · 5/10 · 18 November 2015]

"Time To Kill" was Fox's first version of the Raymond Chandler novel, "The High Window", later remade as "The Brasher Doubloon". But in this version, the character of Philip Marlowe is eliminated and Brett Halliday's minor league sleuth, Michael Shayne, substituted. It thus becomes the sixth entrant in the Michael Shayne series, and as such, it is undoubtedly the least worthy of attention. This film was obviously lensed very cheaply and very quickly. The direction is totally undistinguished and production values are considerably less than in the first five films in this series. Both photography and art direction have little to recommend them, the cast is second rate (although Doris Merrick makes an attractive Linda Conquest and Ethel Griffies is certainly a memorable Mrs. Murdoch) and the screenplay is a bowdlerization that has deleted all Chandler's wit, whilst retaining the bare bones of his plot – a plot that was pretty weak even to begin with!

Zippy Mike Shayne outing, based on Chandler story. Only complaint: it's too short.

[rick_7 · 11 June 2010]

Time to Kill (Herbert I. Leeds, 1942) – Lloyd Nolan's final outing as Michael Shayne, Fox Studios' cocky private eye, is one of the earliest Raymond Chandler adaptations, drawing its inspiration from The High Window. Shayne – the irrepressible, quick-witted, appealing Nolan – takes on an apparently simple assignment from the wealthy Mrs Murdoch (Ethel Griffies) and finds the bodies piling up around him. Fox's lack of faith in the series is evidenced by the slim running time, with this one playing barely more than an hour. That means you get 56 minutes of tightly-scripted thriller – with a sardonic sense of humour – before the scripters have to cram in a wordy, five-minute explanation of Chandler's convoluted plot. It's an absolute riot until then, though, and a return to form after a slightly disappointing sixth outing.

The series opener – Michael Shayne, Private Detective – is a classic of its type, with a hilarious script and slick, fast-moving direction, making a virtue of its low budget. The second film put him on a train (Sleepers West), the third took him to a theatre (Dressed to Kill) and the fourth and fifth appeared to have been made with spare Charlie Chan screenplays someone had left lying around. There's something of the Warner Oland Chan about the ship-bound Blue, White and Perfect, while The Man Who Wouldn't Die – set in a haunted house and with a genuinely ingenious mystery – is pure Toler. Just Off Broadway, which had Shayne solving a case whilst sitting on a jury, was less accomplished, but this one ends the Nolan series on a high, effortlessly recapturing the flavour of the first film. Tracing a murky investigation from the second Shayne gets pitched into the mystery – fielding the call in his dingy office and reeling off a list of made-up references – to the moment he wraps it up, it's a real treat. It's also nice to see Shayne get a girlfriend who can handle him. An extra 10 minutes would have been welcome, allowing the whodunit to be unwrapped in a more leisurely fashion and providing time during the climax for something other than solid exposition, though given half a chance I'm sure Nolan would have spent it all wisecracking anyway.

the wrong Montgomery

[jonesw1 · 18 November 2006]

Just a note of correction. On the previous post, the actor cited for his role in The Brasher Doubloon should be George Montgomery, rather than Robert Montgomery, who was featured in several films noir of his own, Lady in the Lake and Ride the Pink Horse, to name a few.

Lloyd Nolan himself can be seen in quite a few noir films, usually, but not always, on the side of the law (House on 92d Street, Somewhere in the Night, and Two Smart People.

It is a shame that The Brasher Doubloon (or Time to Kill, for that matter) have not been released on DVD as yet. Brasher is a 20th Century Fox production and perhaps it will be released in the near future as part of their Fox Film Noir series.