My best guess is that the Brett Halliday books were more hard boiled than any of the Fox movie adaptations. I have seen all of the Lloyd Nolan films with the sole exception of "Just Off Broadway." In my opinion, the clever and humorous "Dressed to Kill," directed by Eugene Forde and released in 1941, could give Robert Siodmak's "Fly by Night" (a Noir City favorite) a good run for its money.
About four years after Fox dropped its Michael Shayne series, Producers Releasing Corporation revived the programmers with Hugh Beaumont replacing Nolan. Five new films were released from 1946 through 1947. Once the series was canceled when PRC was sold, the Michael Shayne character left the cinemas for radio and television adaptations.
Recently, I had the opportunity to watch two of the five PRC films and I was pleasantly surprised. I viewed "Blonde for a Day" and "Too Many Winners." Both films were recently restored which is something of minor miracle considering that these two PRC movies lapsed into the public domain decades ago.
Two of the most prolific Poverty Row directors, Sam Newfield and William "One Shot" Beaudine, headed the productions. Both films featured cinematography by Jack Greenhalgh.
The restoration work paid off and prints look much better than some other PRC offerings available on DVD. Presumably, these films were knocked out in about a week to ten days, but both appear to be better than some of the typical "Pretty Rotten Crap" one usually associates with the low rent studio.
Production values from "The new PRC" were a trifle better than what movie patrons had been accustomed to. The casts in both movies were competent enough and the sets were acceptable. Permitting the film crews to exit the studio on Santa Monica Boulevard and do some location shooting on the local streets was definitely helpful.
The much maligned Beaudine directed "Too Many Winners" which was the last feature film in the PRC series. The film is efficient and competent. It goes to show that "One Shot" was capable of delivering the goods occasionally when he was given something to work with. His reputation has suffered from his working with exploitation producers like Sam Katzman and Jack Broder.
Dan
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