Blue, White, and Perfect (1942)

One of the wrost movies I have ever seen

Not even bad in a good way

Dreadfully Boring

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Lloyd Nolan is Mike Shayne again. This time he's headed to Honolulu after some stolen diamonds -- industrial ones which are not blue-white and perfect.This Fox second feature clearly shows it doesn't waste money, but everything about it -- except the script -- is first rate. It has Glenn MacWilliams as cinematographer -- beautiful, sharp, high lighted images -- and some solid talent in the ranks: George Reeves as a suspicious shipboard passenger, Curt Bois as a ship's steward and even Mae Marsh in a sizable role. The story is a mystery, with its curves disguised by Nolan's wise-cracking. In short, it's a fine little B movie.

The Michael Shayne series was a great gig for Lloyd Nolan as he didn't get to play many leads. "Blue, White, and Perfect" from 1942 is a fun entry into the series, and for us boomers, another chance to see George Reeves without his Superman cape. The film also features Helene Reynolds and Mary Beth Hughes.In this one, Shayne takes a job as a riveter, at first to watch for sabotage, but after a robbery of industrial diamonds, to ferret out the criminal. Actually the job is a great cover as his fiancée, Merle, is pressuring him to get out of the detective business.The trail leads to Hawaii. Since this film was released in January of 1942, it looks like it was filmed before Pearl Harbor, so the placement of the story in Hawaii is interesting, plus the fact that we seem to be on the trail of not Japanese, but Nazis. In order to get money for passage on the ship, Shayne convinces Merle to make a $1000 deposit on a ranch. Clever if low! On the ship, he meets Juan Arturo O'Hara (Reeves) and an old client, Helen Shaw, who now owns a dress shop in Hawaii. It gets pretty dicey from there as someone tries to kill Shayne, by not only shooting, but drowning! Director Herbert Leeds keeps the action going at a snappy pace. Highly entertaining, with a lively performance by Nolan, and a charming one by Reeves, whose career never regained its momentum after his war service.Very good.

The Michael Shayne series is unusual in that the first film was probably the worst of the films starring Lloyd Nolan. After a somewhat disappointing start, they tended to get better.BLUE, WHITE AND PERFECT, like most of the series, was made during WWII, so it's not surprising that the patriotism and Nazi angle was used. The film begins with Mike taking a job as a detective in an aircraft plant. No sooner than he's hired, there's a robbery and an important shipment of industrial diamonds is stolen. I love how with detectives in film and TV how the minute they show up, a crime is committed--it's convenient that way! Mike goes undercover and assumes a couple different aliases until finally the trail takes him to a cruise ship headed for Honolulu. Once on board the ship, he meets an old girlfriend and the oddly named Juan Arturo O'Hara (George Reeves). Naturally there is an attempt made on Shayne's life and O'Hara is shot. He turns out to be a government agent and will survive, but now it's up to Shayne alone to follow the trail.The film has a nice pace, decent acting (for a B-detective series) and doesn't go too far on the silly Nazi angle (instead letting the mystery itself be the focus, not stereotypical snarling Nazis). While not the best of the B-series, the Shayne films rank up there with such films as The Saint and Falcon for entertainment and enjoyability. The only negative I could see was Shayne's relationship with the blonde. She was certifiably insane and took to throwing stuff and behaving rather unhinged. This was supposed to be comic relief but just tended to interfere with the seriousness of the plot. Still, well worth seeing.

I'm working my way through the 4 film video package and this is the most entertaining one so far in my opinion. Not that it is a good film, but it has fewer drawbacks than the other two (Sleepers West & Michael Shayne, Private Detective.) The plot - Michael Shayne is following German agents who are stealing/smuggling industrial diamonds to Hawaii.Of course, in all these drawn out MS melodramas, it takes him half the film to get on board and on with the show. Onboard, he meets George Reeves and reacquaints himself with an attractive woman. Everyone gets good service from steward Curt Bois.As in all these MS films (so far), several scenes go on way too long with pointless dialog - presumably to fill out the storyline and running time. However, this film was less padded than the other two. Amen! Since MS and the ship are headed to Hawaii and there is a tag on the steamer trunks with a date in bold writing "Dec 6th", I thought they would be arriving the day before Pearl Harbor is bombed by the Japanese. But, no......The film was released in early 1942 so I do not know what to make of the steamer trunk date.The ending of the film has MS running off to Manila after a corpse falls out of a closet with a knife in his back and a mysterious note pinned to him. MS bids his sexy blond honey adieu and exits screen left for Manila. I dunno.......I don't expect much or try and dope out these films too much.Good to see George Reeves in an early film. Mary Beth Hughes as MS' g/f looks good. Lloyd Nolan is good in all these films, I should add. The city sets in the early part of the film are nice. I'm not sure what the title means.All in all - lightweight 'mystery' entertainment from the early 40s from a major studio.