Nick Carter, Master Detective (1939)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Pretty Good

Must See Movie...

Good concept, poorly executed.

Walter Pidgeon is breezy, clever and tough as master detective Nick Carter in this spies-in-the-airplane-factory adventure that contains plenty of laughs and a couple of good action scenes.An exciting opening sequence features a pilot setting down his plane in the middle of the desert, snatching up some valuable plans, and dashing off on foot to meet his waiting cohorts. Passenger Nick Carter—on the plane incognito—races after him, rescues the plans and jumps back on the ship as the flight nurse starts up the plane and flies it away to safety. It's all pretty far-fetched but it's well staged and the actors give it plenty of zip.Rita Johnson is fine as flight attendant, nurse, sometime pilot and possible spy named Lou. Unfortunately, her character isn't given quite enough to do after the daring plane ride, but she and Pidgeon are good together, their characters initially suspicious but eventually rather fond of each other.Donald Meek is bizarre but irrepressible as an amateur detective who calls himself "Bartholomew the B Man." He keeps bees in his hat and follows Carter around offering theories and advice. The two exchange standard but likable enough B movie dialog: "What made you say murder?" "Because it looks like suicide." A decent plot moves along briskly—bad guys are smuggling out top secret airplane plans—but it's really the stars who hold our interest. Walter Pidgeon is actually a lot of fun: "If I'm wrong, I'll apologize," he smirks whenever proposing a new theory.

***SPOILERS*** First and best of the trio of Nick Carter Detective movies directed by film noir pioneer Jacques Tourneur of "Cat People" & "Leopard Man" fame. With the handsome NY detective Walter Pidgeon as the witty and hard hitting Nick Carter in the leading role. Sent undercover to the Radex Airplane Plant Nick as aeronautical engineer Robert Chambers is hired to find out who's sneaking out blueprints of the company's most secretive aircraft that will revolutionize the airplane industry: It can actually fly!As Nick soon finds out there's a major spy ring in operation, from the usual unnamed country, at the plant that's paying off a number of the workers there to do it's bidding by sneaking out important blue prints of this new aircraft that the nutty inventor John A. Keller,Henry Hull, has come up with. A plane that can fly circles around anything,in airplanes, that's now flying up there in the wild blue yonder. There's also pretty flight attendant and part pilot Lou Farnsby, Rita Johnson, who soon takes a shine to the handsome Nick that in the end leads to something far more serious: Being held hostage by the spies to keep Nick and the local police from apprehending them. Nick soon gets help from the Bee-Man Bartholomew, Donald Meek, who's unorthodox detective tactics, that at first Nick is totally opposed to, that in the end breaks the mysterious spy case wide open. ***SPOILERS***This all leads to a spectacular car plane and boat chase by Nick and the local police and FBI agents to prevent the spies who are holding Lou hostage from escaping justice by reaching neutral Mexican waters. The highlight of the movie is the plane used in the movie that Nick, who recently got his flying incense, is in control off. By Nick not only behind the controls but at the same time using a tommy-gun to shoot it out with the fleeing spies on the high seas! Something that I think that hasn't been done before or after in films since!

I totally disagree with the IMDb reviewer who panned this film. Walter Pigeon is just right as the master detective, Nick Carter. He made two more superior Nick Carter B films after this one, but then was on his way to becoming a big Hollywood star. The producers decided to can the series rather than find a suitable replacement. And the Bee man is one of the great movie characters. Donald Meek was a wonderful character actor who could play many roles and this is one of his best. He is a good comic foil for the great detective. The masterful Jacques Tourneur directs with a knowing eye. He knows exactly how to give the audience chills, excitement and mystery in an hour time slot. It was a stroke of genius for the writers to put the bee man in the Nick Carter movies. He is one of the reasons I like to watch the Nick Carter movies more than once.

MGM in buying the rights to the Nick Carter stories and then making three films with the character just shows the twist of fate in some people's careers.Walter Pidgeon was one of their second magnitude stars at that time. B picture leads and occasionally in an A film where he always lost the girl. Louis B. Mayer must have thought a whole slew of these would have been made for Pidgeon and he would have become identified as Nick Carter on screen. But he managed to get some decent films, two back to back Best Pictures, How Green Was My Valley and Mrs. Miniver and a lifetime partnership with Greer Garson. He escaped movie oblivion then.It's a competently executed film, but I have to agree with previous reviewers. Donald Meek as the bee man looked like he just took his zany character from You Can't Take It With You and it just didn't fit in this fast paced detective story. The film itself is barely an hour. Meek distracts from the plot. Too bad because Donald Meek is usually a fine performer.I much prefer Walter Pidgeon as the Reverend Mr. Gruffydd or Clem Miniver or even Dr. Morbius. Good thing he escaped Nick Carter.