User Reviews

Even though, for me, Lloyd Nolan will always be the definitive Mike Shayne, Richard Denning is so personable in the role that he makes this pilot episode of Michael Shayne highly entertaining. Greta Morgan is an investigative reporter who repeatedly leaves frantic messages for Shayne telling him that someone will kill her. Shayne has been out fishing all day and when he returns to the office n the evening he gets a special delivery letter from Morgan asking him to investigate her murder and encloses a half of a thousand dollar bill. (This premise is weird - why didn't she call the cops? Oh well). When Shayne and his buddy, reporter Tim Rourke, go to Morgan's apartment and find that she has indeed been murdered. Fearing that Beatrice Drake, Morgan's secretary's life is in danger, Shayne takes her to his secretary's apartment to hide out. The suspects for Morgan's murder abound - a gangster she was investigating, an ex-husband, and a man who tells Shayne that Morgan was blackmailing him. While it was not hard to figure out whodunnit, it still is an entertaining episode with a strong supporting cast (especially Julie Adams). After the episode concludes, Denning and Brett Halliday, author of the Shayne books come on screen and give a message presumedly to potential sponsors for the show. Denning says, among other things, that they want to be part of "your" sales team. This was an interesting add-on to the episode.