Best movies like Michael Shayne: Private Detective

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Michael Shayne: Private Detective Starring Lloyd Nolan, Marjorie Weaver, Joan Valerie, Walter Abel, and more. If you liked Michael Shayne: Private Detective then you may also like: Velvet Smooth, Just Off Broadway, Kill Me Again, After the Thin Man, Brighton Rock and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.

Millionaire sportsman Hiram Brighton hires gumshoe Michael Shayne to keep his spoiled daughter Phyllis away from racetrack betting windows and roulette wheels. After Phyllis slips away and continues her compulsive gambling, Shayne fakes the murder of her gambler boyfriend, who is also romancing the daughter of casino owner Benny Gordon, in order to frighten her. When the tout really ends up murdered, Shayne and Phyllis' Aunt Olivia, an avid reader of murder mysteries, both try to find the identity of the killer.

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Velvet Smooth

A crime lord hires Velvet Smooth, the head of a detective agency, to find out who is stealing his business.

Just Off Broadway

Private detective Michael Shayne is on the case again, but this time he's stuck on a jury for a murder trial. So, what does he do? Why, he skips out on sequestration in order to solve the case himself!

Kill Me Again

After Faye and her psychotic boyfriend, Vince, successfully rob a mob courier, Faye decides to abscond with the loot. She heads to Reno, where she hires feckless private investigator Jack Andrews to help fake her death. He pulls the scheme off and sets up Faye with a new identity, only to have her skip out on him without paying. Jack follows her to Vegas and learns he's not the only one after her. Vince has discovered that she's still alive.

After the Thin Man

Nick and Nora Charles investigate when Nora's cousin reports her disreputable husband is missing, and find themselves in a mystery involving the shady owners of a popular nightclub, a singer and her dark brother, the cousin's forsaken true love, and Nora's bombastic and controlling aunt.

Brighton Rock

Centring on the activities of a gang of assorted criminals and, in particular, their leader – a vicious young hoodlum known as "Pinkie" – the film's main thematic concern is the criminal underbelly evident in inter-war Brighton.

Burglar

Bernice "Bernie" Rhodenbarr is a burglar by trade, and she runs a bookstore as well. Her friend Carl Hefler is a dog groomer. After a successful burglary, it's discovered that a dead body was in the house she burgled. As she's the only one who can be placed at the scene of the crime, she has to use her criminal skills to clear her name of the murder AND avoid getting charged with the burglary.

Find the Blackmailer

A private eye is hired by a mayoral candidate to prevent any sort of adverse publicity. It seems that, somewhere in town, there's a talking blackbird who insists upon saying that the candidate will commit a murder. When the killing occurs, the candidate is implicated, and the detective is off on a hectic pursuit of the incriminating crow and the actual murderer.

Three on a Ticket

A private detective, who has been shot, stumbles into the office of Michael Shayne (Hugh Beaumont), and dies before Shayne can question him. Shayne finds a baggage ticket in his hand. He claims it and finds the checked-bag contains the loot from a robbery. Now, he has about fifty minutes left of the running time to find the crooks, bring them to justice and return the money to the rightful owners. And needs all of it.

The Shanghai Gesture

A gambling queen uses blackmail to stop a British financier from closing her Chinese clip joint.

Lady in Cement

While diving for sunken treasure, street-smart gumshoe Tony Rome finds the body of a gorgeous blonde, her feet stuck in a block of cement. Soon after, tough guy Waldo Gronski hires him to find a missing woman named Sandra Lomax, and Rome wonders if there's a connection. He sets about trying to locate the woman, and in no time finds himself mixed up with a beautiful party girl and a slippery racketeer.

Fast Company

Married book-dealers Joel & Garda Sloane try to clear a friend in the murder of a rival book-seller.

The File of the Golden Goose

U.S. Secret Service agent Peter Novak goes undercover with Scotland Yard officer Thompson to halt a murderous gang of counterfeiters known as the Golden Goose. Although Peter is unsure about John's loyalties, the two infiltrate the gang and win the trust of thug Nick "The Owl" Harrison before enduring a series of double-crosses.

Murder She Said

Miss Marple believes she's seen a murder in a passing-by train, yet when the police find no evidence she decides to investigate it on her own.

The Man Who Wouldn't Die

A man believed to be dead and buried escapes from his grave and returns to the scene of the crime seeking revenge.

Island in the Sky

A secretary (Gloria Stuart) solves a murder for her boyfriend (Michael Whalen) in the district attorney's office.

The Princess Comes Across

A Swedish princess boards an ocean liner in Europe en route to an acting career in America and finds herself getting inconveniently attached to a bandleader returning home. To complicate matters, a blackmailer on board apparently knows she is not who she claims to be - and he has his sights set on other passengers with secrets of their own. In the meantime an escaped killer has stowed away under someone else's identity, and is killing again to cover his tracks; five international police detectives on board are heading the investigation to find him. When evidence points to the princess and bandleader, they must find the killer themselves - before he finds them.

Tony Rome

Tony Rome, a tough Miami PI living on a houseboat, is hired by a local millionaire to find jewelry stolen from his daughter, and in the process has several encounters with local hoods as well as the Miami Beach PD.

Too Many Winners

Michael Shayne mystery involving counterfeit tickets at a race track.

Two Against the World

A socialite finds herself involved in a murder trial that is prosecuted by her boyfriend.

Two Dollar Bettor

An honest guy gets trapped into the world of horse racing and his once prosperous life becomes a downward spiral into the underworld.

Lucky Losers

Slip and Sach's boss, David J. Thurston, has allegedly committed suicide. Slip finds a book of matches with the name of a local nightclub on his boss' desk and finds out from Gabe that a gambling casino is being run out of it. Slip comes to the conclusion that the club had something to do with his boss' death and sets out to find his murderer. The boys get jobs at the club and Louie poses as a rich cattlemen as they gather the information to convict the murderers.

Blackmailer

Dinner party guests become murder suspects when an extortionist they all hated turns up dead.

Murder Is My Business

Michael Shayne is a private detective who is disliked greatly by Pete Rafferty, local chief of police detectives. Rafferty notifies the newspaper press that he is going to close Shayne's agency, just as Michael is about to be hired by the wealthy Eleanor Ramsey, who is being blackmailed. She is the stepmother of what she considers to be two grown-up brats, Dorothy and Ernest, and she considers their father to be of little value to the world himself. They all conspire to get their hands on her money, even to the extent of attempting to hire Shayne to frame an insurance robbery. Mrs. Ramsey is murdered, and Rafferty is trying to pin the killing on Shayne, despite the fact that suspicion points to Buell Renslow, brother of the slain woman. Shayne's secretary, the fetching Phyllis Hamilton, decides to do a little detective work to help her boss.

Affair in Reno

The story of a PR man hired by a millionaire to go to Reno to prevent his daughter from marrying an opportunistic gambler.

Gallant Sons

When a teenager's father is accused of murder, the boy and his high-school classmates set out to find the real killer.

The Invisible Wall

A former GI gets his old job back working for a bookie after returning from serving in the military. Unfortunately, he loses the $20,000 he was supposed to deliver to gambling and a con artist. His attempts to get the money back leads to bigger problems including a murder plot.

Footsteps in the Dark

A high-society gent has a secret life - he writes murder mysteries and hangs out with the police attempting to solve crimes. This causes him no end of problems when his wife wants to know about his little disappearances and exceptionally late nights out.

Monte Carlo Nights

A man wrongfully convicted of murder escapes custody and goes in search of the real killer. The problem is that he only has one clue to go on.

The Return of October

A wholesome girl believes her new racehorse, October, is the reincarnation of her favorite uncle, Willie.

The Falcon in Hollywood

Suave amateur detective Tom Lawrence--aka Michael Arlen's literary hero The Falcon--arrives in Hollywood for some rest and relaxation, only to find himself involved in the murder of a movie actor. There's no shortage of suspects: the costume designer to whom he was married, a tyrannical director, a beautiful young French starlet, a Shakespeare-quoting producer, even a New York gangster. Helping The Falcon solve the crime is a cute, wise-cracking cab driver and a pair of bumbling cops.

The Gambling Sex

A wealthy young socialite gets the gambling bug, and soon it goes from being just a fun pastime to an addiction, and she begins to lose more and more of her fortune.

Time to Kill

Lloyd Nolan is back as detective Michael Shayne who's in search of a stolen coin.

Blue, White, and Perfect

In order to win back his girlfriend, Mike Shayne promises to give up his detective practice and get a job as riveter in an aircraft plant. He quickly finds himself investigating the theft of industrial diamonds from the plant's safe and, utilizing a variety of false identities, traces them first to a dress factory and later to a Hawaii-bound ocean liner. Escaping several attempts on his life, he is able to uncover a Nazi smuggling ring, but the location of the missing diamonds continues to elude him.

The Lady Gambles

When Joan Boothe accompanies husband-reporter David to Las Vegas, she begins gambling to pass the time while he is doing a story. Encouraged by the casino manager, she gets hooked on gambling, to the point where she "borrows" David's expense money to pursue her addiction. This finally breaks up their marriage, but David continues trying to help her.

Larceny in Her Heart

In the second of the PRC "Michael Shayne" series,civic crusader Burton Stallings hires private detective Michael Shayne to locate the former's missing step-daughter Helen. Shayne discovers that Stallings himself has had Helen confined in an asylum in order to obtain her money.

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