kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS*** Just when private detective Michael Shayne, new suit and all, was about take his long suffering girlfriend night club singer Joanna La Marr down to city hall to tie the knot things really started jumping. That's when he hears a scream upstairs from his hotel room at the Du Nord and gets himself involved in a double murder of both Broadway producer Louis Lathrop and his lead singer Desiree Vance. Putting the wedding off Shayne soon starts to poke his nose into the crime to the distaste of the man in charge of the murders Inspector Pierson who feels, rightfully so, he's messing up the evidence at the crime scene.Shayne not at all disturbed in what Inspector Pierson feels about him soon uncovers evidence that the two were involved in a reunion of their 1915 hit play "Sweethearts of Paris" who's star in the play Carlo Ralph played the leading role of "Beppo the Dog". Shayne indistinctly feels that somehow Ralph, he doesn't really say why, somehow had something to do with both Lathrop and Vance's murders in finding a dog custom, as a calling card, over Lathrop's dead body. The problem is that Ralph supposedly died in German captivity during WWI back in 1916 some 25 years ago.****SPOILERS Shayne uses all his skills and talents to track down Lathrop and Vance's killer and in the process has the hotel maid Emily found dead in her room from poison that she supposedly took. In a suicide letter Emily states that not only is she former actress Lynne Evens but that she murdered both Lathrop and his lover Desiree Vance for cheating on her. That's because Vance was romantically involved with Lathop who dropped her for Vance when her back was turned! As Shayne soon found out this was all a BS story on the real murderers part who in fact turned out to be the supposed long dead Ralph coming back from the dead or so everyone thought. That's to get his revenge for being chested out of his salary in his leading part as "Beppo the Dog" in the play by Lathop while in German custody. As for Shayne his involvement in the case got his soon to be fiancée Joanne La Marr so mad that she dropped him and went back to her first love Bruce who at least unlike Shayne put her first before anything else!

Irie212 I sat bolt upright at the end of this movie because it looked as if there was a serious error in the credits. No, I thought, I must be wrong. But I'm not. The movie's streaming on Netflix, so you can see for yourself: 20th Century Fox reversed the names of the two African-American actors who provide some of the brightest points in this bright little movie. They often entertained as a team, and in this movie Mantan Moreland and Ben Carter play two theater janitors who first appear doing a sweet backstage dance sequence with their brooms while Mary Beth Hughes (too little of her in this movie) sings on-stage but off-screen. I loved it that the filmmakers ignored the girl singer for the greater talents of these two hoofers. Their characters are called Rusty and Sam, with the bigger part going to Rusty, who is played by Moreland, the more famous of the two. But in the final credits, the names are reversed with the roles, crediting Ben Carter as Rusty. Inexcusable. I doubt it ever happened to the Marx Brothers, and there were four of them, and they each had goofball names. Yet IMDb has it right in its Cast and Crew listing. I find that impressive.The movie's impressive, too-- a B movie with a ridiculously complicated plot with a lot of theatrics, quick-witted dialog, and sure-footed performances by Lloyd Nolan, William Demarest, Henry Daniell, Moreland and Carter, and Mary Beth Hughes-- of whom, as I said, there was far too little screen time. Far too little of her in movies in general, in fact.

expandafter Lloyd Nolan's Michael Shayne is a refreshingly human private detective, jumping to wrong conclusions and once not even being able to say his own name correctly (you'll see why). The two policemen assigned to the case are delightfully dense.Shayne is within hours of being married when he and his bride-to-be hear a scream that he investigates. He has to spend the rest of the movie not only attempting to solve the crime but placating and putting off his impatient fiancée. Secret passageways and trapdoors, people who have changed their identities, magicians' sleight of hand, and a hilarious singing-telegram scene add to the tasty mix.I really enjoyed this and found the humor a welcome addition to the murder investigation.

John Seal Dressed to Kill is one of the most enjoyable 'B' movies I've ever seen. Lloyd Nolan is terrific as Michael Shayne, detective, and his supporting cast is superb to say the least. William Demarest is the best hapless police inspector this side of James Gleason, a youthful Henry Daniell plays a stuck up prig to perfection, Milton Parsons is a bad baddie, and we even get small turns from Mantan Moreland and Billy Benedict. The story is reasonably well written, fast paced, and a lot of fun.