Customer Reviews
Classic B-movie comedy/murder mystery - By: C. O. DeRiemer, 31 Jul 2007 
Everyone knows Mike Shayne, everyone likes Mike Shayne...cops, chorus girls, tailors, lushes, janitors, hotel clerks. Mike is a good natured, smart private eye, maybe not too well educated but shrewd as they come. He doesn't break too many rules, but he's ready to bend them till they creak. If you get yourself murdered, try not to leave any good cigars in the humidor. A few might go missing once Shayne walks through the room. One afternoon, while trying to convince his girlfriend he's ready for marriage, he hears a scream, rushes up the stairs of the hotel to see an open door to a suite. When he enters he lands in one of the strangest murder mysteries of his career. Seated at a dining table set for six are two bodies, dressed in their costumes from "Sweethearts of Paris," a smash musical-comedy hit of 25 years ago. The woman is Desiree Vance, the show's star who played Countess De Froliere. The man wearing an Airedale mask is Louis Lathrop, her producer & costar. He played Pierre Peaubeau. It looks like Lathrop was shot with a rifle & Vance with a revolver by one person -- simultaneously. Shayne discovers the cast members of that long-ago hit are still very much around. One now works as a maid in the hotel. Another, the lush, was the composer. One of the stars appears to have chiseled Lathrop out of $26,000. Even more intriguing, the theater where Lathrop produced "Sweethearts of Paris" is next door to the hotel...and years ago Lathrop had no less than three private passages constructed from his suite to the theater & to the hotel rooms above & below his own. Events 25 years old have come back to roost.
This comedy/murder mystery is a B movie in the great tradition of B movies. They were programmers, turned out quickly by movie craftsmen who knew their business. Dressed to Kill is fast paced -- the movie is only 74 minutes long -- with nothing wasted. The mystery is intriguing & the plot just puzzling enough to keep you interested. Dialogue is funny & sometimes just this side of slapstick. Most importantly, the players alll do fine jobs, starting with that great character actor Lloyd Nolan as Michael Shayne. He brings a lot of energy, crisp authority & wise guy humor to the part. William Demarest plays a blustering police inspector who if he isn't running into doors is fallling off a stage. Other notable performances include those by Henry Daniel as a self-involved former actor & Irvin Kalser as a nearly deaf stage doorman.
A classic movie, it isn't. A classic B-movie, it is. I recommend it. The black & white DVD picture looks just fine, clear & crisp. There are no extras.
