Michael Shayne Mystery Compilation #2 (1961) | Richard Denning | Herbert Rudley | Jerry Paris

Michael “Mike” Shayne is a fictional private detective character created during the late 1930s by writer Brett Halliday. In 1960, the 32-episode Michael Shayne television series began on NBC, with Richard Denning, formerly of the series Mr. and Mrs. North, in the title role. Jerry Paris plays Shayne’s assistant. Patricia Donahue originated the role of Lucy Hamilton, Shayne’s secretary.

Stars: Richard Denning, Herbert Rudley, Jerry Paris

00:00 THE BODY BEAUTIFUL (1961) Shayne is hired by a doctor who is beaten by two thugs. The victim believes he was roughed up because of his friendship with a bodybuilder, nicknamed “Hercules” who plans to bow out as the front man of a franchise of weightlifting gymnasiums. Hercules has fallen in love with the doctor’s wild sister and when both the physician and bride are found murdered, the muscle man becomes the prime suspect.

51:54. THE FINAL SETTLEMENT (1961) When Trina DeWitt, a best-selling novelist, informs her ne’er-do-well husband she has filed for a divorce, her spouse reacts violently. In the ensuing struggle the man falls on the ice pick that he twisted from his wife’s hand. When the police arrive at the scene of the accident, they find no evidence of a body, or even a struggle, and are also not inclined her story that someone has broken into her wall safe and stolen all her negotiable bonds and jewelry.

1:47:43. THE HEIRESS (1961) A pretty young woman hires Shayne look into the background of a man romancing the girl’s wealthy mother. Shayne discovers that the paramour though separated, has never been legally divorced from his previous spouse. Before he can reveal this information, the golddigger is found murdered on the wealthy woman’s estate and the police accuse the maid, a survivor of a German concentration camp, of the crime.

2:42:00. MAN ON A RAFT (1958) Pilot film for the series starring Mark Stevens as Michael Shayne. A pretty young widow hires Mike to investigate the mysterious death of her husband who was about to come into a substantial inheritance when he reached his 30th birthday. She believes his stepfather, who urged him to go on a sailing cruise arranged for the boat to sink and bribed the deckhands to lie about the date her husband died. When the diary of the cruise kept my one of mariners is stolen from a newspaper reporter covering the story, Mike is convinced that the young man died from foul play.

3:10:48. MARRIAGE CAN BE FATAL (1961) Vinnie Pico tries to hire Mike to break up his kid sister’s wedding with a unscrupulous playboy, even offering him a blank check for his fee. When Shayne refuses, Vinnie knocks the private detective out. When the playboy is found murdered, Mike is hired to assist in the investigation and discovers that the glass to family’s gun case was broken with a high-heeled shoe.