Sleepers West | |
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Directed by | Eugene Forde |
Written by | Brett Halliday |
Screenplay by | Lou Breslow Stanley Rauh |
Based on | Sleepers East 1933 novel by Frederick Nebel |
Produced by | Sol M. Wurtzel |
Starring | Lloyd Nolan Lynn Bari Mary Beth Hughes |
Cinematography | J. Peverell Marley |
Edited by | Fred Allen |
Music by | Cyril J. Mockridge |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Twentieth Century Fox |
Release date |
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Running time | 74 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Sleepers West is a 1941 American mystery drama film directed by Eugene Forde and starring Lloyd Nolan, Lynn Bari and Mary Beth Hughes. This second entry in 20th Century-Fox's Michael Shayne series was a remake of the 1934 Fox romantic drama Sleepers East from the novel Sleepers East (1933) by Frederick Nebel. The film Michael Shayne - Private Detective (1940) was the first in a series of 12 films. Lloyd Nolan starred as Shayne until the series was dropped by Twentieth Century-Fox and picked up by PRC. In the PRC series, Hugh Beaumont played Shayne. [1] [2]
On a fateful weekend, private detective Michael Shayne secretly escorts murder-trial witness Helen Carlson by train from Denver to San Francisco. Helen's testimony will free a man falsely accused of murder. His acquittal will also effectively destroy the election chances of a crooked Bay Area politician. By coincidence, Shayne is shadowed by his ex-fiancee, Denver newspaper reporter Kay Bentley. Furthermore, it so happens Kay is not just sniffing out a story. She is travelling with her fiancė, Tom Linscott, an associate of that above-mentioned politician.
Eventually, Kay discovers Tom's duplicitous, self-serving intentions and breaks off her engagement. This clears the way for Kay and Shayne to unite in order to save Helen from harm. At one point, their train is involved in a wreck. This results in Kay, Shayne, Helen, and a runaway husband, Everett Jason, taking a taxicab the rest of the way to San Francisco. During a stopover at a farm, tension mounts between Kay and Shayne when the intrepid girl reporter phones in a story to her editor back in Denver. Shayne angrily reminds Kay that an innocent man's life is at stake, and any publicity of Helen's whereabouts might keep her from testifying.
The trial resumes the next morning in a San Francisco courtroom—without witness Helen Carlson. However, she makes a suspenseful, last-second appearance to present her life-saving testimony. Thanks to her, not to mention Michael Shayne and Kay Bentley, an innocent man is freed.
The film was based on the novel Sleepers East which was published in 1933. The New York Times said "though lacking credibility as to plot, the story has full measure of action, suspense and emotional conflict." [3] Film rights were bought by Fox and turned into a 1934 movie. [4]
In October 1940 it was announced that the novel had been bought by Fox as a vehicle for Lyn Bari and would possibly co-star Dean Jagger. Lou Breslow would adapt the script, with filming to start in December. [5] Eugene Ford was to direct. [6]
Fox then announced that the film would be called Sleepers West instead of Sleepers East, and that the film would star Bari and Lloyd Nolan instead of Jagger. [7] It was the third time that Nolan and Bari co-starred. [8]
In November it was announced the film was being reconfigured as a Michael Shayne movie. It would be the second in the series, following Michael Shayne, Private Detective. Filming started 18 November 1940. [9]
The Monthly Film Bulletin praised the "polished performances" of the leads, adding that "the direction is brisk, the dialogue amusing, and the settings aboard a train... are realistic." [10] The Los Angeles Times called it "a lively brew". [11]
The New York Times called it "singularly unexciting". [12]
Brett Halliday is the primary pen name of Davis Dresser, an American mystery and western writer. Halliday is best known for the long-lived series of Michael Shayne mysteries he wrote, and later commissioned others to continue. Dresser also wrote westerns, non-series mysteries, and romances under the names Asa Baker, Matthew Blood, Kathryn Culver, Don Davis, Hal Debrett, Anthony Scott, Peter Field, and Anderson Wayne.
Lloyd Benedict Nolan was an American stage, film and television actor who rose from a supporting player and B-movie lead early in his career to featured player status after creating the role of Captain Queeg in Herman Wouk's play The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial in the mid-1950s. Nolan won a Best Actor Emmy Award reprising the part in 1955 TV play based on Wouk's tale of military justice.
Richard Dutoit Carlson was an American actor, television and film director, and screenwriter.
Lynn Bari was an American film actress who specialized in playing sultry, statuesque man-killers in roughly 150 films for 20th Century Fox, from the early 1930s through the 1940s.
Dressed to Kill is a 1941 American mystery film directed by Eugene Forde and starring Lloyd Nolan, Mary Beth Hughes and Sheila Ryan. It was produced and distributed by 20th Century Fox, one of several films to feature the private detective Michael Shayne. The film is based on The Dead Take No Bows, a mystery novel by Richard Burke.
Katharine ("Kay") Gratten Aldridge was an American actress and model, best known for playing feisty and imperiled heroines in black-and-white serials during the 1940s.
Michael "Mike" Shayne is a fictional private detective character created during the late 1930s by writer Brett Halliday, a pseudonym of Davis Dresser. The character appeared in a series of seven films starring Lloyd Nolan for Twentieth Century Fox, five films from the low-budget Producers Releasing Corporation with Hugh Beaumont, a radio series under a variety of titles between 1944 and 1953, and later in 1960–1961 in a 32-episode NBC television series starring Richard Denning in the title role.
Time to Kill is an American mystery film directed by Herbert I. Leeds. It is the first screen adaptation of Raymond Chandler's novel The High Window, which was remade five years later as The Brasher Doubloon. The detective was changed from Philip Marlowe to Michael Shayne for this version, with Lloyd Nolan playing the part and Heather Angel in a rare turn as leading lady. It is also the final Michael Shayne film starring Lloyd Nolan made at Fox, who closed down their popular B movie unit which included Mr. Moto, Charlie Chan, and the Cisco Kid. In 1946 the series would be reborn at Producers Releasing Corporation with Hugh Beaumont taking over the role.
Eugene Forde (1898–1986) was an American film director.
Moon Over Her Shoulder is a 1941 American comedy film directed by Alfred L. Werker and starring Lynn Bari, John Sutton and Alan Mowbray. It was produced and distributed by Twentieth Century Fox.
Charter Pilot is a 1940 drama film, directed by Eugene Forde and produced by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. The film stars Lynn Bari, Lloyd Nolan, Arleen Whelan and George Montgomery. Charter Pilot depicts pilots flying cargo flights in the Honduras.
The Man Who Wouldn't Die is a 1942 mystery film directed by Herbert I. Leeds, starring Lloyd Nolan and Marjorie Weaver. This movie is the 5th of a series of seven of the Michael Shayne movies produced by Twentieth Century Fox between 1940 and 1942.
Just Off Broadway is a 1942 Drama directed by Herbert I. Leeds, starring Lloyd Nolan and Marjorie Weaver. This is the sixth of a series of seven that Lloyd Nolan played Michael Shayne for Twentieth Century Fox films. Hugh Beaumont portrayed Shayne in five more films from Producers Releasing Corporation.
Pier 13 is a 1940 American mystery film directed by Eugene Forde and starring Lynn Bari, Lloyd Nolan and Joan Valerie. It is a remake of the 1932 film Me and My Gal with Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennett. The film's sets were designed by the art directors Lewis H. Creber and Richard Day.
Blue, White and Perfect is a 1942 American mystery film directed by Herbert I. Leeds and starring Lloyd Nolan, Mary Beth Hughes, and Helene Reynolds. It is part of Twentieth Century Fox's Michael Shayne film series.
Michael Shayne, Private Detective is a 1940 American mystery film directed by Eugene Forde and starring Lloyd Nolan, Marjorie Weaver and Joan Valerie. It is based on Brett Halliday's novel The Private Practice of Michael Shayne. It was the first in a series of Michael Shayne films starring Nolan.
The Private Practice of Michael Shayne is a 1940 detective novel by the American writer Brett Halliday. It was the second book in Halliday's Michael Shayne series of novels, after Dividend on Death (1939).
The Man Who Wouldn't Talk is a 1940 mystery film directed by David Burton and starring Lloyd Nolan, Jean Rogers, and Richard Clarke. It is a remake of the 1929 film The Valiant which had starred Paul Muni, and was based on a play of the same name. It was Nolan's first film for Twentieth Century Fox, where he went on to be a successful star of B Movie mysteries such as the Michael Shayne series. Nolan's portrayal of the lead character was deliberately more subdued than Muni's had been, and the film was "opened up" with the addition of flashback scenes and other devices to make it less dialogue-based than the original.
Free, Blonde and 21 is a 1940 American drama film directed by Ricardo Cortez and written by Frances Hyland. The film stars Lynn Bari, Mary Beth Hughes, Joan Davis, Henry Wilcoxon, Robert Lowery, Alan Baxter and Kay Aldridge. The film was released on March 29, 1940, by 20th Century Fox.
Frederick Lewis Nebel, was an American writer. Although he published more than 300 stories and three novels, many of which were adapted for film, he is best known today for his hardboiled detective fiction.