A private investigator Mike Shayne (Hugh Beaumont) knew ten years ago walks into his office and drops dead, shot in the chest. He's got a piece of a baggage claim. After the police clear the corpse out, Louise Currie comes in, asks Beaumont to get her escaped-convict ex-husband off her back, hopefully by shooting him, kisses him, and leaves. Soon the police and the FBI are on Beaumont's back about a mysterious set of plans stolen presumably for resale to an unnamed foreign government.

There are lots of swerves in Sam Newfield's last movie directed for PRC. It moves at a good clip, which serves to cover up the holes and obvious red herrings in Fred Myton's typically ham-handed script. It's based on Brett Halliday's novel THE CORPSE CAME CALLING. A good cast, Jack Greenhalgh's camerawork in a good print, and good location shooting also help. With Cheryl Walker, Ralph Dunn, Douglas Fowley, and Brooks Benedict.

Originally, Mike Shayne was a character played by Lloyd Nolan in a string of films for Twentieth Century-Fox. However, after the series ended, tiny PRC made more episodes...all starring Hugh Beaumont of "Leave it to Beaver" fame. Here is why I assumed this B-mystery movie would be terrible....nearly every film I've seen from PRC stank! The studio was among the cheapest of the cheapo studios and they produces a lot of crap! Fortunately, I was wrong...the film was very enjoyable and makes me want to see more of the Beaumont films if I can find them.

The story begins with another private detective making an appointment with Shayne. However, the guy soon stumbles into Shayne's office...dropping dead. Soon all sorts of awful people begin slapping Shayne around and his secretary. What's next?

I appreciated this story because unlike most other detective films, Shayne is a bit amoral...which makes him unpredictable and much more interesting than most detectives. The story also is pretty interesting and the film is a fine example of cheap but enjoyable filmmaking.