Mary Beth Hughes returns as Shayne’s girlfriend, although she has a different name – these B picture series were always a bit shonky when it came to continuity. Fed up with Shayne, she’s determined to marry someone else. Eventually Shayne talks her around, then pretends he’s given up detective work by going to work at a plane factory. In fact he’s investigating sabotage by going undercover – WW2 hits the Shayne series. In the course of his adventures, Shayne impersonates a riveter, a southern gentleman, several different businessman… all the while avoiding his fiancée.
This wasn’t based on an original Shayne novel, but a story by Borden Chase – which may explain why 30 minutes in Shayne winds up going undercover on a cruise ship and we introduce a whole new bunch of characters, including an old female friend of Shayne’s (one of the refreshing things about B film detectives was they always seemed to have bantering relationships with women who they treated as equals – provided said females didn’t want to marry them), and George Reeves as a gigolo with a moustache.
Two decent twists – Reeves is an undercover agent, and the revelation of the baddie. Shayne visits Hawaii prior to Pearl Harbour and at the end of the film takes off for Manila. He evidently got out of there in time for his next adventure!
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