Nick Carter, Master Detective (film)

For the radio program, see Nick Carter, Master Detective.
Nick Carter, Master Detective

Half sheet theatrical poster
Directed by Jacques Tourneur
Produced by Lucien Hubbard
Written by Bertram Millhauser
Based on original story by Bertram Millhauser and Harold Buckley
Starring Walter Pidgeon
Rita Johnson
Music by Edward Ward
Cinematography Charles Lawton Jr.
Edited by Elmo Veron
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release dates
  • December 13, 1939 (1939-12-13) (New York)
Running time
 59 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $379,000[1]
Box office $456,000[1]

Nick Carter, Master Detective is a 1939 film starring Walter Pidgeon in the title role. Carter investigates espionage at an aircraft factory. Pidgeon and Donald Meek went on to reprise their roles in two sequels, Phantom Raiders (1940) and Sky Murder (1941).

Plot

Nick Carter boards an airliner with John Keller, the inventor of a revolutionary new aircraft. The pilot makes an unscheduled landing so that his confederates can try to steal Keller's plans, but Carter holds them off, and stewardess Lou Farnsby manages to fly them to safety. Carter, posing as "Robert Chalmers", the new assistant to Hiram Streeter, the boss of the California factory, has Lou reassigned to the infirmary.

During his investigation, Carter receives the unwanted help of Bartholomew, who fancies himself an amateur sleuth.

A test flight of the new aircraft ends in disaster; the wings are ripped off during a high-speed dive, and the test pilot is killed. It is found that bolts attaching the wings were cut. Later, Carter finds Keller's body in a running car in a closed garage. Carter suspects Keller was strangled, and the scene staged to look like a suicide.

Finally, Carter notices that each time a part of the blueprints goes missing, a worker has a serious accident and has to be sent home. He surmises that sections of the plans have been photographed, and the film hidden under bandages. He goes to apprehend the plant's doctor, Frankton, but Frankton is forewarned. Unable to leave the factory in time, he has the unsuspecting Lou escort a "patient" home. When Carter arrives, Frankton tells him that Lou will be killed unless the doctor shows up at a prearranged rendezvous soon. Carter lets him leave, but secretly has the roof of his car painted with a white cross. This enables Carter to track Frankton in an airplane to a section of the Los Angeles docks. Frankton, his associates, the complete plans and Lou race to a waiting ship. Carter engages in a firefight with the crew using a Tommy gun borrowed from the police. He prevents their getaway, but he and his pilot are shot down. A harbor patrol gunboat arrives (at the instigation of Bartholomew), and the villains are forced to surrender.

Cast

Reception

According to MGM records the movie earned $276,000 in the US and Canada and $180,000 elsewhere, making a loss to the studio of $93,000.[1]

Frank Nugent wrote in The New York Times, "No, this isn't Nick Carter as we remember him, but it's an amusing fiction for all that, with enough action to compensate for the arch unoriginality of the plot and with pleasantly casual performances all around. ... They [Pidgeon and Meek] make a gay crime-solving combination".[2]

Time Out more recently stated, "Tourneur's second film in Hollywood, it's briskly and competently done, but the best thing about it is Donald Meek's performance as Bartholomew the Bee Man, a mousy little apiculturist who fancies himself as a private eye."[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
  2. ↑ Frank S. Nugent (December 14, 1939). "THE SCREEN; 'Nick Carter, Master Detective' Belatedly Joins the Ranks of the Hollywood Spy-Chasing Fraternity At the Miami Theatre". The New York Times.
  3. ↑ "Nick Carter – Master Detective". Time Out New York.
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