Nick Carter, Master Detective (1939)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Jacques Tourneur

Writers:

Bertram Millhauser (story) and
Harold Buckley (story) ...

Release Date:

15 December 1939 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Mystery | Drama

Tagline:

THE WIZARD OF CLUES!!! Nick Carter lives again in the fierce brutal...dangerous era of TODAY!

Plot:

Detective Nick Carter is brought in to foil spies at the Radex Airplane Factory, where a new fighter plane is under manufacture. |

Plot Keywords:

Spy | Detective | Airplane | Secret Plan | Amateur Detective

Cast

Walter Pidgeon	...	Nicholas 'Nick' Carter, aka Robert Chalmers
Rita Johnson	...	Lou Farnsby
Henry Hull	...	John A. Keller
Stanley Ridges	...	Doctor Frankton (as Stanley C. Ridges)
Donald Meek	...	Bartholomew, the bee man
Addison Richards	...	Streeter - President of Radex
Henry Victor	...	Hammil - tall spy boss
Milburn Stone	...	Krebs - 2d hurt worker
Martin Kosleck	...	Otto - 3d hurt worker
Frank Faylen	...	Pete Foley - 1st pilot
Sterling Holloway	...	Bartholomew's Bee Asst.
Wally Maher	...	Cliff Parsons - Keller's Pilot & Asst.
Edgar Dearing	...	Skeptical Harbor Patrol Sgt. Denny

Runtime:

59 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #5821) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Filming Locations:

Lockheed Airplane Works, Burbank, California, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer bought the screen rights to all the 1,100 Nick Carter stories published in the 1930s. However, all 3 of the films made in the Nick Carter series were based on original stories.

Movie Connections:

Followed by Phantom Raiders (1940)

One of the first features made by Jacques Tourneur in U.S.

Nick Carter, Master Detective was the first of the two movies about a very popular fiction detective Nick Carter, which were directed by Jacques Tourneur for MGM, the other one being 1940 Phantom Raiders.

Nick Carter was created in 1886 and since the times of silent cinema had several times been chosen as a protagonist of various films made in France and United States prior to this 1939 Jacques Tourneur version. This time Nick Carter is played by Walter Pigeon in his first starring role. He is chosen to conduct an investigation in the case of industrial espionage on one of the American factories that manufactures warplanes. The film quite memorable especially because of the very remarkable plane chase sequence at the end and because of the comic relief given by Bartholomew, the Bee-man, wonderfully played by Donald Meek, a Nick Carter's partner in investigation who always appears when less expected to give help or to free a number of bees.

Overall Nick Carter, Master Detective is a quite pleasant 1930s B detective film, with its memorable moments, worth to take a look at. 6/10