Nick Carter, Master Detective (1940)

Someone is sabotaging the creation of an innovative high speed aircraft at Radex Corporation. Posing as an executive at Radex, detective Nick Carter (Walter Pidgeon) attempts to unmask the culprits and save the project. Directed by Jacques Tourneur (I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE) in his second Hollywood feature. As far as detective mysteries go, this one is a painless sit through at barely an hour long. The film didn't do well at the box office yet MGM did two more sequels before they abandoned the series. The movie has an annoying character for comic relief, Donald Meek as a beekeeper who fancies himself an amateur detective. As a detective, Pidgeon's Nick Carter is no Nick Charles or even a Charlie Chan. I'll catch up on the two sequels later to see if it improves. Pidgeon would move out of these B movies the next year (1941) and onto A list films like Ford's HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY and Fritz Lang's MAN HUNT. With Rita Johnson, Henry Hull, Martin Kosleck, Milburn Stone and Frank Faylen.