Time to Kill (1942): First Film Adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s The High Window

I am a huge fan of the B films starring Lloyd Nolan as Shayne, and this last one in the series did not disappoint. Nolan is perfect, as always, as Shayne. The character is fun and self-deprecating in his humor, which is another big plus. But this film is also an adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s novel The High Window. The humor in the film is actually not that far removed from Chandler’s writing featuring his famous detective, Philip Marlowe. In the hands of Chandler, Marlowe is wry and poetic. The two detectives—Michael Shayne (as played by Nolan) and Philip Marlowe—may have different styles when it comes to humor, but the humor is still there.

Time to Kill is the seventh in a series of twelve films about the detective Michael Shayne. Lloyd Nolan starred as Shayne in seven of the films until the series was dropped by Twentieth Century Fox. These seven films were released from 1940 to 1942. When the series was picked up by Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC), Hugh Beaumont took over the role of Shayne for five more films, which were released in 1946 and 1947. Click here to see my article about Just Off Broadway, the sixth film in the series, and to find links to my articles for the first five films in the series.

The plot of Time to Kill keeps many of the details of Chandler’s novel—but with some important differences. The biggest difference, of course, is that Philip Marlowe has been replaced with Michael Shayne. Such a major change could have spelled disaster, and for many fans of Chandler’s writing and of Marlowe, maybe it did, maybe it will. But it’s hard—especially for me—to dislike Lloyd Nolan’s portrayals of Shayne. In this last film in the series, the character of Shayne is true to the way the character is portrayed throughout the series, which I appreciated. I think this is one instance where I enjoyed the film as much as the book, but for very different reasons.

Time to Kill is in the public domain. Click here to watch it at the Internet Archive. Frankly, the quality of the online print at the archive leaves a lot to be desired. The sound and the picture get off to a shaky start, and the images are not very clear—and I have the screenshots to prove it! But it’s all I could find, and it’s free, and it’s always hard to argue about “free.” It’s still worth it to see such a fun and entertaining film.

(This article about Time to Kill contains spoilers about the film and about the novel, The High Window, on which it is based.)

Chandler’s novel starts with the famous detective, Philip Marlowe, of course. He is standing outside the Murdock residence, about to meet Mrs. Elizabeth Bright Murdock for the first time. Once he is inside the residence and after some preliminary questions, Mrs. Murdock decides that Marlowe will do as the private investigator for her case. She hires him to find a missing coin, the Brasher doubloon, which was part of her deceased husband’s coin collection. She is certain that her daughter-in-law, Linda Conquest, a nightclub singer, stole the coin when she moved out a week earlier and left her husband, Leslie Murdock, Mrs. Murdock’s son.

Time to Kill starts with Michael Shayne, more specifically, with a shot of the very worn soles of Shayne’s shoes. He always has money troubles—it’s a theme throughout the series, a running gag, if you will. Some of his clients aren’t always reliable about paying his fees. The soles of his shoes are a subtle way to show that this is one characteristic about Shayne that hasn’t changed since the first film was released. His feet are propped up on his desk, and he is on the phone. Viewers hear his voice before they see his face. I’m sure his voice would have been recognizable to his fans in 1942 by this point in the film series. It certainly was for me.

Shayne is on the phone providing references to Merle Davis, Mrs. Elizabeth Murdock’s personal secretary. They agree to an appointment the next day at 10:00. His fans know that his references are shaky at best, and Mrs. Murdock is only too happy to point this out to him when they meet the next day, but she still hires him for the same reasons as she does in the novel.

Another major change is the title: from The High Window to Time to Kill. The title of the film—Time to Kill—could apply to any film about murder. A high window in the novel, however, is important to its plot and central to the fortunes of Merle Davis, Mrs. Murdock’s secretary. Davis has a much more important role in the novel, and her story is a much more vital part of the plot. In this first film adaptation of Chandler’s novel, Davis’s story is watered down, and her character is given a lot less to do. This change doesn’t make the film adaptation any less fun and entertaining, but it lessens the impact of Chandler’s original story quite a bit.

The police detectives are foils for Shayne in the film, and that is also true for all the films in the series. But it’s definitely not true of the novel, where the detectives know what they are doing, even if they don’t have all the information that Philip Marlowe is able to gather as a private investigator. Some characters’ names have been changed for the film, but these kinds of changes are minor.

I watched the ending of Time to Kill twice, and I don’t think anyone, including Michael Shayne, ever stated clearly who killed Elisha Washburn and George Anson Phillips. In the novel by Chandler, it is clear that Lou Vannier (Venter in the film) killed George Anson Phillips and Elisha Morningstar (Washburn in the film) and that Leslie Murdock killed Lou Vannier (Venter).

Even though Time to Kill is based on Chandler’s novel The High Window featuring Marlowe—and even though Michael Shayne is actually a character created by another writer of detective novels, Brett Halliday—the film somehow works as both an adaptation of Chandler’s novel and another entry in the series of Shayne films produced by Twentieth Century Fox. I am glad that the producers decided to keep the Shayne character and to fashion Chandler’s story as the seventh film in the Shayne series. I can now say that I have seen all seven of the Nolan-as-Shayne films, and I have enjoyed every single one of them. Shayne is still genial, tough, funny, and down on his luck when it comes to money, but this time, the ending of Time to Kill hints that he just might get the girl.

All seven of the films starring Nolan as Michael Shayne would have made a great series of articles themselves, and I wish I had thought of it sooner. But I still have the series of five Shayne films starring Hugh Beaumont to see. These are the five films released by PRC in 1946.

I enjoyed Chandler’s novel very much, and I was anxious to see the two film adaptations. I decided to write about the novel and the two films as part of a series on my blog. (Click here for my article about Raymond Chandler’s novel The High Window.) Time to Kill was the first film adaptation, released in 1942. The Brasher Doubloon, released in 1947, is the second. This article is the second in the three-part series for July 2021.

December 24, 1942 (New York City), January 22, 1943 (United States), release dates  •  Directed by Herbert I. Leeds  •  Screenplay by Clarence Upson Young  •  Based on the novel The High Window by Raymond Chandler, the character Michael Shayne created by Brett Halliday  •  Music by Emil Newman, Cyril J. Mockridge, David Raksin  •  Edited by Alfred Day  •  Cinematography by Charles Clarke

Lloyd Nolan as Michael Shayne  •  Heather Angel as Merle Davis  •  Doris Merrick as Linda Conquest Murdock  •  Ralph Byrd as Lou Venter  •  Richard Lane as Lieutenant Breeze  •  Sheila Bromley as Lois Morny  •  Morris Ankrum as Alexander Morny  •  Ethel Griffies as Mrs. Murdock  •  James Seay as Leslie Murdock  •  Ted Hecht as George Anson Phillips  •  William Pawley as Mr. Hensch  •  Syd Saylor as the mail carrier  •  Lester Sharpe as Elisha Washburn  •  Charles Williams as the dentist  •  LeRoy Mason as Rudolph, the headwaiter

Distributed by Twentieth Century Fox  •  Produced by Twentieth Century Fox