Too Many Winners

1947 film by William Beaudine

Too Many Winners

Directed by| William Beaudine
Written by| Fred Myton
Scott Darling
Brett Halliday
John Sutherland
Produced by| John Sutherland
Starring| Hugh Beaumont
Trudy Marshall
Ralph Dunn
Claire Carleton
Cinematography| Jack Greenhalgh
Edited by| Harry Reynolds
Music by| Alvin Levin

Production
company

Producers Releasing Corporation

Distributed by| Producers Releasing Corporation

Release date

* May 24, 1947 (1947-05-24)

Running time

| 61 minutes
Country| United States
Language| English

Too Many Winners is a 1947 American mystery crime film directed by William Beaudine and starring Hugh Beaumont, Trudy Marshall and Ralph Dunn.[1] Made and released by Producers Releasing Corporation , it was one of a number of films featuring the private detective Michael Shayne.

## Plot

[edit]

Private detective Michael Shayne and his girlfriend/secretary Phyllis are in the office ready to leave on a duck-hunting vacation but are puzzled when a mysterious stranger arrives who announces that he intended to offer a bribe to not take a certain unspecified case, but hearing that Shane is going away anyway, abruptly departs. The mystery deepens when Shayne is invited over by a Mayme Martin with an offer to sell certain valuable information which Shayne declines. Leaving Martin's, Shayne is ambushed by a pair of odd thugs under orders of their boss seeking to know what Martin told him, which was nothing; they beat up and leave Shayne in the city dump.

Now drawn in to an obvious situation, Shayne sends his reporter friend Tim Rourke to accept Martin's information offer, but instead Rourke encounters police and her murdered body.

It turns out that the mystery concerns criminal activity at the Santa Rosita racetrack. The president Albert Payson's track manager John Hardeman hires Shayne to solve a counterfeit ticket racket that is bankrupting the track. The printer for the legitimate tickets is a trusted company owned by Payson, and Hardeman alone decides on the tickets' secret daily design and code numbers.

The track offers one other lead. Gil Madden, owner of the Tribune, had long been trying to get the contract for printing the tickets. He had financed the purchase of the Tribune using as collateral a printing company he'd acquired from a prison inmate, a Theodore Ross.

Shayne recognizes Madden as the stranger who offered the bribe to drop the case and he won't answer questions. Madden's partner, photographer/engraver Ben Edwards, also refuses to be questioned.

As it turns out, Gil Madden is aka Theodore Ross and Ben Edwards is aka Claude Bates. Years ago they were convicted of together counterfeiting Irish sweepstakes tickets and sent to Joliet Penitentiary. Madden served a light sentence and was released but Edwards drew 20 to 50 and after two years, broke out. Edwards has acquired a wife and son who know nothing about his past.

Despite the efforts of Edwards to remake his life, inventing a new type of camera, sadly Hardeman figured out his identity and began blackmailing the escaped convict to force him to make the counterfeit racing tickets.

We are now at the point of the film where Hardeman fears Edwards will talk and directs his thugs to kill him, as he had ordered the death of Martin who knew about the blackmail. But just as he speaks this order into the phone, Edwards shows up to instead shoot and kill Hardeman; in turn as he is leaving, Edwards is shot and killed by Hardeman's thugs.

At the end, one thug reveals the other, Joe, as the killer of Martin and Edwards; Joe attacks and is shot by the other as police arrive and capture him. In the final scene, the police agree at Shane's request to spare Edwards' family from the truth, and Shane and Phyllis at last embark on their vacation.

## Cast

[edit]

* Hugh Beaumont as Michael Shayne
* Trudy Marshall as Phyllis Hamilton
* Ralph Dunn as Det. Peter Rafferty
* Claire Carleton as Mayme Martin
* Charles Mitchell as Tim Rourke
* John Hamilton as Albert Payson
* Grandon Rhodes as John Hardeman
* Ben Welden as Gil Madden / Theodore Ross
* Byron Foulger as Ben Edwards / Claude Bates
* Jean Andren as Mary Edwards
* George Meader as Clarence

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Marshall p.333

## Bibliography

[edit]

* Marshall, Wendy L. William Beaudine: From Silents to Television. Scarecrow Press, 2005.

## External links

[edit]

* Too Many Winners at IMDb

* v
* t
* e

Films directed by William Beaudine

1920s-30s|

* Watch Your Step (1922)
* Catch My Smoke (1922)
* Heroes of the Street (1922)
* Her Fatal Millions (1923)
* Penrod and Sam (1923)
* The Printer's Devil (1923)
* The Country Kid (1923)
* Boy of Mine (1923)
* Daring Youth (1924)
* Wandering Husbands (1924)
* Daughters of Pleasure (1924)
* A Self-Made Failure (1924)
* Cornered (1924)
* Lovers' Lane (1924) (unconfirmed)
* The Narrow Street (1925)
* A Broadway Butterfly (1925)
* How Baxter Butted In (1925)
* Little Annie Rooney (1925)
* That's My Baby (1926)
* Sparrows (1926)
* The Social Highwayman (1926)
* The Canadian (1926)
* Frisco Sally Levy (1927)
* The Life of Riley (1927)
* The Irresistible Lover (1927)
* The Cohens and the Kellys in Paris (1928)
* Heart to Heart (1928)
* Home, James (1928)
* Do Your Duty (1928)
* Give and Take (1928)
* Fugitives (1929)
* Two Weeks Off (1929)
* Hard to Get (1929)
* The Girl from Woolworth's (1929)
* Wedding Rings (1929)
* Those Who Dance (1930)
* Road to Paradise (1930)
* Father's Son (1931)
* Misbehaving Ladies (1931)
* The Lady Who Dared (1931)
* The Mad Parade (1931)
* Penrod and Sam (1931)
* Men in Her Life (1931)
* Three Wise Girls (1932)
* Make Me a Star (1932)
* The Crime of the Century (1933)
* Her Bodyguard (1933)
* The Old Fashioned Way (1934)

British films|

* Two Hearts in Harmony (1935)
* So You Won't Talk (1935)
* Dandy Dick (1935)
* Boys Will Be Boys (1935)
* Get Off My Foot (1935)
* Mr. Cohen Takes a Walk (1935)
* Where There's a Will (1936)
* Educated Evans (1936)
* It's in the Bag (1936)
* Windbag the Sailor (1936)
* Feather Your Nest (1937)
* Said O'Reilly to McNab (1937)
* Take It from Me (1937)

1930s-40s|

* Torchy Gets Her Man (1938)
* Torchy Blane in Chinatown (1939)
* She Done Him Right (1940)
* Four Shall Die (1940)
* The Last Alarm (1940)
* Misbehaving Husbands (1940)
* Up Jumped the Devil (1941)
* Emergency Landing (1941)
* Mr. Washington Goes to Town (1941)
* Federal Fugitives (1941)
* Desperate Cargo (1941)
* Flying Wild (1941)
* Mr. Celebrity (1941)
* The Miracle Kid (1941)
* Blonde Comet (1941)
* Duke of the Navy (1942)
* Broadway Big Shot (1942)
* Lucky Ghost (1942)
* Professor Creeps (1942)
* The Panther's Claw (1942)
* Men of San Quentin (1942)
* Gallant Lady (1942)
* One Thrilling Night (1942)
* Phantom Killer (1942)
* Foreign Agent (1942)
* The Living Ghost (1942)
* The Ape Man (1943)
* Clancy Street Boys (1943)
* Spotlight Scandals (1943)
* Ghosts on the Loose (1943)
* Here Comes Kelly (1943)
* Mr. Muggs Steps Out (1943)
* Mystery of the 13th Guest (1943)
* What a Man! (1944)
* Voodoo Man (1944)
* Hot Rhythm (1944)
* Detective Kitty O'Day (1944)
* Follow the Leader (1944)
* Leave It to the Irish (1944)
* Oh, What a Night (1944)
* Shadow of Suspicion (1944)
* Bowery Champs (1944)
* Crazy Knights (1944)
* Mom and Dad (1945)
* Adventures of Kitty O'Day (1945)
* Fashion Model (1945)
* Blonde Ransom (1945)
* Swingin' on a Rainbow (1945)
* Come Out Fighting (1945)
* Black Market Babies (1945)
* Girl on the Spot (1946)
* The Face of Marble (1946)
* One Exciting Week (1946)
* Don't Gamble with Strangers (1946)
* Below the Deadline (1946)
* Spook Busters (1946)
* Mr. Hex (1946)
* Philo Vance Returns (1947)
* Hard Boiled Mahoney (1947)
* Too Many Winners (1947)
* Killer at Large (1947)
* Gas House Kids Go West (1947)
* News Hounds (1947)
* Bowery Buckaroos (1947)
* The Chinese Ring (1947)
* Angels' Alley (1947)
* Jinx Money (1948)
* Shanghai Chest (1948)
* The Golden Eye (1948)
* Smugglers' Cove (1948)
* Incident (1948)
* Kidnapped (1948)
* Jiggs and Maggie in Court (1948)
* The Feathered Serpent (1948)
* The Lawton Story (1949)
* Tuna Clipper (1949)
* Forgotten Women (1949)
* Trail of the Yukon (1949)
* Jiggs and Maggie in Jackpot Jitters (1949)
* Tough Assignment (1949)

1950s-60s|

* Blue Grass of Kentucky (1950)
* Blonde Dynamite (1950)
* Jiggs and Maggie Out West (1950)
* Lucky Losers (1950)
* County Fair (1950)
* Second Chance (1950)
* Blues Busters (1950)
* A Wonderful Life (1951)
* Bowery Battalion (1951)
* Cuban Fireball (1951)
* Ghost Chasers (1951)
* Let's Go Navy! (1951)
* Havana Rose (1951)
* Crazy Over Horses (1951)
* Rodeo (1952)
* Hold That Line (1952)
* Jet Job (1952)
* Here Come the Marines (1952)
* The Rose Bowl Story (1952)
* Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla (1952)
* Feudin' Fools (1952)
* No Holds Barred (1952)
* Jalopy (1953)
* Born to the Saddle (1953)
* Roar of the Crowd (1953)
* Murder Without Tears (1953)
* Yukon Vengeance (1954)
* Paris Playboys (1954)
* Pride of the Blue Grass (1954)
* High Society (1955)
* Jail Busters (1955)
* Westward Ho the Wagons! (1956)
* Up in Smoke (1957)
* In the Money (1958)
* Ten Who Dared (1960)
* Billy the Kid Versus Dracula (1966)
* Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter (1966)

* v
* t
* e

Michael Shayne by Brett Halliday

Books|

* Dividend on Death (1939)
* The Private Practice of Michael Shayne (1940)

Films|

* Michael Shayne, Private Detective (1940)
* Sleepers West (1941)
* Dressed to Kill (1941)
* Blue, White and Perfect (1942)
* The Man Who Wouldn't Die (1942)
* Just Off Broadway (1942)
* Time to Kill (1942)
* Murder Is My Business (1946)
* Larceny in Her Heart (1946)
* Blonde for a Day (1946)
* Three on a Ticket (1947)
* Too Many Winners (1947)

TV|

* Michael Shayne (1960-61)

Radio|

* Michael Shayne (1944-53)

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