Reporter William Boyd hops along a lavish ocean liner in an effort to question a public utilities company owner who ends up murdered. With the aide of an aging actor and his daughter (Sheila Terry), Boyd gathers everybody who is a suspect together, and reveals the killer. That's basically all in this slow moving mystery that of course has leading man Boyd sparring with leading lady Terry before the final clinch, a predictable aspect of many a B murder mystery that laces in bits of comedy before everything is wrapped up. There are a few surprise, especially how the killer is revealed, an element that might have you jaw dropped. For me, it did come as a complete surprise, the one aspect of the film that I did not expect and left me touched in spite of how bored I had been over the past hour.

"Go-Get 'Em, Haines" is one of the classical early crime movies. In black and white, it tells us the story of a newspaper agent, who accidentally enters an ocean liner and becomes witness of a murder, he afterwards tries to solve.The film includes all the elements you's expect from such a title. You have the lead character as a hero, who is both smart and eloquent. You have different characters with a motive, that make it hard to guess, who the actual murderer is. And of course you have the love story between the reporter and a beautiful young lady, that finds its climax in a kiss and a marriage. You even have the humorous sidekick, who is, as always, more disturbing than funny. On one hand you could thus say, that this is a rather standardized movie, on the other hand it still has an interesting plot and doesn't do any grave mistakes.All in all I had fun watching this title. It is surely not a masterpiece or anything alike but it is a nice little story, depicted in a well-known way. If you like those early crime movies, this could be a thing for you.

Despite the unusual title, GO-GET-'EM, HAINES is in fact a murder mystery set on board an ocean liner for most of its running time. It's notable for starring William Boyd, a later popular TV actor, playing the titular reporter who follows a rich businessman on board a cruise in the hopes of sniffing out a story. Well, he certainly gets one when somebody turns up dead...Despite Boyd's likable lead performance, this film is generally unremarkable and feels surprisingly slow given the extra-short running time. Many of the dialogue scenes are quite padded and the more suspenseful and exciting aspects of the narrative are played down rather than up. It's a pity, as in the right hands this could have been a tight little movie along the lines of PURSUIT TO ALGIERS.

Long before he became famous as the cowboy 'Hopalong Cassidy', William Boyd was a star during the late silent and early talkie periods. By about 1936, his prospects had diminished a bit and by the mid-30s he was mostly making B-movies for smaller studios--in this case Winchester. Now this does not mean they were bad films--just lower budgeted ones that had relatively simple plots because the films were barely an hour long. Of all the B genres, the murder mystery movies were among the most popular. Now "Go Get 'Em, Haines" does not begin as a murder mystery. The reporter, Haines (Boyd) is following a tycoon aboard a cruise ship looking for a story but soon a murder occurs and who better to solve it other than our handsome hero (well, actually, the POLICE would be a good bet...but you rarely see them called in initially in such films).Overall, "Go Get 'Em, Haines" is about what you'd expect--a mildly entertaining film where the leading man does a very good job. This isn't surprising, as Cassidy had already made quite a few films and had a nice, natural manner in his acting. Not a great film by any stretch, but not bad and a decent time-passer.By the way, I complain a lot about the prints on Alpha Video's DVDs. However, I must admit that this one is pretty good--clean and worth seeing.