One Dangerous Night

Gerald Mohr is leaving town. He calls together three women he's been blackmailing for one last payment. The lights go off, a gun fires and enter Warren William to return one of the ladies' handbag -- his valet, Eric Blore, has stolen it. He finds Mohr dead and calls the police. They assume he did it, and so the Lone Wolf escapes and heads off to find whodunnit.

William had been a big, snide, sexually predatory star at Warner Brothers, but that had been before the Production Code was enforced. He had spent the last ten years gradually heading down the list. Even though he was a fine actor, a star is a commercial concept. People pay to see a star because they know what they're getting, and they weren't making movies like that under the Code. So William continued to give fine performances, but less interest in him brought him to Columbia, where the schedule was easier and his diffident delivery was what served Harry Cohn's budgets.

It's a competent, early film for director Michael Gordon, who distinguished himself with adaption from the stage like CYRANO DE BERGERAC, but figured out how to compose for the wide-screen camera in movies like PILLOW TALK. However, as competent as everyone is, it's a movie that you can watch once and no more. At least, I can.

I imagine this is the kind of movie you might have gone to see in a drive-in. Made amidst WWII, it tells a rather quirky tale of "Eve" (Marguerite Chapman) whose car is totalled and she is luckily rescued by the "Lone Wolf" himself (Warren William) and his loyal sidekick "Jamison" (Eric Blore). They escort her to her home only to find that when they get there, there is a body. It's a renowned playboy and it's very, very quiet! Police inspector "Crane" (Thurston Hall) is unimpressed by the array of alibis on offer and so arrests them all - but our shrewd sleuths escape, and begin to piece things together uncovering a story of blackmail and jewel thievery with the enigmatic "Patricia" (Margaret Hayes) playing an increasingly significant and puzzling role in their investigations. Can they solve this before the police apprehend them again, and again - or, ideally, before anyone else gets bumped off? Nope, there's not the slightest hint of jeopardy here and the production is really very basic. That said, there's a bit of an entertaining dynamic between Warren and Blore and the whole thing has enough of it's tongue in it's cheek to keep it entertaining if not exactly taxing on the little grey cells. It's twenty minutes too long, and at times it regurgitates itself a bit much - but as wartime whodunits go, it's by no means the worst.

This is the second to last Lone Wolf movie starring Warren William. And, like the rest of them, it's well worth your time.

When the story begins, Lanyard gives a lift to a standed lady. After they drop her off, his manservant Jamison announces that he's stolen the woman's purse! Since Lanyard is a REFORMED criminal, he then heads back to the lady's home to drop off the purse...only to find the place empty except for a dead body! You know from an earlier scene that he was a blackmailing jerk...and so his being dead is no surprise! As usual, the cops want to arrest Lanyard for the crime and, as usual, he escapes to investigate it on his own and prove his innocence.

While this film is very familiar, this is not a bad thing as the Lone Wolf series was quite popular and a B-movie, like the Charlie Chans, Boston Blackies and the rest. Blore, as usual, is wonderful in support and it's well worth your time...something I'd say of all the Lone Wolf films.

A young woman is stranded on the road with a puncture. Michael Lanyard (Warren William) with his valet Jamison (Eric Blore) happen to pass by and pick her up, driving her to her destination. Eric Blore finds himself with her handbag, so they return to the house. There the owner has just been murdered after a rendez-vous with three fine ladies, all loaded with jewellery. When Warren William returns with Eric Blore only the corpse is left and the mystery of it. It proves that anyone of the three ladies could have killed him, since they all had motives enough, having been blackmailed by him, but the intrigue is more complicated. The odyssey into this labyrinth of intrigue and constantly more complications to the case turn into a maze of new clues and leads, out of which both Warren William and his valet and the audience will find it hard to find a way out. Ultimately the mystery is solved, and of course it's the one you least would have suspected to have done anything of the sort, but it's the comedy of this criminal farce that counts. Eric Blore gets the prize with his adorable diction while one of the police officers also cuts quite a hilarious figure. The dialog is brilliant, it is great entertainment, very much in the style of Dick Powell and Myrna Loy, while you will hardly ever watch it again: Once is enough.

Lanyard and his butler Jamison are driving off to a party when they come across Eve (Marguerite Chapman) whose car has gotten a few flats. They deliver her to a home and continue on - only for Jamison to gleefully confess that he stole her purse. They go back to give it to her but instead find a dead body in the house. And the police find them. The hunt is on with a group of women who were being blackmailed by the dead man and were all in the house when the lights went off. And there is also Ann Savage as part of a gang who has a history with Lanyard and a loaded gun on him now.

A lively entry finds our hero getting involved in blackmail and murder, which is par for the course for the Lone Wolf, which is played by Warren William with his raffishness. There's the usual twist and turns and some good action.