El Lobo en Scotland Yard

The Lone Wolf Meets a Lady from 1940 stars Warren William in the eponymous role, real name Michael Lanyard, costarring Eric Blore and Jean Muir.

Muir plays Joan Bradley, a secretary to the wealthy Mrs. Penyon (Georgia Caine), who becomes engaged to her son Bob (Warren Hull). She is gifted a $100,000 necklace, a family heirloom. When she returns home to get ready for a party, her husband, believed dead, shows up.

In the end, he's murdered, the necklace is stolen, and, terrified, she runs, nearly run over by Lanyard and his assistant Jamison (Blore).

Lanyard takes Joan under his wing and works on not only getting her out of trouble but solving both the murder and the theft.

William makes a terrific Wolf, and he and Jamison are hilarious together, with Jamison practicing his singing on a recording device which is used to help the case - until it's interrupted by a tune from Jamison. The exasperated police are well played by Thurston Hall and Fred Kelsey.

Very entertaining.

The Lone Wolf comes to the aid of Joan Bradley, a young woman who gets herself embroiled in a case of murder and robbery.

Gentleman thief turned Private Detective Michael Lanyard is once again on the case, ably supported by Jamison.

A pretty good installment, a solid if unremarkable plot, but as a whodunnit, it worked quite well. This did actually remind me a little of The Lone Wolf Strikes, a case that also involves a jewellery theft.

It's quite well paced, it's full of twists and turns, and you are made to wait to learn exactly who the killer is.

Jean Muir is very good as Joan Bradley, but it's Eric Blore who steals the show as Jamison, he is absolutely hilarious throughout, his quick wit and one liners are a total joy, his delivery is flawless.

A pleasing mystery, one I enjoyed.

7/10.

Always enjoy the great acting of Warren William, (Michael Lanyard/Lone Wolf) and his partner, Jamison, (Eric Blore) who were planning on a nice trip to Lake Placid, N.Y. for some fun in the snow. However, their trip is upset because they almost run over a young lady who ran in the front of their automobile. This lady was Joan Bradley, (Jean Muir) who is a pretty blonde socialite about to get married and is robbed of a diamond necklace worth a great deal of money. Joan witnessed a murder and tells Michael Lanyard the entire story and he decides to help her get out of this mess of a situation she got herself into by giving her an alibi. The plot thickens and there are many twists and turns. There are plenty of laughs and you will never be able to figure out just who is the killer until the very end of the film.

"The cleverest wolf.... still ends up as a fur coat!" A witticism from the long-suffering "Insp. Crane" (Thurston Hall) as he yet again finds himself accusing his constant antagonist "Lanyard" (Warren William) of being embroiled in (fake) jewellery theft and murder! This time though, he and loyal "Jamison" (Eric Blore) are taking the fall for "Joan" (Jean Muir) who had teed up an advantageous marriage with the son of a wealthy woman before she finds herself accused of murder. After an high-speed near miss with our sleuths, she finds her future is wrapped up with their's. With the police on their trail, "Lanyard" et al must rush to find out just what happened and who did what. This adventure provides some better examples of the quickly paced and engaging banter between William and Blore, with the latter frequently making observations that raise a smile and he juggles his innate curiosity with him "never denying his cowardice"... Sure, there's little jeopardy here but Muir has a bit more to her as the put-upon dame and there's actually more comedy to appreciate here, too.

This movie is a B-detective series film. This means that as a "B" movie, it was the second and usually lesser film on a double-feature bill. This didn't mean that B meant it was a bad film, but it was certainly given a smaller budget and had lesser pretensions and expectations from the studio. Many B-films were detective series films and they provided great but also relatively predictable entertainment (much like a movie version of a TV show like MURDER SHE WROTE or even LAW AND ORDER). Common to all these films were goofy or evil supporting characters, a very fast pace, a relatively short length (55-70 minutes) and a certain familiarity with the main characters. Some notable examples are the Sherlock Holmes, Charlie Chan, Falcon or Saint series films.

The Lone Wolf is in many ways particularly like The Saint or Falcon films because the lead (Warren William) plays a reformed thief and gentleman who is smooth with the ladies. While he's very easy to like and is obviously a force for good, the police never seem to understand he's helping them. AND, because of this, the cops are pretty dumb! This is the trademark of all these films.

In this case, William is very ably assisted by Eric Blore (who is hilarious as his butler in this third Lone Wolf film). Unlike the last of the Warren William Lone Wolf films (The Lone Wolf Strikes), this one has a very good plot and actually has some entertaining twists and turns. Plus, like the first of the series (The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt), the supporting actors in general are excellent. A very good example of the series.