The Lone Wolf Meets a Lady

I confess that I did not know this character and that this film was my first encounter with the Lone Wolf, the nickname of the fictional character Michael Lanyard, a jewel thief turned private detective, in a series of novels written by Louis Joseph Vance (1879-1933). No less than 24 films were produced about the Lone Wolf, between 1917 and 1949. Warren William would play the character in nine of them, between 1939 and 1943, probably accompanied by his faithful servant Jamison, played by Eric Blore.

It's a typical television private eye series, avant la lettre, more "The Thin Man" than "Charlie Chan", where a traditional "who done it" script crosses with a situation comedy, usually led by Eric Blore, the comedian on duty, in this case accompanied by Fred Kelsey, the incompetent police assistant, always fooled by the Lone Wolf.

Pure entertainment, but fun, interesting and with the seal of the good old days. I became curious to see more episodes of the series.

"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.

I've still a few of this series of films to see yet, but TLWMAL seems pretty typical of the William Warren Lone Wolf entries.

Basically the pretty and innocent socialite (Jean Muir) about to be married gets tangled up with theft and murder, then luckily for her gets tangled up with the Lone Wolf and his valet (Eric Blore). These two are about to go on holiday but stay to help the damsel in distress from the clutches of the law (Thurston Hall & Fred Kelsey).

There's quite a few twists and turns and the pace never lets up, especially when one of the baddies (Victor Jory) is summarily dismissed from the plot as a corpse without a shot being fired. I think one of the reasons why High Brows disdain this type of potboiler is because they're unnerved to find that it can take so much concentration to follow the story - This Should Not Be!

Favorite bit : In trying to give Muir an alibi, William runs the bath and orders her to take her clothes off - Blore is suitably and audibly outraged even though they immediately leave the room. The last few minutes are a bit frantic, but when the time was up they closed 'em down fast at Columbia.

This was good, recommended to all fans of the genre.

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.

I'd never heard of the Lone Wolf before watching this one but I ended up enjoying it a great deal. Much of that comes down to the unexpected comedy which makes this film a humorous treat. In particular, the witty interplay between the Wolf and his British manservant adds plenty of laughs to the proceedings. The film starts off with an involved little set up which sees an innocent woman getting framed for murder, and when the Lone Wolf gets drawn in when he vows to clear her name in any way he can. The plot twists and turns come thick and fast here and they never forget the laughs either. I'll watch more.