Dopo Arsenio Lupin

Melvyn Douglas, (Arsene Lupin) keeps his real name a secret from everyone and gets himself involved with a stolen necklace and also has a romantic relationship with Lorraine DeGrissac, (Virginia Bruce) who both give an outstanding performance throughout the entire film. There is plenty of laughs and comedy in this film and it captures your attention and then turns quickly away from stolen jewelry and centers around all the characters involved in this mystery. George Zucco, (Perfect of Police) instead of playing the role as a crook which he has done all his acting career, is now a police man who tries to catch his criminal and suspects Arsene Lupin of stealing this necklace. Georges Bouchet, (Monty Wolley) plays low key in this film and has some very dark secrets which he does not want to reveal.

Famed number 1 G-Man Steve Emerson (Warren William) quits to start a private eye firm. He is hired by an insurance company to protect a precious emerald necklace. Before he gets there, someone makes an unsuccessful attempt to steal it. Count de Brissac is the owner and Lorraine is his niece. After the attempt, the insurance company is ending the policy in 8 days. The family takes it back to Paris. They are joined by family friend Rene Farrand (Melvyn Douglas) who becomes Steve's main suspect as the master thief Arsène Lupin.

This is an interesting return. After the Barrymores in the 1932 version, they make a comeback. It has a good back and forth. It's great to have smart people on both sides. This does have drawbacks from the traditional crime mystery. It doesn't have much mystery. This is carried by a few good actors.

The first MGM Arsene Lupin sound movie featured John and Lionel Barrymore as mighty antagonists, master thief and super cop. The RETURNS movie builds up the contest of similar seeming antagonists, a successful G-Man, forced to resign because of his self-promoting publicity, and a legendary thief who seems to have come back from the dead. The beginning of the film builds up the character of Warren William as a sleuth on the trail of a thief calling himself "Arsene Lupin." In short order, William is in France where he meets an aristocratic lady (the beautiful Virginia Bruce) with four young Boston terriers, which we never see again, and Melvyn Douglas as her friend. Douglas apparently has a country estate with various farm animals running around. Then begins the apparent duel -- William versus Douglas, one man suspecting that the other is the real thief who escaped death and the other thinking that he has to evade suspicion for committing a crime and maintaining his life style. The two dance around each other with their witty exchanges, while paying attention to the lovely Bruce. Douglas has to contend with the unexpected appearance of two buddies from his past (Clive and Pendleton) who think that their old life style has returned. Meanwhile, a formidable French police officer (George Zucco) is on the trail. Then begins a succession of events, all centering around a $250,000 emerald necklace, amid a flurry of misdirections, red herrings, shadowy figures, safe cracking, and a deadly shooting, until the satisfying conclusion is reached. A nice touch: the "confetti" thrown at the end. William is as suave as he is in his role as Perry Mason, Douglas is as debonair as he is in his films with Garbo, Bruce is more gorgeous than she is in BORN TO DANCE, even Zucco is more believable than he is in his horror films of the 40's. Also, watch for noted screen chewer Vladimir Sokoloff in his much younger years. One of the better crime films of the '30's with witty repartee, handsome actors, and a clever plot.

The Arsene Lupin films have been around since well before the advent of talking pictures and a wide variety of actors have played the role of this gentleman thief (sort of like the Lone Wolf or Boston Blackie before they went straight). Because of the massive turnover of actors and generally lackluster films, despite the series continuing on and off for decades, it never caught on with the public.

In this installment, it picks up three years after the last film. While the actors were different, the plot was a logical follow-up to the earlier film and once again, while the film was set in France, no one spoke with even the vaguest of French accents. This time, a fat-headed but brilliant detective (Warren William) is out to catch the thief but must contend with some decent plot twists to untangle the mystery.

This is a pretty good film of about the same quality as the earlier ARSENE LUPIN starring John and Lionel Barrymore. While this film did not have quite the same star power as this other film, Melvin Douglas and Warren William are both entertaining to watch. Sadly, however, despite a decent supporting performance by Virginia Bruce, there were also some disappointing performances as well. George Zucco (a perennial heavy from B-films) and Monty Wooley (a likable sort of rogue in most films) are pretty much wasted, as they are given very little to do. It's a shame, because with better writing, these two could have been major assets in the movie. Instead, Douglas and William are pretty much the whole show.

It's a good thing that Arsene Lupin is dead, because there are enough attempts to steal John Halliday's fabulous emerald while he's trying to sell it. Fortunately (for the insurance company) there are only a few days left on his policy against theft. So they send recently resigned super-G-Man Warren William to France, to guard the emerald and to pine for Halliday's niece, Virginia Bruce. She's also being pursued by Melvyn Douglas, who's actually Arsene Lupin.

This would become a running gag in Maurice Leblanc's series of stories about the master criminal. He would fall off a cliff or something at the end of a novel. Then the next would open with him being a decorated hero of the French Foreign Legion, or Prefect of Police in Paris, and no one would ever recognize him, because he is such a master of disguise. George Fitmaurice directs it as a comedy of manners. He was one of those directors who never quite fell off the A list in the early sound era, mostly because of working for Sam Goldwyn. He did have a falling-off of quality with the enforcement of the Production Code, but at MGM he was buoyed by a staff of writers who knew how to work together under producer John Considine. He died in 1940 at the age of 55.