The Lone Wolf Meets a Lady

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.

If it weren't for some droll remarks by ERIC BLORE, this Lone Wolf entry called THE LONE WOLF MEETS A LADY hasn't got much material to distinguish it among all the other Wolf films.

Blore brings some much needed humor to the predictable formula which has the Wolf fleeing the authorities with a woman (JEAN MUIR) who has witnessed the murder of a man over the robbery of an expensive jewel. He and his valet (Blore) decide to help her free herself from the clutches of Inspector Crane (THURSTON HALL) as The Lone Wolf goes about to find the real man responsible for the crime.

The only surprise among the cast members is seeing BRUCE BENNETT pop up as an irate policeman. Bennett doesn't play his usual bland type and plays the feisty cop with a good display of temperament. Oddly enough, his name is billed last among the cast credits. WARREN HULL as Muir's fiancé is competent enough and better remembered by me as "The Green Hornet" in the serial series he did in the early '40s. As for WARREN WILLIAM, he seems completely at ease in the title role.

Nothing new here, and one of the less memorable but still enjoyable entries in this series.

Enjoyable Lone Wolf film with plenty of twists in the plot and a hero who is suave and cunning. The witty one liners from the characters melds well with the snappy pace.

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.

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.