THE LONE WOLF KEEPS A DATE

US, 1941, 65 minutes, Black and white.
Warren William, Frances Robinson, Bruce Bennett, Eric Blore, Thurston Hall, Jed Prouty, Fred Kelsey, Don Beddoe Edward Gargan.
Directed by Sidney Salkow.


The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt, 1939, was very successful, a star vehicle for Warren William. It was the first of nine films in a series featuring him as Michael Lanyard, reformed criminal and safe breaker. This film also introduced Eric Blore as Jamison, his butler and associate in crime and reform. Each film was just over an hour, an enjoyable supporting feature, showing William as his suave best, infiltrating many a crime, always solving the crimes. Another regular was first in hall as Inspector Crane as well is Fred Kelsey as his inept associate, Dickens, always making a fool of himself, eager to arrest Lanyard, his resignation often being demanded.

All the films were a variation on the basic plot, a crime introduced, often with jewellery, an appeal to Lanyard or his accidental involvement, the police accusing him of the crime, his ingenious devices, along with Jamison, to infiltrate criminal groups, expose the truth and humiliate the police.

For a change, the plot of this Lone Wolf film concerns abduction and ransom rather than jewellery. The opening is rather exotic, set in Cuba, Michael Lanyard in a secret deal purchasing an expensive Cuban stamp for his collection. Once again, he encounters an anxious young woman wanting to get to the airport. He decides to give her a lift, along with Jamison. Once in the US, they are attacked by criminals and Lanyard loses his stamp collection.

There has been an abduction of a prominent businessman and Lanyard poses as Inspector Crane to meet the bereft wife. In the meantime, there has been the murder of one of the kidnappers on a yacht used by the young woman’s fiance for water trips.

The woman, Frances Robinson, has a lot more to do in this film than heroines in previous adventures, especially in steering a speedboat to and from the city to the kidnap rendezvous. In this, she is aided by Jamison always intervening when he can, mocking the police, with quite a lot of encounters with the hapless Dickens who ruins various surveillance situations and whose resignation is demanded by Crane.

Lanyard discovers the brains behind the abduction, a casino owner played by Don Beddoe (who had appeared in previous Lone Wolf films but in differing roles). Bruce Bennett plays the hapless boat captain in jail. There is also a witness to the killing, a Portuguese restaurant owner who, at the moment of giving the information about who the abductor was, is shot.

Lanyard, of course, infiltrates himself into the company of the kidnappers, recovers his stamps, causes an absolute commotion with the pages falling apart and a fan blowing the stamps, giving him the opportunity to send a special message when Jamison comes to collect them. The message is written in the album and Jamison and the young woman are able to entice the police into a chase, with everybody arriving at the rendezvous, arrests, the freeing of the kidnapped man, the happy couple are able to marry. (In this one, Crane actually asks Dickens to resign – and he spends a lot of time in the shower, chained to the railing, and then falling into the water.)

There is a great mockery of the local police, the pretentious chief, his squad all lining up to obey him – a variation on the Keystone Cops.