THE LONE WOLF MEETS A LADY
US, 1940, 61 minutes, Black and white.
Warren William, Jean Muir, Eric Blore, Victor Jory, Roger Pryor, Warren Hull, Thurston Hall, Fred Kelsey, Robert Emmett Keane, Bruce.
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.
Once again, the plot concerns jewellery, this time a necklace. A young woman from a poor background is engaged to a wealthy man and has to wear the family necklace at a party to meet the whole family. A friend tries it on during the meeting – which is attended by a jeweller, family friends… When everybody leaves, the young woman phones a criminal accomplice.
When the woman returns home, she is accosted in her house by her former husband who is then murdered. She runs away in panic, by chance running in front of the car driven by Michael Lanyard along with Jamison. They speed and are pursued by motorcycle policeman, Bruce Bennett (who was to appear in the next Lone Wolf drama, though mainly offscreen, The Lone Wolf Keeps The Date). They are all taken into custody – and Inspector Crane and his unreliable associate, Dickens, put the blame on Lanyard.
The professional criminal, known to Lanyard, Victor Jory, visits Lanyard, imprisoning the young woman and making a phone call after studying a photo of the initial group in the newspaper. He is also murdered.
After various adventures and eluding the police, Lanyard gets the girl to invite all those at the initial meeting to come to the river, near the window of her apartment, alleging that the mysterious necklace was thrown out the window into the river. In the meantime, he has checked with an old fence-friend and discovers that the necklace was taken apart a year before and sold in pieces. The present necklace is fake.
Inspector Crane is waiting with Lanyard and all the suspects turn up – and the revelation that the murderer is actually the dealer who seemed the most innocent of the suspects. He pulls a gun, shot, slightly wounded – and everything is solved and his mother urges the young man to marry his fiancee as soon as possible.
