The Lone Wolf Strikes (1940) User Reviews

casting pearls before swine

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 7 December 2011]

"The Lone Wolf Strikes" from 1940 is a neat entry into the Lone Wolf series starring Warren William. William is delightful as Michael Lanyard, aka The Lone Wolf. His butler is played by Eric Blore, who has a large part in this and is very funny. In this story, Lanyard is asked by a friend to find pearls that were stolen from a friend of his, who was subsequently murdered - though the murder was called an accident.

Fake pearls and real pearls bounce back and forth, with William going to a gathering as Emil Gorlick, a diamond merchant. Gorlick is actually played by Montagu Love, but when William finds out that he has never met the thieves, he ties Gorlick up and impersonates him in order to re-steal the pearls.

Warren William was a wonderful, relaxed actor, an old-fashioned patrician type, who found humor in roles once the silents ended. In silents, he usually played the heavy. He played Perry Mason, Sam Spade, and Philo Vance, among other parts. He continued to play the occasional heavy, but he's best known for his precode work as a meanie. He died in 1948, only 53.

Very enjoyable.

Strikingly good

[Spondonman · 7/10 · 31 December 2006]

This was William Warren's 2nd outing as Michael Lanyard the Lone Wolf with the eternal butler Eric Blore in for his 1st of many. It's another pleasant mystery-adventure, with fairly high Columbia production values and a generally light-hearted approach.

Girls father is murdered and has valuable pearl necklace stolen, girl enrols Lanyard to help and they both seem keener to find the pearls than the murderers. At first anyway, when their close mutual friend is also murdered it suddenly gets serious. With many wonderful gurnings by Blore, laconic wit from William and decoration from inquisitive Joan Perry it races along to the satisfactory climax. Favourite bit: Lanyard's fond encounter with his old friend (?) Emil Gorlic (played by Montagu Love) in his hotel room. Lanyard's passion for his extensive aquarium in his living room was I'm glad to relate, short-lived, and by the way the disputed elaborate balcony from Spy Hunt is here too, again on the 1st floor this time at the house of one of the baddies.

If you like the genre as I do - nice work by all concerned, if you don't - shame you wasted your time.

While a bit of a letdown from the first Lone Wolf with Warren William, it's still a pleasant romp

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 20 March 2007]

This is the second of the Lone Wolf series starring the roguish Warren William. While this film includes a positive cast change (Eric Blore is now the butler), the overall level of supporting acting is a big drop off from the last film. In the first one, Rita Hayworth and Ida Lupino were along for the ride as well as the Wolf's daughter (played very well by the excellent child actress, Virginia Weidler). Apart from Blore, the show is all Warren William and while he is very good, the film's chemistry is a bit lacking--making this a pretty ordinary B-detective film. While not quite as exciting or magical as a Sherlock Holmes or Charlie Chan film, it is roughly on-par with a Saint or Falcon film--and this isn't bad company for this film. A slightly better than average time-passer for fans of the genre--but unfortunately, not a lot more.

Fast Paced Mystery

[Michael_Elliott · 7 May 2012]

The Lone Wolf Strikes (1940)

*** (out of 4)

Fun entry in the series has a young woman (Joan Perry) have her father murdered and some expensive pearls stolen so Michael Lanyard (Warren William), aka The Lone Wolf, takes the case and uncovers several bad guys all wanting the jewels. This certainly isn't going to be mistaken for a classic but I think there's enough good stuff going on here to make it worth viewing to anyone who enjoys these older mystery series. As you'd expect, William is pitch-perfect in the lead because he has no trouble playing tough and a he certainly has no issue playing laid back, cool and he can deliver a one-liner when need be. All of those years working in various pre-codes for Warner really set William up good for a series like this because he can pretty much play anything. If a scene needs charm then he can deliver. If he needs to be tough then he can deliver that. William is certainly the main reason to watch the film as he keeps it moving at a very fast pace. The supporting cast includes a nice bit by Joan Perry as the rather obnoxious daughter who can't stay out of trouble and we also get Eric Blore playing the butler. The story itself is a pretty strong one as we're given a couple mysterious to be solved. The film starts going down one track but quickly changes as a second mystery comes up. At 67-minutes the film moves at a very fast pace and keeps the viewer guessing along the way.

Another Good Lone Wolf Story

[whpratt1 · 7/10 · 6 October 2007]

This film starts out with a very rich older man showing a young woman his home and a picture of his wife who is wearing a very beautiful diamond necklace. The man offers the young lady the opportunity to wear this necklace to a party they were going to attend and that is when the story gets interesting. There are a few murders and plenty of laughs with Michael Lanyard the Lone Wolf,(Warren William) and his butler Jamison, (Eric Blore). In this film the Lone Wolf decides to retire from detective work and his big hobby is having all kinds of fish tanks all over his apartment which drives Jamison out of his mind trying to take care of them all. This picture was very entertaining with a film background on a car ferry around Manhattan during the 1940's. Enjoy

By the time they'll find out that the necklace is missing we'll both be collecting Social Security

[sol-kay · 6/10 · 14 October 2007]

**SPOILERS**Being strictly a second story man, before retiring form is life of crime, jewel thief Michael Lanyard, Warren Williams, get a bit over his head here becoming involved in two not one murders one of which he's the prime suspect in.

Lanyard is asked by his friend Stanley Young, Addison Richards, to retrieve his clients Phillip Jordan, Roy Gordon,$100,000.00 pearl necklace that was stolen by his lady friend and, unknown to Jordan, gold digger Binnie Weldon,Astrid Allwyn. It turned out that Binnie and her boyfriend Jim Ryder,Alan Baxter, pulled a fast one on Jordan switching his necklace that was to be given to his daughter Delia, Joan Perry, as a wedding present when she was to be married.

Finding out what Binnie did to him Old Man Jordan gets down to business telling her and Jim to give him back his necklace or else he'll have them arrested for grand larceny. Not using his noodle, head, Jordan tipping off Jim & Binnie to his plans ends dead up in, what's made to look like, a fiery car smash-up engineered by Tim.

Getting to work on finding the stolen necklace Lanyard is hampered by Jorden's pesky and annoying daughter Delia who's always sticking her pretty nose in his business in finding her father's, which is really hers, pearl necklace. Lanyard slowly puts all the missing facts in the case together by impersonating, after tying him up in his hotel room, international jewelry fence the Prussian looking Belgium jewelry assessor and fencer Emil Gorlick, Montagu Love. Gorlick was to take, at a very handsome price, the pearl necklace off Binnie and Tim's hands and make a nice profit, as much as 75%, for himself on it.

Just when you, and Lanyard, think that it's all over Stanley who Lanyard gave the necklace for safe keeping ends up being murdered with the necklace taken by this other group of crooks lead by Alberts Harland Tucker. Alberts had a plan to get Delia to fall in love and marry handsome Ralph, Robert W. Wilcox, a member of his gang. It's then when Delia gets the necklace, when she announces her engagement, Ralph being her future husband can get it off her by literally leaving her standing alone at the altar.

Being the last person to see Stanley alive Lanyard is now wanted for his murder and has to work fast and double-time to prove his innocence as well as retrieve, for the second time, the stolen necklace now, after getting it back from Tim & Binnie, by the Alberts Mob.

With the help of his faithful butler Jamison, Eric Blore, as well as spreading a rumor that he still has the real necklace Lanyard pulls off the impossible in getting both the police and the Alberts Mob to chase and track him down on a Hudson River Ferry. With both Alberts and the cops trapped on the New York City bound boat Lanyard can now both prove his innocence in his not murdering Stanley but also get those who did, Alberts & Co, arrested by the police. As for the necklace Lanyard tricked Alberts into thinking that he didn't have the real one where he just, by chasing Lanyard on to the ferry and getting himself and his gang arrested, handed it to him and Delia on a silver platter!

The Lone Wolf strikes

[coltras35 · 7/10 · 19 February 2023]

Delia Jordan's father is murdered and some very valuable jewelry stolen. She hires Michael Lanyard (aka The Lone Wolf), a retired-and-reformed jewel thief to find the killer and the jewels.

The 2nd Lone Wolf entry starring Warren William is a tightly-plotted, engaging one with a clever run around over the stolen pearls. One minute there's a fake one exchanged for the real one etc - the Lone Wolf is always one step ahead, but he's bit hampered by the interference of Joan Perry who plays the daughter of the murdered man; she's a restless client who is practically on Warren's heels every minute, overly anxious to get back her father's gems. There's another beauty Astrid Allwyn an alluring moll, who along with her boyfriend are after the pearls and so are another group. Nice chase sequence at the end.

Pearls--it's always the pearls!!...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 6 October 2007]

Delightful entry in the Lone Wolf series starring WARREN WILLIAMS, this time with JOAN PERRY as the young woman seeking to find the killers who murdered her wealthy father. With a larger than usual role for valet ERIC BLORE, who makes the most of his comic abilities, this one gets off to a merry start and provides a good mix of laughs and shady bits of suspense.

The cast is in fine form--especially when MONTAGU LOVE turns up as a European diamond merchant with thick accent, bushy mustache and monocle. The story is all about the theft of a pearl necklace from the safe of Philip Jordan (Perry's father) and his murder. The Lone Wolf takes the case when the daughter pleads with him and from then on it's standard Lone Wolf fare with the plot leading to a satisfying capture of the killer thieves.

Summing up: Delightful entry in the series.

Trivia note: For awhile, I thought the actor playing Ralph Bolton was Craig Stevens, but it turns out it was RALPH WILCOX who was married, first to Florence Rice, and then to Diana Barrymore--who dedicated her book "Too Much, Too Soon" to Wilcox, with whom she went on alcoholic binges during their five year marriage. Very handsome actor who never made it to stardom in Hollywood, probably due to alcoholism.

A Complex Game of Chess

[profh-1 · 7/10 · 24 June 2022]

A banker is swindled by a girlfriend, then murdered when he tries to get a stolen necklace back. His business partner, an old friend of Michael Lanyard, convinces The Lone Wolf to come out of retirement to steal the necklace BACK. Unfortunately, the dead man's daughter not only keeps getting in his way, but her new boyfriend is in league with the thieves!

Inexplicably, Columbia did 4 LONE WOLF films in a row that each feel like they're part of different series. They went thru 3 Mike Lanyards (finally settling on Warren William, who'd previously played Julius Caesar, Sam Spade, Philo Vance AND Perry Mason), and 4 butlers named either Jenkins or Jamison before finally sticking with exagerated comic Eric Blore.

This story goes from light-hearted to outright farce to SERIOUS drama, finally ending with an action-packed climax, and by the end it feels like you've sat thru 2 entire films' worth of story in a little over an hour. Despite the disjointed nature of the series to date, I'd say this was 4 GREAT films in a row.

One thing I was very glad of this time was, the cops didn't come into it at all until the last act, when Lanyard's good friend, who got him into this mess, is found dead, and he realizes there's at least one other person involved who hadn't been suspected yet. Don Beddoe returns for his 2nd film in a row as the untrusting head cop (whose name, for NO damn reason, changed from Inspector Thomas to Inspector Conroy), while the dim-witted assistant Sgt. Devan, played by Tom Dugan in the previous film, is replaced by the INTENSELY-annoying and downright STUPID Inspector Dickens, played by Fred Kelsey. Dickens is one of those patented dumb cops who keeps acting like he's knows what's going on, when he clearly doesn't, which in this case even annoys his supervisor. Dickens is the one really "off" element of this entire film for me, and I was horrified to confirm, he's in MOST of the remaining installments to come with Warren William.

As I said, it was nice the cops were limited to only the final act. Unfortunately, in later films, they tended to be around way too much, and ALWAYS making the exact same mistake, film after film.

A favorite bit is when Lanyard has a reunion with an old friendly rival thief played by Montague Love. I've seen him in numerous things over the years, but the one role that really stood out for me was the evil "Baron Fallon", the man who betrayed "Count Andre Dakkar" (who went on to become "Captain Nemo!!!") in the 1929 MGM sci-fi epic, "THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND".

A fun, intriguing movie.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 7/10 · 11 April 2023]

Michael Lanyard, aka The Lone Wolf is hired by Delia Jordan, who's father was killed, and had some highly valuable jewellery stolen.

It's perhaps not as good as the first film, but it's still a fine watch. It's a very easy going watch, it's fun, it's intriguing, and there's enough happening to keep you entertained, pacing is good, helped by a relatively short running time.

Warren William is great once again as the lead character, oozing charm and charisma, Joan Perry is great in support, Eric Blore is outrageous as The Butler, he's an absolute scream.

It's a very stylish looking film, even after so many years have past it still looks so slick, it's beautifully shot and produced.

I loved those quirky scenes with the fish, so different.

Nothing heavy, just a very pleasing, east to watch mystery.

7/10.

Mixed reaction to Warren William's second Lone Wolf outing.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 3 August 2015]

Disappointing most likely considering the well-made predecessor, "The Lone Wolf Strikes" is slower moving and less well cast. The only plus in this comes with the sudden change with Eric Blore added as butler Jameson, played in the previous three entries by other actors. Blore would remain through most the series, adding some consistency with his dealings with boss Warren William, still suave and ready for anything that comes his way (except the persistent females) which usually does. This time around, it's another jewel theft, switched by the predatory female companion of wealthy Roy Gordon who is suddenly killed in a suspicious car accident. William finds out that there's more to this than just a switch of real and fake jewelery and finds himself getting caught up in something big. Convoluted and frustrating at times, this only gets somewhat amusing for the few moments William and Blore switch comic bits of dialog. Joan Perry and Astrid Allwyn are not memorable replacements for the previous entries casting of Ida Lupino and Rita Hayworth, and the pace is much slower as well.

The Lone Wolf Strikes

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 8 December 2023]

When a lovestruck banker is rather gullibly conned out of a priceless string of pearls and then dies in a mysterious road accident, his partner "Stanley" (Addison Richards) comes to our renowned sleuth to ask him to investigate. He's reluctant but agrees and that's when he meets the interfering daughter "Delia" (Joan Perry) who rather spoiled this mystery for me. Anyway, Warren Williams ("Lanyard") reckons he knows how to track down the stones and hopefully thereafter get to the bottom of the death, so with the help of stalwart "Jamison" (Eric Blore) sets about solving the crime. The first twenty minutes or so are quite well paced as the story take shape, but the persistence of the annoying "Delia" means that the thriller has only one way to go and that was downhill. You just know that however skilful his machinations are, she's going to end up screwing it all up and being the hostage. There's quite a fun dynamic between the pursuing police officers, Williams does quite a passable impersonation of a thick-accented European dealer and the denouement is quite clever, too. Worth a watch but Perry ensures it's a little disappointing.

Not the best of the series

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 16 August 2023]

I think THE LONE WOLF STRIKES might have been the first of this series as it doesn't feel quite as assured as later instalments I've enjoyed better, such as THE LONE WOLF MEETS A LADY. This one begins on familiar territory with a murder and jewellery theft, which leads to our hero being called in to help out with the investigation. Typical Holmesian stuff for sure and a little plodding with it, although the Wolf's butler adds some comedic fun to the proceedings thanks to the fine acting of Eric Blore. The rest is very much of the era: a lot of drawing room talk and a little crime-solving along the way, although it does pick up better towards the end.

Where's the Necklace

[dougdoepke · 8 September 2016]

Decent entry in The Lone Wolf series. The plot about a stolen pearl necklace and fake duplicates, along with two gangs of competing baddies, is pretty convoluted. In fact, you may need a scorecard to keep track of the disappearing necklaces. Holding things together, of course, is the commanding Warren William as the reformed jewel thief turned amateur sleuth. As the Wolf, he does the tongue-in-cheek part well, so we never take things too seriously—a requirement for the many amateur detectives of the time. But what's this about the Wolf ooing-and-aahing over his rows of aquariums. Something fishy going on here. There's also good humorous support from Blore as the butler, while the two well-upholstered girls, Perry and Alwyn, supply tricky eye candy.

Frankly, I would prefer a more streamlined plot, (do we really need a second jewel thief gang), but the basic premise is a good one, and I like that first bit of necklace trickery where Jordan gets fooled by a seductive Binnie. Note that the story is from the now legendary blacklisted Dalton Trumbo, still working the B-movie level. On the whole, it's an entertaining hour without being anything special.