User Reviews

(There are Spoilers) The Lone Wolf better known as retired Jewel thief Michael Lanyard, Warren Williams, gets himself involved with beautiful Pat Lawrence, Frances Robinson, while in Havana Cuba looking and finding a rare Cuben postage stamp in fact a one of a kind.

Lanyard gives Pat a ride to the airport, in his cab,not realizing that she's being targeted by a number of hoods who want what she has, but doesn't know what she has, in a package that Pat received at the Havana Post Office sent there by her fiancée Scotty,Bruce Bennett. Scotty is in jail back in Miami for a murder that he swears he didn't commit. It's that package together with this mysterious Portuguese fisherman Santos,Francis McDonald, who can prove Scotty's innocence which if convicted will land him straight into the Florida electric chair known as Ol' Sparky.

It's in Miami that the hoodlums make their move grabbing Pat's package and making off with it after belting out cold Lanyard who tried to stop them. It turns out that there was a switch, on the hoodlums part, where they grabbed Lanyard's stamp collection instead of the package, which contained $100,000.00 in ransom money, that the hoods were really after.

The rest of the film has Lanyard using both his wits and daring to get to the bottom of what's going on and he finds out that the $100,000.00 was to be paid to the hoods boss casino owner Joe Brady, Don Beddoe, in order to release millionaire Cyrus Colby, Henry Hurbert. Scotty a fishing boat captain got that money off the person that was his passenger and mailed it to his post office box back in Havana. Scotty's passenger was murdered by Brady's hoods, to which Portuguese fisherman Santos was an eye witness to, before he could get on board. They must of thought Sotty's boat passenger was taking off with it and keeping the cash all for himself; It was that person who Scotty was later indited for murdering.

It took a while for Lanyard to get his act together but once he did it didn't take him long to get the message through to his faithful butler Jamison,Eric Blore, where Old Man Colby was being held hostage: Sandy Key a small island off the Florida coast. Getting the local Keystone-likes Kops lead by their strictly by the books Captain Moon, Jed Prouty,to follow him there, together with Pat driving a stolen or sea-jacked speed boat,Colbey was rescued by them just before Brady's boys were to put a bullet in his head. And as for Brady and his boys they were captured as Lynyard, who was also being held hostage by the Brady Bunch, was lucky that he didn't end up breaking his head in the car crash he instigating in making his escape from them.

There's also in the movie, besides Capt. Moon and his over regimented law enforcers, New York police Inspector Crane, Thurston Hall, and his bumbling and butterfingered sidekick Detective Dickens, Fred Kelsey, as comedy relief. The two New York cops had no idea what they were up against, Brady and his gang of kidnappers, thinking that they were still after the Lone Wolf, Michael Lanyard, who had since gone straight and retired from his former life of crime. It was Lanyard who got them to get on the ball and get after the real bad guys in the movie by both impersonating Inspt. Crane and getting the all wet, by the time the movie was over, Det. Dickens on the right track to go after them.

Bumbling cops, a slick detective who manages to outwit them and the crooks and a morally ambiguous sidekick. Pretty much the staple of thirties and forties detective movies.

So, why tune in? Well, Warren William was the BEST Perry Mason; however, they stopped using him after a few movies and replaced him with some personality-free blow up dolls. The way he played Mason was more like Gardener's Perry Mason. Just a fun guy to watch.

As others have said, not a lot of mystery. But, a fun chase for a stack of ransom money that never made it to the kidnappers. Not Saint or Thin Man quality; but, definitely worth an hour of your life.

Warren William is back at the Lone Wolf, and like a bad penny, he seems to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, at least for rumbling police chief Thurston Hall, in Cuba on business and displeased to run into the constant thorn in his side. he is actually there to complete his Cuban stamp book, and having just gotten the last time that he needed find himself involved in the adventures and intrigue of a mysterious young woman, Frances Robinson, which leads him on a chase through all of Havana, and into all sorts of trouble that he hadn't quite expected.

The plot of the movie really doesn't matter much, because it is how it is executed that makes the film so entertaining. Of course his old phone call and Fred Kelsey are in Cuba, and along with his devoted assistant Eric Blore, they assist the young Ms. Robinson. It is ironic that the plot explodes as William, floor and Robinson are on their way to the airport but unfortunately they are never able to leave the island. The film moves at breakneck speed with witty dialogue, plenty of action and great character performances including Jed Prouty. There are actually very few Hispanic characters seeing, and the cabby who is driving William to the airstrip happens to be black! This isn't quite a realistic set up, but presented so entertaining Lee, it remains an enjoyable entry in the series.

I have both watched many of the 19 thirties and forties mystery series, and other than the Thin Man series, the Lone Wolf is the one which holds up the best. Columbia's Whistler series, holds up on simply being original in each entry, more anthology than a continuation. Others, like the same, the Falcon, Nick Carter, Boston Blackie and the single entry series of various other detectives involved in comic situation surrounding crime weren't always so entertainingly presented. Thanks to Williams consistent fresh performance, the films are truly enjoyable because it seems like the cast is simply just having fun. So be patient with flaws in the plot, holes in reality and every other issue that could otherwise make you roll your eyes.

I had to watch this twice in the same weekend to understand most of the plot. 5 men pull a kidnapping, 1 of them gets greedy and is bumped off, but a man who witnessed the killing is framed for it and believed part of the gang. Another witness offers to clear him, but only if the man's girl hands HIM the ransom money! Thru the most accidental of circumstances, Mike Lanyard gets involved when his rare stamp collection (his latest hobby) is stolen. But now the cops are sure HE's the mastermind of the kidnapping & murder!

MORE comedy than usual in this one, which in addition to Crane & the imbecilic Dickens (WHAT on Earth are a pair of New York cops doing in Miami, anyway?), there's local cop Inspector Moon and a crew of what can best be described as Florida's answer to The Keystone Cops!

Among the guest actors are Bruce Bennett as the man sitting in jail accused of the murder (a step up from an irate traffic cop from the previous film), and the recurring face of Don Beddoe, who after playing both a Washington DC cop and a New York City one, is the MAIN villain of this story! In addition, there's Edward Gargan, usually cast as a dumb cop, this time playing a dumb henchman; and Lester Matthews, another member of the gang, some years before playing Sir Denis Nayland Smith in the "FU MANCHU" tv series!

It's kinda sad to see the behavior of a character like Inspector Crane, who bounces back and forth from suspecting Lanyard of worse crimes than he ever did when he was a professional crook, to abruptly thanking him for all his help at the end. Especially when you just know, he's going to do it again in the following 4 films.