The Lone Wolf Takes a Chance (1941) User Reviews

An improbable mix, but it works

[Spondonman · 7/10 · 7 January 2007]

Another good Lone Wolf entry, maybe only marred by too many slapstick moments at the beginning - but I never expect anything less from Fred Kelsey! The handsome young couple in here were Lloyd Bridges in his 1st credited film and June Storey who was managing without Gene Autry for a change.

Warren William again plays Michael Lanyard the Lone Wolf, ex-jewel thief who has minded his own business for 10 minutes when a man is murdered by gangsters outside his 9th floor apartment window. His inadvertent help in the incident doesn't seem to faze him one bit, it's something that would definitely bother me! He and his ever effervescent butler Eric Blore are instantly mixed up and while they're chasing the baddies who've kidnapped an inventor the police are chasing them for the homicide. There's some nice scenes on a train pre North By Northwest where the Lady Vanishes becomes the Inventor Vanishes before the film swerves into an crumbly old dark house setting.

With a continuously "inventive" storyline and fast pace it was one of the better and longer LW's and well worth watching for those of us who like b&w comedy mystery b pictures from the '40's.

Despite a few brainless moments, this film is a better than average example of the genre

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 15 April 2007]

One of the biggest problems I have with most B-detective series films of the 1930s and 40s are how stupid the police are in the films. After a while it just seems a bit annoying that the police are stupider than tacos!! Because of this cliché, I was happy to see that not only were the police reasonably smart in this film, but the leading man (Warren William) was actually pretty stupid himself on occasion--particularly towards the beginning of the film. Early on, Michael Lanyard (William) is in his bathroom when a detective begins banging on his window from the outside--considering that Lanyard lives high up in a high-rise apartment building, this SHOULD have gotten Lanyard's attention! And, when the cop tries desperately to tell Lanyard that a man is being kidnapped in the adjoining apartment, Lanyard closes the window on the poor guy!!! Then, a shot naturally rings out and the cop falls to his death. People assume Lanyard is responsible--and in a way he really was! Now despite this brain aneurysm, Lanyard spends the rest of the film intelligently trying to solve the crime and he's very ably assisted by his valet, played by the wonderful Eric Blore. Blore was always excellent in the Lone Wolf films in which he appeared, but in this one he seems even funnier than usual AND actually proves to be pretty helpful--something B-detective sidekicks seldom are! By the way, the kidnap victim happens to be a very young Lloyd Bridges. He'd done a few other B-detective films, but only in tiny bit parts (such as a bus driver in a Boston Blackie film). Here, he gets a pretty good chance to act even though he is tied up most of the time!! The film has a good and complex plot that is relatively easy to follow, excellent acting and is just plain fun to watch. A very good example of the genre that would have merited an 8 if Lanyard hadn't been so gosh-darn stupid in the beginning!

The lone wolf is actually a cat, and the dumb detectives are his mice.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 16 July 2016]

As dashing as ever, Warren William is very amusing as the independent crime solver who makes a bet with police detectives that he will stay out of trouble for 24 hours. Fat chance of that happening, because like "Murder She Wrote", bad things always happen when he's around even if he isn't involved.

This comic mystery gets off to a hilarious start when a black cat ends up wearing valuable pearls that are believed mistakenly by the very effeminate male jeweler to be stolen. This is what leads William to make the deal with detective Thurston Hall, and valet Eric Blore makes the same bet with the seriously idiotic detective Fred Kelsey. Intrigue on a train results in murder, bringing the foursome together for a mixture of comedy and crime.

A fun B picture, this has everything that audiences clamored for in World War II. The villains are comparable to Nazi's, and William is the epitome of that no nonsense American who could use his wits to get out of jams and deal with ruthless criminals and nitwits like Kelsey who gets more laughs simply by being overly serious and thinking that he's the smartest guy in the room. June Storey plays a fictional movie star who maybe involved with the villains. Look for a young Lloyd Bridges as a train passenger.

Nice Entry in the Series

[Michael_Elliott · 14 May 2012]

The Lone Wolf Take a Chance (1941)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Good entry in the Columbia series has Michael Lanyard (Warren William) arrested on murder charges but of course he's innocent and must prove it. With the help of an actress (June Storey) and his assistant Jamison (Eric Blore), The Lone Wolf gets mixed up with murderers and counterfeiters. THE LONE WOLF TAKES A CHANCE is certainly a step up from the previous installment and after an opening sequence full of laughs, the film quickly picks up speed as we're given a rather interesting murder and an even busier series of events trying to explain what happened. I'm going to spoil what happened but the murder of the cop comes in a pretty surprising way and it's quite effective in the way that Lanyard gets mixed up in the events. Yes, one could argue that it was done in an over-the-top and unbelievable way but at least it was an original one. The comedy moments early on are actually pretty funny and they don't hurt the film like in previous episodes. There's a hilarious opening bit where The Lone Wolf tries to capture a black cat that has some pearls around its neck and the entire sequence is well directed and put together. There's some even funnier bits towards the middle of the picture when The Lone Wolf is stuck in a basement with the Inspector. The mystery aspect of the film is handled pretty well but I must say that all of the events were pretty hard to believe. As normal, William offers up a very good performance as the title character but by this time he could play it in his sleep. I really enjoyed Storey as the female lead and the regular cast of characters (Blore, Thurston Hall) are in fine form as well. We also get a young Lloyd Bridges. Fans of "B" mysteries should get a kick out of this one. It's certainly not among the best but it is fast paced and contains some fun moments.

fun caper

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 20 December 2011]

This Lone Wolf adventure starts out with a bet between Michael Lanyard, the Wolf (Warren William) and Inspector Crane (Thurston Hall) that Lanyard can't stay out of trouble for 24 hours. Guess who wins. A private detective (Regis Toomey) falls nine stories outside Lanyard's hotel room.

The detective was working on a case involving a special train car designed by Johnny Baker (Lloyd Bridges) that is holding treasury plates and can't be broken into.

Everyone, of course, thinks Lanyard is the bad guy though he's on the side of right as he and his butler Jamison (Eric Blore) enter the case, which involves murder and kidnapping. The film has a neat sequence on a train as Lanyard works to save the day.

Nice entry into the series, with Warren William his usual laid back self and Eric Blore adding a lot of humor. Recommended.

"Broadcast a general alarm!"

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 21 May 2016]

I get a kick out of watching these detective films of the era, they can be very entertaining but at the same time, some of them are quite brainless. The picture here fits in both categories. This Lone Wolf entry is based on a bet Michael Lanyard (William Warren) makes with Police Inspector Crane (Thurston Hall) that he can stay out of trouble for twenty four hours. By almost anyone's estimation that should be a safe one, but since that's the premise, you just know something will have to happen to cause the Lone Wolf's plans to go awry.

A neat surprise for movie fans in this picture is the presence of Lloyd Bridges in his first credited screen role, even if he does spend a fair amount of time under duress while bound and gagged. He's been kidnapped by agents who want to get their hands on a new set of engraving plates that are stored in a virtually foolproof safe wired to a poisonous gas mix which is released if the safe is tampered with.

If only the bad guys had been thinking as clearly as Lanyard there wouldn't have been any need to go the full seventy four minutes of the picture. Recall how Lanyard got the combination to the safe? - he just went back and watched the newsreel! Why couldn't one of the criminal masterminds figure that out for themselves? Gee, I don't know, not a lot of thought was put into this.

Nor was anyone paying attention in the editing room. When Johnny Baker was shown bound and gagged in the locked safe compartment with the Lone Wolf attempting to open it, he clearly got his hands free enough to reach up to his mouth to remove the gag placed in it, but after a cut away, he's shown again with his hands tied and immobile. Fortunately Lanyard figures out the combo in time to make the save on his own, otherwise he might have simply asked Johnny for it!

Well, I don't want to be too critical. The story was well played with a lot of humor thrown in, and the opening scene was fairly creative. An inattentive jeweler places a pearl necklace aside carelessly and it falls directly onto the neck of a black cat that scurries away. The whole time he's outmaneuvering the Wolf, his assistant Jamison (Eric Blore) and the police, I thought someone for sure would have called for apprehension of the cat burglar.

The Lone Wolf Takes a Chance

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 30 November 2023]

Warren William is the eponymous trouble maker for poor old "Insp. Crane" (Thurston Hall) who bets him that he can't behave himself for just one day! Well, of course he can't - indeed pretty sharpish he and stalwart "Jamison" (Eric Blore) are up to their necks in the theft of some US treasury plates from a supposedly impenetrable car invented by "Baker" (Lloyd Bridges). That's only the half of it - there's a killer afoot too and our not so wily policeman only has one suspect. What now ensues is an entertaining, if formulaic, join-the-dots mystery as June Storey provides an adequate damsel in distress ("Gloria") and the dialogue some fun and mischievous quips for Blore to raise the odd smile. There's a bit more meat on the bones of the adventure element to this with plenty of daft fisticuffs before the baddie is suitably apprehended. It's a bit too long - takes a while to get up an head of steam, but it does get there and ultimately it's a watchable little story that begs the question. When will "Crane" ever learn to trust in the "Wolf"?

A Special Train Car

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 17 December 2011]

There was a bit more comedy in this film from The Lone Wolf Series. The Lone Wolf as played by Warren William and his valet Jamison who is Eric Blore after being innocently trapped in a device to discourage bank robbers bet Inspector Thurston Hall that they can't go 24 hours without getting in some kind of trouble. That's a stupid bet on William's part because this whole series is The Lone Wolf getting into all kinds of scrapes and the police not believing he's gone legitimate.

This time trouble comes in the form of private detective Regis Toomey being shot and falling nine stories to his death outside William's hotel room. Toomey was on a case involving a gang trying to rob a newly designed train car invented by Lloyd Bridges. It opens with a combination and an attempt to break in without knowing the combination will result in poison gas killing you. A bit extreme I think, but the first cargo this car is carrying is treasury plates and lots of crooks would like to get their hands on those.

It's the usual run of things for William and Blore trying to catch the crooks in this case a gang led by Henry Wilcoxon and Walter Kingsford and trying to stay a step ahead of the cops who always think William is the bad guy. It's not much of a challenge in the case of Fred Kelsey who is Thurston Hall's sidekick and the butt of every gag in the film. Kelsey is one of those dumb flatfoots who graduated from the Keystone Police Academy and it's almost cruel what William and Blore do to him in every film.

Fans of the Lone Wolf series and Warren William should definitely like The Lone Wolf Takes A Chance. Incidentally he does lose the bet and pays off, sort of.

The Lone Wolf takes the train, and a plane, and a car ride...

[jaydeetee-19255 · 9/10 · 29 July 2016]

I'm a big fan of Warren William and Eric Blore, as well as mystery/comedy movies of that era, so my 9 star rating may be a tad prejudiced by that...still, the movie is one of the best entries in those early Lone Wolf films.

The plot at times is rather silly with the Lone Wolf and Jamison trying to save the life of an inventor (Lloyd Bridges)...what did he invent?...a railroad car that couldn't be broken into...if a criminal tried, bells & whistles would sound, and poison gas would fill the car...Huh?...what if some poor hobo, looking for a ride and a place to sleep happened upon that car?...Llyod would have got his butt sued...

But the movie chugs along the rails at a fast pace, plenty of laughs and an enjoyable way to spend a little over an hour of one's time...

I keep this movie on my cluttered DVR...it's a comfortable movie for me...when sleep comes slowly, I just turn this on and within 30 or 40 minutes I'm fast asleep...

Good luck Johnny, and don't run out of gas

[sol-kay · 5/10 · 8 December 2007]

**SPOILERS**Always getting themselves into trouble playful and somewhat inebriated ex-Jewel thief Michael Lanyard, Warren William, and his faithful and somewhat nutty companion Jamison,Eric Blore,get in over their necks in this movie by having a murder rap hanging over their heads.

After getting falsely arrested for attempted bank robbery, by chasing a black cat with a string of pearls around it's neck, Lanyard & Jamison take up a bet, a two week paycheck, from their arch enemies the bumbling Inspector Crane and his sidekick Det.Dicken, Thurston Hall & Fred Kelsey,that they can stay out of trouble for a 24 hour period; It just didn't happen. Lanyard gets innocently involved in the murder, by not letting him into is hotel room, of a detective who was left standing on the ledge of his bathroom as Lanyard was busy shaving. Lanyard thought the detective was working for Crane and was trying to get him to break the law.

It turned out that the detective was protecting inventor Johnny Baker, Lloyd Bridges, who knows the combination to an armored train car safe that's transporting US Treasury engraving plates to San Francisco. On the run to prove his innocence in the detectives murder Lanyard together with Jaimson end up getting involved with a gang of hoodlums who kidnapped Baker and are trying to get him to give them the combination to the armored car safe that he invented.

Lots of action and far less wit and savvy on the Lone Wolf's part in solving this crime and at the same time rescuing Baker from his own invention. Locked in the train-car vault with no one but Lanyard having any idea what the combination is the only way the Federal Authorities can open the safe is to break it open. That would release a deadly cloud of poison gas that would suffocate Baker who's locked and tied up inside.

There's just too many ingredients in the plot here with a car train and plane chase as well as a haunted house that keep you off focus and confused to what's really going on in the film. Lanyard and Jamison on the run throughout the entire movie from the Keystone Kops-like police, who couldn't find an elephant in a telephone booth, end up saving the day and Bakers life by using both their brains as well as their shoe-leather. Checking out a newsreel of Baker opening up the train safe Lanyard just had the motion picture enlarged and copied the combination Baker was spinning when he opened the vault! The gang who kidnapped Baker and forced him to open the safe by threatening to murder his fiancée star Hollywood actress Gloria Foster, June Story, didn't have the smarts to figure out what Lanyard did!

Losing the bet,by not being able to keep out of trouble for just one day, to Inspector Crane and Det. Sgt. Dickens Lanyard reluctantly has Jamison give the two cops their winnings, two week salary. Always a sore loser since he, up until then, never loses anything Lanyard has the two cops payed off with Treasury Notes, or twenty ten and five dollar bills, that he and Jaimson just printed up with the now recovered genuine US Government Treasury plates! One thing you've got to say about Lanyard is that this time around he was strictly legit. The money that he handed Crane & Dicken wasn't at all counterfeit.

Exciting Lone Wolf entry

[coltras35 · 10/10 · 22 April 2021]

Michael Lanyard -aka the Lone wolf - is a reformed jewel thief but inspector Crane doesn't think so, and that view is exacerbated when Lanyard and his valet ( played by Eric Blore) is trapped behind bars of a bank when following a cat who has a necklace on it. Lanyard is soon proven innocent, but the inspector wages that he won't be able to keep out of trouble, and he is right. It's not too long before our hero ends up rescuing an inventor of special currency engraving plates from the forgers attempting to steal them.

Exciting Lone Wolf mystery with touches of A lady Vanishes and old deserted house story. The plot fires on its cylinders, adeptly moving on to each scene; there's a lively train sequence where Lone Wolf is trying to prove that the inventor is kidnapped, but that backfires, and a race to find the inventor ensues, and it rounds up with a nail biting climax. An enjoyable gem.

A very enjoyable, humorous mystery.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 28 April 2023]

A former Private Detective is shot outside the very hotel window of Michael Lanyard, Inspector Crane is determined to stop Lanyard from interfering with the case, even arresting him.

Those opening sequences with the cat and pearls were very funny, they help to set the tone for the film.

It's funnier than other Lone Wolf films that I've seen, and that is no bad thing, it certainly has enough suspense and mystery, but the humorous moments are joyous.

There are more than a few shades of The Lady Vanishes about this film, the sequences on board the train are perhaps the highlight of the movie, very, very good sequences.

Very well produced, this film looks great, and moves by at a pace, there are no slow moments, it really does flash by at a canter.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, 8/10.