The Lone Wolf in Paris

Francis Lederer is the Lone Wolf, retired jewel thief and a bit bored by it. He's staying at a hotel in paris, where various foreign nobles report that their suites have been robbed -- raising the manager's suspicions of Lederer -- of nothing. Lederer discovers that Princess Frances Drake of Made-Uppia is present, trying to recover the crown jewels necessary for her brother's coronation; their mother, Ruth Robinson, borrowed money on them, but now the lenders, led by Grand Duke Walter Kingsford, refuses to let her redeem them; he plans to run the country when the jewels in the crown turn out to be paste. So Lederer offers to help the Princess out.

Lederer plays the role with aplomb, considerably more than all the dukes and royals combined. His tricks are simple and invariably succeed, until the bad guys point guns at him. It's a nice little adventure movie that gets it over in 66 minutes, and then you can get on with something else.

Melvin Douglas starred in Columbia's 1935 remake of the 1926 silent "The Lone Wolf Returns," while Francis Lederer takes on the role in this isolated followup from 1938. The series proper begins with the next entry, "The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt" (1939), which starred Warren William in the first of his nine films that continued through 1943 (the character featured in six silent features and three early talkies before the Douglas remake). Obviously the inspiration for the Saint and the Falcon, The Lone Wolf was a reformed jewel thief with an eye for the ladies, and in "Paris," they don't get much prettier than Frances Drake ("Mad Love", "The Invisible Ray"), cast as a princess in distress. The dependable Walter Kingsford and a young Albert Dekker (billed as Albert Van Dekker) are among the villains but they don't come off as being a very dangerous bunch hence the middling grade, though Lederer is perfectly acceptable if one can excuse the accent (which made him an intriguing choice for the title role in "The Return of Dracula" in 1958.) In this film and the previous entry with Douglas, The Lone Wolf's valet is named Jenkins but beginning with Warren William's debut film the character was dubbed Jamison and thereafter played in all but one film by Eric Blore. The Wolf's given name is Michael Lanyard but Lederer's first name is spelled Michel. This is one of the five entries from 1935 to 1949 that has yet to be shown on Turner Classic Movies so that may explain why there have been no prior comments. Hardly an essential entry but worth a look for the curious.

There's nothing really wrong with this movie. There just isn't much of interest. It's a stereotypical story of three nobles who are holding the queen of an obscure small country hostage with the hope of replacing her and her son and taking over the throne. (To do what? We're led to believe that there's nothing much to the country.) The queen's daughter meets a reformed jewel thief, the Lone Wolf of the title, and enlists his aid in getting back some royal jewels that the three evil nobles intend to use to force the queen to abdicate. (She sold the jewels to them to help the starving peasants in her bankrupt country, but needs them now that her son is about to be crowned, and they, baddies that they are, won't sell them back. Nasty nasty.) The Lone Wolf agrees to come out of retirement, so to speak, because he's attracted to the princess.

Things work out as you would expect.

As I said, there's nothing wrong with this. It's just all pretty much movies by the numbers, and not interesting.

This time, it's Francis Lederer who takes on the role of Michael Lanyard in "The Lone Wolf in Paris" from 1938, directed by Albert S. Rogell. Eric Blore is his assistant, named Jenkins instead of Jamison.

The minute Lanyard and Jenkins enter their hotel, they are accused of theft! Lanyard has to show letters from Europe's top police forces to convince them he's out of the jewel robbery business.

When he gets to his suite, he finds a woman hiding in his open trunk as the house detectives search. They have robbery on the brain.

The woman's story unfolds. She is a princess. Hir mother used the crown jewels of her country as loan collateral. When she went to repay the loan, the people who gave her the loan decided they would rather rule the country. The theft will be discovered at her brother's coronation, which will then not take place.

Lanyard then begins his quest to get the jewels back, which have been replaced with paste.

Lederer is so handsome and dashing, and of course his Wolf has a much more European sophistication. Plus he's very romantic. He doesn't have Warren William's humor, but he's still good.

I didn't see the best print, but I recommend it. Lederer is a favorite of mine, a delightful actor. A week before he died at age 100, he was still teaching at his acting school.

Michael Lanyard & his valet Jenkins decide to check into a fancy hotel in Paris, and the hotel managers have a fit when they find out a notorious jewel thief wanted in several countries is in their establishment. He produces letters from several police chiefs verifying he's been reformed for the last 5 years, but this does little to alleviate their suspicions. Within minutes, a robbery appears to take place, but nothing is stolen. He soon finds himself involved with the princess of a tiny European country, who's trying to prevent 3 very-corrupt "Royals" from over-throwing their government! "WHY are you doing this?" "I have a love for adventure, and a desire to help beautiful woman in trouble."

This leads him to systematically steal back 3 "crown jewels" which were already stolen, and try to get them (and the princess) back home before the coronation of her young brother is to take place. One thing leads to another, lots of intrigue, danger, and a bit of romance thrown in. DAMN-- this is the kind of movie Simon Templar / The Saint should have had in the 30s, if that character hadn't been saddled with such a CHEAP studio as RKO.

Inexplicably, Melvyn Douglas & Raymond Walburn, who were both so perfect as Lanyard and his valet Jenkins (who deeply wishes they were still pulling heists) were replaced by Francis Lederer & Olaf Hytten. Both are EXCELLENT in their roles, though Lederer's continental accent seems strangely out of place (the way Paul Lukas was, playing Philo Vance). I've seen Olaf Hytten is a growing number of films, but this must be the biggest part I've ever seen him play. Also of note are Frances Drake as the beautiful Princess who finds herself falling for a man she never wanted help from, Walter Kingsford as a classy yet slimy villain, and Maurice Cass as an apoplectic hotel manager (he would play a similar role in one of the later entries). I had the feeling Fritz Feld would have been a good fit in that role.

As with what went on with Philo Vance, I cannot fathom what went on with Columbia Pictures. They did 3 Lone Wolf films in a row with different casts, which feel like they were operating in different continuities, despite all being from the same strudio. It's like what happened when the James Bond films went from George Lazenby to Sean Connery to Roger Moore in the space of 3 films.

Also, while the print of THE LONE WOLF RETURNS that OnesMedia has only has slight damage and hissy sound, THE LONE WOLF IN PARIS is in terrible shape. (They actually included 2 copies in their box set, the 2nd one is better, but has Spanish subtitles.) I enjoyed it IMMENSELY despite this. These are 2 of the BEST and most ENTERTAINING films in the entire series, and I feel somebody really needs to get on the ball and do proper restorations.

Finally, the plot about a hero trying to stop the overthrow of a country, I feel, was one more element that made its way into the 1998 Val Kilmer film THE SAINT, which had nothing whatsoever to do with Leslie Charteris, but instead, seemed like a heavily-disguised love letter to Louis Joseph Vance's character. (What the heck was going on there?)