The Last Warning

A few of Jonathan Latimer's books made it to the screen, none memorably. The novel this is based on, THE DEAD DON'T CARE, certainly deserved better treatment than it gets with this film. A complex, frequently hilarious, and suspenseful novel was turned into a tepid, clumsy, run-of-the-mill detective film with Foster as Bill Crane, Latimer's alcoholic detective (as the blurb on the cover of the paperback for LADY IN THE MORGUE says "Bill Crane--unique and alcoholic!") in a string of mystery novels. Latimer was a Phi Beta Kappa who later wrote the tense, terrific screenplay for THE CLOCK, starring Ray Milland.

Latimer later wrote or adapted scores of teleplays for PERRY MASON; his work for the show are among the best mysteries written for television.

Read the book this film is based on, if you can find a copy--it's great!

1938's "The Last Warning" was number 5 out of the 7 Crime Club mysteries from Universal, the third and last to star Preston Foster as Detective Bill Crane, and Frank Jenks as his sidekick Doc Williams. Set at a country estate owned by Major Barclay (E. E. Clive), the duo do more than their share of mugging, surrounded by beautiful girls around the swimming pool. They have been hired by John Essex (Ray Parker), Barclay's nephew, who has been receiving threatening notes from the mysterious 'Eye,' after which John's sister Linda (Frances Robinson) is kidnapped. Easily the weakest of the Bill Crane trio, the wisecracks not so smooth taken out of their natural element, much like the third 'I Love a Mystery' title, "The Unknown" (1946). A last bit of trivia: the last three Crime Clubs were the only ones included in the popular SHOCK! package issued to television in the late 1950s (only "Mystery of the White Room" actually aired on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater); plus, 1939's "The House of Fear" has often been mistaken for a Crime Club, but was actually a remake of a 1929 part-talkie from director Paul Leni, "The Last Warning," which has no connection to this Crane-Williams feature. The next Crime Club would be "Mystery of the White Room."

Made in the late thirties, it is a bit better and more fun and faster than the previous ones, no matter the companies which produced them. It is an Universal Studios stuff but sounds like a Warner Bros one. Directed by a prolific bland director, from whom I watched only a very few movies, it is dynamic, not boring at all. It is a gumshoe story, private eyes, which is not that usual in the thirties; I have not seen many of them; but more in the forties, many more. Preston Foster is very convincing in this agreeable time waster. Adapted from a Jonathan Latimer novel, the basic material was supposed to be good enough for the audiences.

A very clever and interesting mystery! It's great fun to watch the 2 detectives insult (and make fun of) stuffy butlers and British Majors, etc.

The method of the killings is extremely clever; the viewer will never guess how it was done!

Also, Joyce Compton (finally!) plays a sexy starlet, instead of her usual "dizzy broad" role.

Norm Vogel