Counter-Espionage

Lone Wolf, an ace detective who was a jewel thief, functions to safeguard British military objectives during WWII from Nazi German espionage agents as The Blitz is on

Immerse yourself in London fogs and the Blitz-spirit as the Lone Wolf, as played by the inimitable Warren William with his dulcet tones, hunts down Nazi spies, but the good guys think he has stolen plans to sell to the Nazis. We, as the viewer, know this isn't the case. This is a highly enjoyable wartime comedy thriller with a tautly drawn plot, vivid wartime atmosphere and some good tension. Lone Wolf shows his guile when finding the hide-out of some German spies by retracing his steps he made when taken to the hide-out blindfold. There's plenty of subterfuge, treachery and cloak and dagger.

And the day I watched it, it was raining. It's a good programmer which killed some time until dinner and, besides, I couldn't mow the lawn anyway.

"Counter Espionage" has a recognizable cast who move the story along in an entertaining fashion, along the way striving to overcome a mundane plot which tries the audience's patience with plot contrivance after contrivance, but I just went with it with it since it was raining out.

I Always enjoy the dulcet tones of Warren William as The Lone Wolf and he's aided and abetted here by Eric Blore, his simpering man Friday, and Hillary Brooke as a heroine for a change. Lloyd Bridges has an unbilled role as a henchman.

I suppose it could have been better but at 75 minutes it doesn't wear out its welcome, and it's odd not even Edward Dmytryk could punch it up for a higher rating.

This is a typically suspenseful and well-made Ed Dmytryk film, starring the urbane Warren William as 'the Lone Wolf'. It is the ninth in that series. As usual, William is accompanied by his butler Jameson, played by the truly wonderful Eric Blore, who is such a delight to watch as he camps up his subservience. The script is well done, the tension is there. Scenes where William has to retrace his steps through the London streets blindfolded, counting how many steps after each turning, and listening for key sounds, are very ingenious. The villains are villainous, as they should be. (One is an early appearance by Forrest Tucker.) Those dastardly Nazis, they are always trying to destroy London, but William will stop them, if the police would only leave him alone and stop trying to arrest him for something he hasn't done. Being a double-agent is no fun, especially when your 'control' has been killed in the Blitz and there is not even anybody left to 'deny' you. Good stuff, really good stuff. Oh yes, and there's Hilary Brooke as the looker, not bad!

Warren William is the Lone Wolf, Michael Lanyard, in "Counter Espionage" from 1942.

Michael has the difficult assignment of stopping German spies from stealing valuable information from the British government. That's the Mcguffin, of course.

The police suspect Lanyard of actually working with the Nazis.

Eric Blore provides the comic relief, and Hillary Brooke is the suspicious daughter of a murdered man who had these important plans in his safe.

I love Warren William, so it's always great to see him. Look for Lloyd Bridges in an uncredited role as a waiter, and Forrest Tucker has a small role.

Counter-Espionage (1942)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Nice entry in Columbia's The Lone Wolf series has Warren William back as Michael Lanyard and this time in Britain working undercover to stop some spies from getting their hands on some valuable information that could help them win the war. It doesn't take long for the police to think that Lanyard is working with the spies so he must clear his own name while stopping the evil ones. COUNTER-ESPIONAGE is a pretty good entry in the series that at least offers us a new look at the character as we're treated to some new material but sadly there's a tad bit too much of the familiar stuff that creeps itself into the film but more on that in a bit. For the most part fans of the series should enjoy the fact that Lanyard is battling someone other than jewel thieves or counterfeiters. Just about every Hollywood series was transforming their mystery characters into Nazi-fighters so it was only a matter of time before Lanyard entered the match. Overall this is a good entry because it was fun seeing the character out of his normal surroundings and we're treated to some very good direction by Edward Dmytryk. As you'd expect, William has no problem in his role as he's certainly grown quite comfortable in the part. Eric Blore returns as the butler Jamison and we've got Thurston Hall and Fred Kelsey back as the thorns in Lanyard's side. Hillary Brooke does a nice job as the lead female and Morton Lowry is fun as the lead villain, constantly chewing up the scenes. We even get brief parts from Forrest Tucker and Lloyd Bridges. The one problem I had with the film was the all-too-familiar "comic relief" with the American cops once again thinking that Lanyard is guilty of a crime. This hampered the Boston Blackie series as well but it seems after suspecting something a dozen times and be proved wrong each time that the police would believe Lanyard when he told them he didn't have anything to do with it.