The Last Warning

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."