The Lone Wolf in Paris

In "The Lone Wolf in Paris", Michael Lanyard is played by Francis Lederer. He was fine in the role, though quite a bit different from Warren Williams' version of the character....not better, not worse...just different.

The story, naturally, begins in Paris. He comes to know a princess in the most unusual way....she's inside a trunk that is delivered to his room! She soon pulls out a gun and is about to make her escape with some jewels when Lanyard overpowers her....and quickly looks over the jewels and pronounces them to be fakes! No harm done, the woman leaves. Later, when Lanyard goes to dinner, he meets the princess and ingratiates himself to her. He wants to know what's happening....and she confides in him that three scoundrels from her country have three crown jewels. It seems the queen used them as collateral for a loan....and when she tried to pay them back, they refused her money. It seems that they want to embarrass the royalty and somehow make themselves leader of this fictional nation. Naturally, Lanyard agrees to steal the jewels and return them to the princess because, apparently, he loves the idea of rule by a small, highly inbred hereditary ruler.

So is this any good? Yes....very good for a B-mystery. The pacing is nice, Lederer is nice as the suave reformed criminal and the story ends wonderfully...at least for the royal family.