The Lone Wolf Takes a Chance

This Lone Wolf adventure starts out with a bet between Michael Lanyard, the Wolf (Warren William) and Inspector Crane (Thurston Hall) that Lanyard can't stay out of trouble for 24 hours. Guess who wins. A private detective (Regis Toomey) falls nine stories outside Lanyard's hotel room.

The detective was working on a case involving a special train car designed by Johnny Baker (Lloyd Bridges) that is holding treasury plates and can't be broken into.

Everyone, of course, thinks Lanyard is the bad guy though he's on the side of right as he and his butler Jamison (Eric Blore) enter the case, which involves murder and kidnapping. The film has a neat sequence on a train as Lanyard works to save the day.

Nice entry into the series, with Warren William his usual laid back self and Eric Blore adding a lot of humor. Recommended.

THE LONE WOLF TAKES A CHANCE is another in the long-running series and pretty much par for the course as these things go. Our hero (with his trusty sidekick in tow) takes a challenge that he'll stay out of trouble for 24 hours, except that trouble soon comes knocking in the form of some stolen printing plates and a whole host of murder. This has the usual lightness of touch which makes it a watchable little movie, even if it is brimming with cliche and contrivance. Moviegoers may enjoy spotting Lloyd Bridges in a tiny bit part that marks his first screen role. The flirtations with noir, including a femme fatale, are adequate.

A former Private Detective is shot outside the very hotel window of Michael Lanyard, Inspector Crane is determined to stop Lanyard from interfering with the case, even arresting him.

Those opening sequences with the cat and pearls were very funny, they help to set the tone for the film.

It's funnier than other Lone Wolf films that I've seen, and that is no bad thing, it certainly has enough suspense and mystery, but the humorous moments are joyous.

There are more than a few shades of The Lady Vanishes about this film, the sequences on board the train are perhaps the highlight of the movie, very, very good sequences.

Very well produced, this film looks great, and moves by at a pace, there are no slow moments, it really does flash by at a canter.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, 8/10.

I'm a big fan of Warren William and Eric Blore, as well as mystery/comedy movies of that era, so my 9 star rating may be a tad prejudiced by that...still, the movie is one of the best entries in those early Lone Wolf films.

The plot at times is rather silly with the Lone Wolf and Jamison trying to save the life of an inventor (Lloyd Bridges)...what did he invent?...a railroad car that couldn't be broken into...if a criminal tried, bells & whistles would sound, and poison gas would fill the car...Huh?...what if some poor hobo, looking for a ride and a place to sleep happened upon that car?...Llyod would have got his butt sued...

But the movie chugs along the rails at a fast pace, plenty of laughs and an enjoyable way to spend a little over an hour of one's time...

I keep this movie on my cluttered DVR...it's a comfortable movie for me...when sleep comes slowly, I just turn this on and within 30 or 40 minutes I'm fast asleep...

Warren William is the eponymous trouble maker for poor old "Insp. Crane" (Thurston Hall) who bets him that he can't behave himself for just one day! Well, of course he can't - indeed pretty sharpish he and stalwart "Jamison" (Eric Blore) are up to their necks in the theft of some US treasury plates from a supposedly impenetrable car invented by "Baker" (Lloyd Bridges). That's only the half of it - there's a killer afoot too and our not so wily policeman only has one suspect. What now ensues is an entertaining, if formulaic, join-the-dots mystery as June Storey provides an adequate damsel in distress ("Gloria") and the dialogue some fun and mischievous quips for Blore to raise the odd smile. There's a bit more meat on the bones of the adventure element to this with plenty of daft fisticuffs before the baddie is suitably apprehended. It's a bit too long - takes a while to get up an head of steam, but it does get there and ultimately it's a watchable little story that begs the question. When will "Crane" ever learn to trust in the "Wolf"?