The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
Original title The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1939
length 71 minutes
Rod
Director Peter Godfrey
script Jonathan Latimer
production Joseph Sistrom
for Columbia Pictures
music Joseph Nussbaum
camera Allen G. Siegler
cut Otto Meyer
occupation

The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt is an American comedy thriller of the Columbia film series The Lone Wolf in 1939 with Warren William as a former jewel thief Michael Lanyard.

action

After jewel thief Michael Lanyard, known by the nickname "The Lone Wolf," broke the wrong side of the law, he settled in Washington, DC with his daughter Patricia and did some honorable work. One evening, however, he is kidnapped by armed men and taken to Spiro Gregory, the wealthy leader of a spy ring. He offers Lanyard $ 10,000 to steal plans for a new air defense weapon from the War Department safe . When Lanyard decidedly refuses the order, Gregory lets him go, but not without a souvenir - Lanyards cigarettes. The next day, said safe is empty and the police find the half-smoked cigarettes at the scene of the crime. Inspector Thomas, familiar with Lanyard's favorite brand, immediately suspects “The Lone Wolf”. However, when he pays a visit to the former crook, Lanyard is able to provide him with a waterproof alibi .

Lanyard then meets with Val Carson, the daughter of a Senator, who has set her mind to becoming his wife. On their date in a pub, they are approached by the attractive Karen, an accomplice of Gregory. Worried that Karen could tell Val about his dubious past, he decides to leave the bar with Karen immediately. Thereupon Karen's men force him to accompany them to a laboratory. As it turns out, the safe's plans were incomplete. The other half is said to be with an inventor named Palmer. Now Lanyard is supposed to crack his safe and leave his fingerprints at the same time. But with a trick he manages to distract the gang, steal the plans and replace them with useless paper. When Gregory's people saw through his ruse, Lanyard already gave the real plans to Val's father.

Since the first half of the valuable documents are still in Gregory's hands, Lanyard decides to steal them from him. When Gregory surprisingly throws a masked ball, Lanyard presents itself as the ideal opportunity. He manages to adopt the rest of the plans unnoticed. After Karen tries unsuccessfully to buy the plans from him, she and her men capture Lanyard's daughter Patricia, who has tried herself as an amateur detective. On the way to Gregory's property, with the intention of freeing Patricia, Lanyard and Val attract the police's attention at the speed of their car. When this also arrives at Gregory, the situation clears up; Patricia is safe and Gregory is arrested with his men.

background

The first film about "The Lone Wolf", invented as the hero of a novel by Louis Joseph Vance in 1914 , was shot in 1917 with Bert Lytell in the leading role. Other cast members who played Michael Lanyard over the years, in addition to Lytell and Warren William, included Melvyn Douglas , Francis Lederer , Gerald Mohr and finally Louis Hayward in the 1950s television adaptation.

The story of The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt had already been filmed twice before, in 1919 and 1929, under the original title The Lone Wolf's Daughter . For this film, for the first time in her career, costumes by Robert Kalloch were specially designed for Rita Hayworth . In addition, she received a light double for the first time with Ellen Duffy .

Reviews

"The Lone Wolf appears disguised as Warren William in another imitation of the Thin Man, " said the New York Times at the time . The Motion Picture Herald found that the film "reached the level of basic situation comedy in many places", but had "only a moderate amount of laughs" ready. Director Peter Godfrey was "handicapped by the script that was provided to him".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gene Ringgold: The Films of Rita Hayworth . Citadel Press, Secaucus 1974, p. 100.
  2. ↑ "The Lone Wolf appears disguised as Warren William doing another imitation of the Thin Man ." See The New York Times quoted. according to Jeremy Arnold on tcm.com
  3. ↑ “Picture hits the level of fundamental slapstick in many spots, but has a moderate amount of laugh content. [Director Peter] Godfrey is handicapped by the script provided him. " Motion Picture Herald quot. after Gene Ringgold: The Films of Rita Hayworth . Citadel Press, Secaucus 1974, p. 100.