masercot
Bumbling cops, a slick detective who manages to outwit them and the crooks and a morally ambiguous sidekick. Pretty much the staple of thirties and forties detective movies.So, why tune in? Well, Warren William was the BEST Perry Mason; however, they stopped using him after a few movies and replaced him with some personality-free blow up dolls. The way he played Mason was more like Gardener's Perry Mason. Just a fun guy to watch.As others have said, not a lot of mystery. But, a fun chase for a stack of ransom money that never made it to the kidnappers. Not Saint or Thin Man quality; but, definitely worth an hour of your life.
Michael_Elliott
The Lone Wolf Keeps a Date (1940) ** (out of 4)Michael Lanyard (Warren William), aka The Lone Wolf, is in Havana trying to complete his stamp collection when he runs into a woman (Frances Robinson) who needs his help since her fiancé was convicted of a murder he didn't commit. That's the basic storyline here but it must be noted that there are at least four other stories going on as well and it really doesn't take too long to get confused on what's happening and then once you notice the screenplay isn't going to bother sorting any of it out, it's easy to just turn your brain off and get bored with the film. THE LONE WOLF KEEPS A DATE has a charming title and a good lead performance but that's pretty much all. I'm really confused as to what the film was trying to do unless there was some major studio editing going on before the thing was released. I say that because the actual mystery in the story seems to take a backseat to some silly comedy but what's most confusing is the way that so many subplots are thrown at us and for no apparent reason. Eric Blore as Jamison, Thurston Hall as Inspector Crane and Jed Prouty as Captain Moon are in charge of the comedy and I will admit that some of the banter early on was funny but after a while this too dries up and you're left with a bunch of comedy with no laughs. As you'd expect, William has no problem with his part as he can play cool and laid back in his sleep. Robinson makes for a good female lead but the screenplay doesn't do much for her. Fans of the series might want to check it out but everyone else should just stay clear.
blanche-2
A very enjoyable Lone Wolf movie, "The Lone Wolf Keeps a Date" finds Michael Lanyard (The Lone Wolf, played by Warren William) and his butler Jameson (Eric Pangborn) in Havana for a stamp convention. Well, the best laid plans -- Lanyard, a former jewel thief, soon finds himself without his collection and involved in a kidnapping, the young man who is accused sitting in prison, and his fiancé trying to pay the ransom.This is the outrageous and sophisticated Warren William at his best, with lots of comedy contributed by Pangborn. The two of them worked so well together.Though a B movie, this series was a lot of fun. Before William the role was played by Frances Lederer, Melvyn Douglas, and several other actors. After William departed the series in 1946, Gerald Mohr and Ron Randell played him. It was also a TV series starring the smooth Louis Hayward. I hope to see more starring William.
sol
(There are Spoilers) The Lone Wolf better known as retired Jewel thief Michael Lanyard, Warren Williams, gets himself involved with beautiful Pat Lawrence, Frances Robinson, while in Havana Cuba looking and finding a rare Cuben postage stamp in fact a one of a kind.Lanyard gives Pat a ride to the airport, in his cab,not realizing that she's being targeted by a number of hoods who want what she has, but doesn't know what she has, in a package that Pat received at the Havana Post Office sent there by her fiancée Scotty,Bruce Bennett. Scotty is in jail back in Miami for a murder that he swears he didn't commit. It's that package together with this mysterious Portuguese fisherman Santos,Francis McDonald, who can prove Scotty's innocence which if convicted will land him straight into the Florida electric chair known as Ol' Sparky.It's in Miami that the hoodlums make their move grabbing Pat's package and making off with it after belting out cold Lanyard who tried to stop them. It turns out that there was a switch, on the hoodlums part, where they grabbed Lanyard's stamp collection instead of the package, which contained $100,000.00 in ransom money, that the hoods were really after.The rest of the film has Lanyard using both his wits and daring to get to the bottom of what's going on and he finds out that the $100,000.00 was to be paid to the hoods boss casino owner Joe Brady, Don Beddoe, in order to release millionaire Cyrus Colby, Henry Hurbert. Scotty a fishing boat captain got that money off the person that was his passenger and mailed it to his post office box back in Havana. Scotty's passenger was murdered by Brady's hoods, to which Portuguese fisherman Santos was an eye witness to, before he could get on board. They must of thought Sotty's boat passenger was taking off with it and keeping the cash all for himself; It was that person who Scotty was later indited for murdering.It took a while for Lanyard to get his act together but once he did it didn't take him long to get the message through to his faithful butler Jamison,Eric Blore, where Old Man Colby was being held hostage: Sandy Key a small island off the Florida coast. Getting the local Keystone-likes Kops lead by their strictly by the books Captain Moon, Jed Prouty,to follow him there, together with Pat driving a stolen or sea-jacked speed boat,Colbey was rescued by them just before Brady's boys were to put a bullet in his head. And as for Brady and his boys they were captured as Lynyard, who was also being held hostage by the Brady Bunch, was lucky that he didn't end up breaking his head in the car crash he instigating in making his escape from them.There's also in the movie, besides Capt. Moon and his over regimented law enforcers, New York police Inspector Crane, Thurston Hall, and his bumbling and butterfingered sidekick Detective Dickens, Fred Kelsey, as comedy relief. The two New York cops had no idea what they were up against, Brady and his gang of kidnappers, thinking that they were still after the Lone Wolf, Michael Lanyard, who had since gone straight and retired from his former life of crime. It was Lanyard who got them to get on the ball and get after the real bad guys in the movie by both impersonating Inspt. Crane and getting the all wet, by the time the movie was over, Det. Dickens on the right track to go after them.
