Excellent adaptation.

A Disappointing Continuation

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

The acting in this movie is really good.

The Lone Wolf Take a Chance (1941)** 1/2 (out of 4) Good entry in the Columbia series has Michael Lanyard (Warren William) arrested on murder charges but of course he's innocent and must prove it. With the help of an actress (June Storey) and his assistant Jamison (Eric Blore), The Lone Wolf gets mixed up with murderers and counterfeiters. THE LONE WOLF TAKES A CHANCE is certainly a step up from the previous installment and after an opening sequence full of laughs, the film quickly picks up speed as we're given a rather interesting murder and an even busier series of events trying to explain what happened. I'm going to spoil what happened but the murder of the cop comes in a pretty surprising way and it's quite effective in the way that Lanyard gets mixed up in the events. Yes, one could argue that it was done in an over-the-top and unbelievable way but at least it was an original one. The comedy moments early on are actually pretty funny and they don't hurt the film like in previous episodes. There's a hilarious opening bit where The Lone Wolf tries to capture a black cat that has some pearls around its neck and the entire sequence is well directed and put together. There's some even funnier bits towards the middle of the picture when The Lone Wolf is stuck in a basement with the Inspector. The mystery aspect of the film is handled pretty well but I must say that all of the events were pretty hard to believe. As normal, William offers up a very good performance as the title character but by this time he could play it in his sleep. I really enjoyed Storey as the female lead and the regular cast of characters (Blore, Thurston Hall) are in fine form as well. We also get a young Lloyd Bridges. Fans of "B" mysteries should get a kick out of this one. It's certainly not among the best but it is fast paced and contains some fun moments.

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.

There was a bit more comedy in this film from The Lone Wolf Series. The Lone Wolf as played by Warren William and his valet Jamison who is Eric Blore after being innocently trapped in a device to discourage bank robbers bet Inspector Thurston Hall that they can't go 24 hours without getting in some kind of trouble. That's a stupid bet on William's part because this whole series is The Lone Wolf getting into all kinds of scrapes and the police not believing he's gone legitimate.This time trouble comes in the form of private detective Regis Toomey being shot and falling nine stories to his death outside William's hotel room. Toomey was on a case involving a gang trying to rob a newly designed train car invented by Lloyd Bridges. It opens with a combination and an attempt to break in without knowing the combination will result in poison gas killing you. A bit extreme I think, but the first cargo this car is carrying is treasury plates and lots of crooks would like to get their hands on those.It's the usual run of things for William and Blore trying to catch the crooks in this case a gang led by Henry Wilcoxon and Walter Kingsford and trying to stay a step ahead of the cops who always think William is the bad guy. It's not much of a challenge in the case of Fred Kelsey who is Thurston Hall's sidekick and the butt of every gag in the film. Kelsey is one of those dumb flatfoots who graduated from the Keystone Police Academy and it's almost cruel what William and Blore do to him in every film.Fans of the Lone Wolf series and Warren William should definitely like The Lone Wolf Takes A Chance. Incidentally he does lose the bet and pays off, sort of.

**SPOILERS**Always getting themselves into trouble playful and somewhat inebriated ex-Jewel thief Michael Lanyard, Warren William, and his faithful and somewhat nutty companion Jamison,Eric Blore,get in over their necks in this movie by having a murder rap hanging over their heads.After getting falsely arrested for attempted bank robbery, by chasing a black cat with a string of pearls around it's neck, Lanyard & Jamison take up a bet, a two week paycheck, from their arch enemies the bumbling Inspector Crane and his sidekick Det.Dicken, Thurston Hall & Fred Kelsey,that they can stay out of trouble for a 24 hour period; It just didn't happen. Lanyard gets innocently involved in the murder, by not letting him into is hotel room, of a detective who was left standing on the ledge of his bathroom as Lanyard was busy shaving. Lanyard thought the detective was working for Crane and was trying to get him to break the law.It turned out that the detective was protecting inventor Johnny Baker, Lloyd Bridges, who knows the combination to an armored train car safe that's transporting US Treasury engraving plates to San Francisco. On the run to prove his innocence in the detectives murder Lanyard together with Jaimson end up getting involved with a gang of hoodlums who kidnapped Baker and are trying to get him to give them the combination to the armored car safe that he invented.Lots of action and far less wit and savvy on the Lone Wolf's part in solving this crime and at the same time rescuing Baker from his own invention. Locked in the train-car vault with no one but Lanyard having any idea what the combination is the only way the Federal Authorities can open the safe is to break it open. That would release a deadly cloud of poison gas that would suffocate Baker who's locked and tied up inside.There's just too many ingredients in the plot here with a car train and plane chase as well as a haunted house that keep you off focus and confused to what's really going on in the film. Lanyard and Jamison on the run throughout the entire movie from the Keystone Kops-like police, who couldn't find an elephant in a telephone booth, end up saving the day and Bakers life by using both their brains as well as their shoe-leather. Checking out a newsreel of Baker opening up the train safe Lanyard just had the motion picture enlarged and copied the combination Baker was spinning when he opened the vault! The gang who kidnapped Baker and forced him to open the safe by threatening to murder his fiancée star Hollywood actress Gloria Foster, June Story, didn't have the smarts to figure out what Lanyard did!Losing the bet,by not being able to keep out of trouble for just one day, to Inspector Crane and Det. Sgt. Dickens Lanyard reluctantly has Jamison give the two cops their winnings, two week salary. Always a sore loser since he, up until then, never loses anything Lanyard has the two cops payed off with Treasury Notes, or twenty ten and five dollar bills, that he and Jaimson just printed up with the now recovered genuine US Government Treasury plates! One thing you've got to say about Lanyard is that this time around he was strictly legit. The money that he handed Crane & Dicken wasn't at all counterfeit.