The Lone Wolf Returns *** (1935, Melvyn Douglas, Gail Patrick, Tala Birell) – Classic Movie Review 6842

Columbia Pictures successfully revives the Lone Wolf jewel thief character created by Louis Joseph Vance in 1914 in the first of his series of eight novels, already the subject of nine movies, and casts Melvyn Douglas in the part.

The Lone Wolf Returns is an excellent caper thriller, quite stylishly handled, in which gangsters blackmail the retired jewel thief turned private detective Michael Lanyard, aka the Lone Wolf, to force him back into a life of crime to join their robbery. Douglas is ideal and shows an attractive deftness of touch in a polished performance, which is matched in Joseph Krumgold and Bruce Manning’s screen-writing and Roy William Neill’s direction. Gail Patrick as Marcia Stewart and Tala Birell as Liane Mallison are invaluable co-stars.

Also in the cast are Thurston Hall as Inspector Crane, Henry Mollison as Mal Mallison, Raymond Walburn as Jenkins, Douglass Dumbrille as Morphew, Nana Bryan as Aunt Julie Stewartt, Robert Middlemass as Chief of Detectives McGowan, Robert Emmett O’Connor and Eddy Chandler as Detective Benson. Arthur Hohl and Frank Reicher’s scenes were deleted.

It is based on Vance’s 1923 novel The Lone Wolf Returns, already made as a 1926 silent film of that name.

It is the start of a series of 15 Lone Wolf movies, but Douglas played the role only once followed by Francis Lederer in The Lone Wolf in Paris (1938) who played the role only once till Warren William settled in for a run of nine movies, starting with The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt (1939).

The Lone Wolf Returns is directed by Roy William Neill, runs 68 minutes, is released by Columbia Pictures, is written by Joseph Krumgold and Bruce Manning, is shot in black and white by Henry Freulich, and scored by Howard Jackson.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6842

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Advertisement for the very first Michael Lanyard movie, The Lone Wolf (1917), in Moving Picture World.