I just got ahold of the Alpha Video Entertainment DVD-R of this film. As usual, they don't always have the greatest prints, but their package design is beautiful, and in this case, the instrumental score is STUNNING.
3 of the first 9 LONE WOLF films are believed to be "lost", and of the remaining 6, this one-- the 2nd-- was once in that category. There must be drastically-different prints circulating, because I've read that some are tinted, but some must also be cut to ribbons, because the IMDB has it listed as "1 hr. 10 min.". But this disc clocks in at 1:36:39, and as far as I can tell, it's running at a "natural" speed (not sped up or slowed way down).
This is an EPIC! It begins in the middle of WW1, where Michael Lanyard (Henry B. Walthall), long since reformed & retired from being a professional jewel thief, has spent some time under an alias working inside the German Secret Service! He barely makes it through no-man's land to reach a British regiment, who he informs that he's really an American, and asks to speak to their commander-- who, it turns out, was one of his former nemesis with the police!
With his help, Lanyard is booked on a cruise ship headed for America, where unknowingly, he runs across a pair of British agents, and also, Karl Ekstrom (Lon Chaney), another former thief who, at the start of the war, deliberately murdered Lanyard's sister & family. Things get hairy when a German sub sinks the liner on Ekstrom's orders, but it's Lanyard who miraculously is picked up by the sub, where his genuine experience as a German agent comes in handy.
I found it interesting that one of the people on the liner-- who presumably escaped with his life-- was named "Crane"-- Lanyard's #1 American policeman nemesis. But he only has a momentary cameo.
The sub's captain & first mate hate each other, but the mate & Laynard become fast friends (more or less). When the captain receives word that the high command have NO knowedge of Lanyard, he's killed by the mate before he can pass on the info, and the mate, in turn, then has a heart attack from stress and too much drinking. (What kind of luck is that?) Lanyward makes his escape, SINKING the sub off the American coast in the process.
And then the entire last act of the film takes place in New York City, where you have a crazy entanglement between the American, British & German secret services, with Ekstrom POSING as Lanyard for part of it. Laynard has two separate confrontations with his enemy, and in the second one, puts down a gun so he can personally beat the crap out of him. That's when all the other German agents in the building burst into the room, and are tricked into KILLING their own man, as Lanyard makes his escape.
The finale has Lanyard, back at the British HQ, exposing a secretary who was in Ekstrom's pay, AND, finding and returning a tiny cylinder containing important documents (which everyone has been chasing for the entire film). He also discovers the girl who got him into this mess, a British agent, is NOT married, and so romance may be in store...
So many people unknowingly confuse Michael Laynard (The Lone Wolf) with Simon Templar (The Saint). Templar was never a professional thief, but when it comes to bending or breaking the law in the name of justice, he certainly could be looked at as a natural successor, whose career started between the wars. In only his 2nd novel, The Lone Wolf got involved in wartime espionage, something it took The Saint a whole decade to find himself in.
This story was so damned good (in my view), it made me dearly wish someone could find a better print and do an extensive restoration on it. It might also be worth making a new version of, if they followed the original story. (Does anybody do that nowadays?)
I'd also love it if somebody could put out the other 5 films NOT considered lost. And who knows? Maybe the 3 missing ones might turn up again someday. You never know...
3 of the first 9 LONE WOLF films are believed to be "lost", and of the remaining 6, this one-- the 2nd-- was once in that category. There must be drastically-different prints circulating, because I've read that some are tinted, but some must also be cut to ribbons, because the IMDB has it listed as "1 hr. 10 min.". But this disc clocks in at 1:36:39, and as far as I can tell, it's running at a "natural" speed (not sped up or slowed way down).
This is an EPIC! It begins in the middle of WW1, where Michael Lanyard (Henry B. Walthall), long since reformed & retired from being a professional jewel thief, has spent some time under an alias working inside the German Secret Service! He barely makes it through no-man's land to reach a British regiment, who he informs that he's really an American, and asks to speak to their commander-- who, it turns out, was one of his former nemesis with the police!
With his help, Lanyard is booked on a cruise ship headed for America, where unknowingly, he runs across a pair of British agents, and also, Karl Ekstrom (Lon Chaney), another former thief who, at the start of the war, deliberately murdered Lanyard's sister & family. Things get hairy when a German sub sinks the liner on Ekstrom's orders, but it's Lanyard who miraculously is picked up by the sub, where his genuine experience as a German agent comes in handy.
I found it interesting that one of the people on the liner-- who presumably escaped with his life-- was named "Crane"-- Lanyard's #1 American policeman nemesis. But he only has a momentary cameo.
The sub's captain & first mate hate each other, but the mate & Laynard become fast friends (more or less). When the captain receives word that the high command have NO knowedge of Lanyard, he's killed by the mate before he can pass on the info, and the mate, in turn, then has a heart attack from stress and too much drinking. (What kind of luck is that?) Lanyward makes his escape, SINKING the sub off the American coast in the process.
And then the entire last act of the film takes place in New York City, where you have a crazy entanglement between the American, British & German secret services, with Ekstrom POSING as Lanyard for part of it. Laynard has two separate confrontations with his enemy, and in the second one, puts down a gun so he can personally beat the crap out of him. That's when all the other German agents in the building burst into the room, and are tricked into KILLING their own man, as Lanyard makes his escape.
The finale has Lanyard, back at the British HQ, exposing a secretary who was in Ekstrom's pay, AND, finding and returning a tiny cylinder containing important documents (which everyone has been chasing for the entire film). He also discovers the girl who got him into this mess, a British agent, is NOT married, and so romance may be in store...
So many people unknowingly confuse Michael Laynard (The Lone Wolf) with Simon Templar (The Saint). Templar was never a professional thief, but when it comes to bending or breaking the law in the name of justice, he certainly could be looked at as a natural successor, whose career started between the wars. In only his 2nd novel, The Lone Wolf got involved in wartime espionage, something it took The Saint a whole decade to find himself in.
This story was so damned good (in my view), it made me dearly wish someone could find a better print and do an extensive restoration on it. It might also be worth making a new version of, if they followed the original story. (Does anybody do that nowadays?)
I'd also love it if somebody could put out the other 5 films NOT considered lost. And who knows? Maybe the 3 missing ones might turn up again someday. You never know...