The Lone Wolf Strikes

{{short description|1940 film directed by Sidney Salkow}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2026}} {{Infobox film | name = The Lone Wolf Strikes | image = The-lone-wolf-strikes-movie-poster.jpg | alt = | caption = Theatrical poster for the film | director = [[Sidney Salkow]] | producer = [[Fred Kohlmar]] | screenplay = [[Harry Segall]]<br>Albert Duffy | story = [[Dalton Trumbo]] | based_on = {{Based on|characters created |Louis Joseph Vance }} | starring = [[Warren William]]<br />[[Joan Perry]]<br />[[Eric Blore]] | narrator = | music = [[M. W. Stoloff]] | cinematography = [[Henry Freulich]] | editing = [[Al Clark (film editor)|Al Clark]] | studio = [[Columbia Pictures]] | released = {{Film date|1940|1|26|US|ref1=<ref name=AFI>{{cite web | url=http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=6772 | title=The Lone Wolf Strikes: Detail View | publisher=American Film Institute | accessdate= August 27, 2017 | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170828014731/http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=6772 | url-status=live | archivedate=August 28, 2017}}</ref>}} | runtime = 66 minutes | country = United States | language = English }}

'''''The Lone Wolf Strikes''''' is a 1940 American crime [[drama]] film directed by [[Sidney Salkow]] starring [[Warren William]], [[Joan Perry]], and [[Eric Blore]].<ref name="BFIsearch">{{Cite web |title=The Lone Wolf Strikes |url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150035332 |access-date=7 February 2024 |website=British Film Institute Collections Search}}</ref>

The [[Lone Wolf (character)|Lone Wolf]] character dates back to 1914, when author [[Louis Joseph Vance]] invented him for a series of books, later adapted to [[Lone Wolf (character)#Films|twenty-four Lone Wolf films]] (1917–1949).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/81717/the-lone-wolf-spy-hunt#articles-reviews |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728112813/http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/81717/The-Lone-Wolf-Spy-Hunt/#articles-reviews |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 28, 2011 |title=Articles: The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt (1939) |first=Jeremy |last=Arnold |work=[[Turner Classic Movies]] |access-date=2020-03-08}}</ref> Warren William starred in nine of these films (1939–1943). His next film was ''[[The Lone Wolf Meets a Lady]]'', later the same year.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Blottner |first1=Gene |title=Columbia Pictures Movie Series, 1926–1955: The Harry Cohn Years |date=2011 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=9780786486724 |chapter=The Lone Wolf }}</ref>

==Plot== Wealthy banker Phillip Jordan is taken in by Binnie Weldon, a younger woman. He graciously offers her the use of a very valuable pearl necklace for her birthday celebration. She has no trouble switching it for a good imitation and giving the real one to her boyfriend, Jim Ryder. However, Jordan breaks the necklace, and the jeweler he takes them to detects the forgery. Jordan telephones Weldon that he will be coming to collect the real necklace. However, Ryder arranges a fatal car crash instead.

Stanley Young, Jordan's partner, asks his friend Michael Lanyard, the notorious "Lone Wolf", for help. Lanyard has given up his shady activities but owes Young a big favor, so he accepts the challenge, much to the delight of his bored valet, Jamison. Meanwhile, Delia, Phillip Jordan's daughter, has met Ralph Bolton on a sea voyage and likes him very much, not suspecting that the man is a crook. He reports to his boss Alberts that Lanyard is now involved. Despite Lanyard's reputation, Alberts is unworried; in fact, he plans to let Lanyard retrieve the necklace and then take it from him.

Lanyard manages to learn that the [[Fence (criminal)|fence]] Ryder plans to sell the pearls to is his old friend Emil Gorlick. Delia follows Lanyard to Gorlick's hotel. Lanyard confirms Gorlick is to see Weldon and Ryder that night (and that they have never met), then ties up Gorlick and takes his place. Delia, unconvinced by Lanyard's explanation, peeps through the keyhole of Gorlick's room. However, she is spotted by the [[hotel detective]], who unties Gorlick. Delia flees in a taxi, but Gorlick joins her and produces a pistol. However, Lanyard is able to take the necklace before Gorlick arrives. He gives it to Young, who gifts him the fake as a memento.

Young makes the mistake of informing Bolton of the recovery of the pearls. Meanwhile, Ryder telephones Lanyard and demands the necklace for Delia. Lanyard gives the thieves the fake. Lanyard explains the situation to Delia, and they go to Young's place, but find him dead and the pearls gone.

Lanyard takes the fake necklace from Ryder at gunpoint and locks him and Weldon in a closet. He then has the story spread that the second set of crooks got the fake, and that the real pearls were returned to Delia. Alberts' gang goes to the Jordan mansion. Lanyard appears, convinces them he has the pearls, and leads them on a car chase to a [[ferry]]. Jamison (at Lanyard's instruction) drives aboard too, with the police trailing him, looking for the man they think murdered Young. When the ferry sails, the crooks have nowhere to run.

==Cast== {{Cast listing| * [[Warren William]] as Michael Lanyard, the Lone Wolf * [[Joan Perry]] as Delia Jordan * [[Eric Blore]] as Jamison * [[Alan Baxter (actor)|Alan Baxter]] as Jim Ryder * [[Astrid Allwyn]] as Binnie Weldon * [[Montagu Love]] as Emil Gorlick * [[Robert Wilcox (actor)|Robert Wilcox]] as Ralph Bolton * [[Don Beddoe]] as Conroy [Chief of Police] * [[Fred A. Kelsey]] as Dickens [a policeman] * [[Addison Richards]] as Stanley Young * Roy Gordon as Phillip Jordan * Harland Tucker as Alberts * [[George Lynn (actor)|George Lynn]] as Dorgan (credited as Peter Lynn) [Alberts' other henchman] }}

== Critical reception == ''[[The Monthly Film Bulletin]]'' wrote: "This is a good, made-to-measure, suspenseful film, although the plot is at times a trifle confused. Warren William is an attractive hero, Eric Blore an amusing and resourceful butler, while Joan Perry makes a charming heroine."<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1 January 1940 |title=The Lone Wolf Strikes |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1305805924 |journal=[[The Monthly Film Bulletin]] |volume=7 |issue=73 |pages=113 |id={{ProQuest|1305805924}} }}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * {{IMDb title|0032726}} * {{TCMDb title|81718}} * {{AFI film|6772}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lone Wolf Strikes}} [[Category:1940 films]] [[Category:1940 crime drama films]] [[Category:1940 American films]] [[Category:American black-and-white films]] [[Category:American crime drama films]] [[Category:The Lone Wolf films]] [[Category:Columbia Pictures films]] [[Category:Films directed by Sidney Salkow]] [[Category:Adaptations of works by Dalton Trumbo]]