User Reviews

Taught direction, well-paced. A fairly serious Warren William (but still charming) and Hillary Brooke (she was truly a master of the B-movie genre) are teamed up with a good director to make this the best of the Lone Wolf series for me.

"Counter-Espionage" is proof once again that a big budget is not necessary to produce a good film. This is a classic example of cheap dollars spent, but nevertheless being able to display talent and high quality craftsmanship.

Serious WWII Nazi spy plot dovetails nicely into the shady safe-cracker format of The Lone Wolf. Who better than The Lone Wolf to crack safes and steal war secrets (or did he?), then sneak around dark London streets amid the falling bombs.

Sidekick Eric Blore is actually very good in this movie, and as a bonus you also get a solid early Lloyd Bridges performance.

(There are Spoilers) Using both his skills as a second story man, burglar,and canine-like hearing the Lone Wolf Michael Lanyard, Warren Williams, breaks up a Nazi spy ring right in the middle of bombed out London and does it in less then a fortnight. The movie seems to take place in under 12 hours where we don't get to see as much as a sunrise or sunset.

Being called to help England in it's life and death struggle against Nazi Germany by top British Government official Sir. Stafford Hart, Stanly Logan, Lanyard goes undercover as more of an opportunist then Nazi spy stealing out of Sir. Stanly's house safe vital information that the Nazis are just dying to get their hands on;The ultra-top secret British Military beam-detection plan. Getting in touch, by being kidnapped, with the head of the Nazi spy ring Gustave Soessel, Kurt Katch, Lanyard for a nice hunk of cash is willing to turn the beam-detection plan over but needs time to get back to where he hide it, in his hotel-room, for safe keeping.

This all of curse is a trick on Lanyard's part to get Soessel and his gang that includes Nazi spy Kent or Kurt Wells (Morton Lowery), who's working in Sir Stanly's office, out in the open and have them arrested by Scotland Yard. When Sir. Stanly is suddenly killed in a German bombing raid Lanyard is on his own, with the late Sir Stanley being the only one who's knows that he's really a double-agent for Britin,in proving to the British M15 and Scotland Yard that he's in fact on their side and avoid being executed, if captured by them, as a Nazi Spy.

With the help of his faithful velvet or butler Jamison, Eric Blore, Lanyard who was blindfolded when he was taken to the Nazi spies hideout uses his super-hearing to track the place down at the Blue Parrot Café. It's there that Lanyard sets a trap for Soessle & Co. who by then realize that he's a British spy by tricking them into thinking that he gave them the real McCoy, the beam-detection plan, only to hand them over on a silver platter to the British authorities who came to his rescue.

Lots of wartime activity, with London being bombed by the Luftwaffe at least three times in a 12 hour period, has "Counter-Espionage" being one of the most action-packed of the "Lone Wolf" series of movies. In the movie "Counter-Espionage" there's a very young looking Forrest Tucker as Anton Schugg a German Nazi with a very pronounced American mid-western accent. There's also in the movie this contraption used by Soessel to communicate with his bosses back in Berlin that's a forerunner to a FAX Machine that didn't come into common use for at least thirty years after the film was made.

I really enjoy watching B-detective films, such as Charlie Chan, the Saint or the Lone Wolf. However, although these breezy little pictures are a lot of fun, they do sometimes suffer from plots that are just too formulaic. In particular, Columbia Pictures' Boston Blackie and Lone Wolf films are too often so similar that it's easy to not be able to remember which you have seen and which you haven't. Both films feature a reformed master thief who is now working for good and stupid cops who again and again and again accuse them of whatever crimes occur on their beat. And all too often their plots are nearly identical.

It is in light of this that I really enjoyed COUNTER-ESPIONAGE since it offers a new and very unusual locale and a change in the usual plot. Instead of the likable Michael Lanyard being in the States, here he is in London and is mixed up in a spy ring. About the only negative about this is that the same old inspector and his idiotic sidekick are somehow ALSO here--talk about a contrived plot! The film begins with a kidnapping as well as Lanyard stealing some top-secret defense plans all from the same home. The viewer no doubt will think that in spite of it all, Lanyard is STILL on the side of good--and of course this is the case. After all, who would cast the hero as a Nazi?! But despite this being a bit predictable, the film is a nice little diversion--one that will not bore or blend in with all the other many B-detective films out there.

In 1942's "All Through the Night", Nazi Conrad Veidt tried to get American sportsman Humphrey Bogart on his side by pointing out his non- conformity as patriot. It didn't work for Bogart, and it doesn't work for Warren William, here equally on the outside, yet still patriotic as he goes out of his way to expose Nazi spies in London while being accused of being a traitor. With Scotland Yard searching for them (not to mention New York detectives Thurston Hall and Fred Kelsey, ironically in London on other business), William and valet Eric Blore have their share of hiding to do, although with Kelsey on the trail, it'll be fairly easy to outwit them and trap the villains.

Clever plot line has innocent William being guided by blindfold with the help of Blore through London to disguise himself and pick up clues simply by sound and not with sight. Hilary Brooke is the pretty Scotland Yard worker who suspects him of the worst and finds out the hard way of the truth. Lloyd Bridges has a small part as a waiter with Nazi leanings, and Forrest Tucker is also one of the bad guys. B features made on cheap budgets often looked as good as the A's and were often better. This is a perfect example of why they are used as research by film students.

Wartime restrictions being what they were if Great Britain had some kind of secret weapon called a beam detector, we couldn't get too specific about it. Suffice it to say the Nazis want the plans for it real bad and it's in the safe of British spy-master Stanley Logan who gets himself killed. For some plot reason I can't quite fathom Logan's aide Leslie Denison is kidnapped by the Nazi spies and its the other aide Morton Lowry who actually is betraying his country. Or is it his country, spy ring head Kurt Katch uses a German name to refer to him, I suspect he was one of those British citizens with German ancestry pressed into service for the fatherland like Peter Graves was in Stalag 17.

But these Nazis haven't reckoned with the fact that Logan hired the Lone Wolf to ferret out that spy ring. With the beam detector plans as bait, Warren William goes on his mission and while it doesn't go as smoothly as a Mission Impossible mission the job gets done.

Whenever these pulp or even classical heroes like Sherlock Holmes got shoehorned into a World War II flag-waver the results didn't really make for lasting cinema. The same can be said for Counter-Espionage. Two future players of note, Forrest Tucker and Lloyd Bridges are a pair of Katch's associates. The film is noteworthy for early appearances by Bridges and Tucker and little else.

Sir Stafford Hart of the British War Department has troubles. At the height of the Blitz, he's got top-secret plans in his safe, and suspects one of his aides may be working for the other side. And then, right after his future son-in-law is kidnapped, his safe is burgled by Michael Lanyard, The Lone Wolf, who, soon after, is contacted by a Nazi Spy ring who want to get their hands on those plans. But Lanyard CAN'T be working for the bad guys-- CAN HE?

The mix of mystery & humor had gone completely off the rails 2 films earlier, but I'd have to rank COUNTER-ESPIONAGE as the very best of the Lone Wolf films with Warren William in the lead role-- nearly as good (!!) as FALSE FACES (1919) with Henry B. Walthall or THE LONE WOLF RETURNS (1935) with Melvyn Douglas. Take it from me, this is high praise indeed.

The plot reminds me of a wartime espionage variation on Leslie Charteris' novel "Angels Of Doom". Both involve the hero working IN SECRET for a high-ranking official, a daughter whose father is killed and totally mistrusts the hero, and comic relief (?) in the form of cops who continue to accuse and chase after the hero, despite his having previously proven he's on their side. In this case, the hero's contact and the dead father are combined into one character, which makes things extra difficult, as in the 2nd half of the film, Lanyard has NOBODY who can vouch for his innocence. And the presence of both Inspectors Crane & Dickens has to be the single really contrived and out-of-place element of the film, as they have NO BUSINESS being in this story. At least Charteris, in his SAINT stories, had the sense to keep New York Inspector Fernack and London Inspector Teal in their own separate locales.

What a cast! Stanley Logan is "Sir Stafford Hart", who recruited Lanyard but then was killed off-camera in a traffic accident. I've seen him in THE LOVES OF EDGAR ALLAN POE, THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE, THE SPIDER WOMAN and TARZAN'S PERIL.

Hillary Brooke is "Pamela Hart", whose fiancee goes missing, and really gets on her high horse to an obsessive degree when she confronts Lanyard and accuses him of all the worst possible things, even while he's trying to save HER country! I've seen her in the 1941 DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE, CALLING DR. GILLESPIE, SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE VOICE OF TERROR (made back-to-back with this one, they'd make a fitting double-bill), SHERLOCK HOLMES FACES DEATH, THE WOMAN IN GREEN and INVADERS FROM MARS.

Morton Lowry is "Kurt Weil", the actual double-agent, who finds out Lanyard was working for Hart. I most remember him as "Stapleton" in the 1939 HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, and have also seen him in TARZAN FINDS A SON!, THE LOVES OF EDGAR ALLAN POE, THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, SON OF LASSIE and PURSUIT TO ALGIERS.

Forrest Tucker, one of my favorite actors, is "Anton Schuff", a Nazi spy posing as an air raid warden. Apart from BOSTON BLACKIE GOES HOLLYWOOD, THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN (1957), THE GHOST BUSTERS tv series (1975) and TIMESTALKERS (1987), of course I'll always most think of him as "Sgt. O'Rourke", the star of all 65 episodes of F TROOP (which is on my "wanted" list right now).

Matthew Boulton is "Inspector Stephens", who far-too-easily is convinced by the halfwit American cops of Lanyard's guilt. I mostly remember him as "Inspector Gregson" in THE WOMAN IN GREEN.

Kurt Katch is "Gustav Soessel", the head of the Nazi spy ring. His scenes with Lanyard are really INTENSE and have some of the best and cleverest writing in the film, as Lanyard keeps playing up to him to get more info, and later, when Soessel is bragging in the most maniacal way about the "supreme achievement" of his mission in England, and then diabolically REFUSES to admit that Lanyard was really working for England the whole time, adamant that if HE goes down, Lanyard will as well. Katch was a Polish Jew whose early career was in European films, and later was typecast as Nazis when he escaped to America. It seems the only other films I've seen him in were THE MUMMY'S CURSE and ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET THE MUMMY.

Lloyd Bridges does his 2nd LONE WOLF film, this time as a Nazi spy posing as a nightclub waiter.

And finally, Billy Bevan is "George Barrow", an air raid warden whose life Lanyard saves during a bombing, and in return believes he's innocent and chips in to help when things get REALLY dangerous at the climax! Usually "comic relief" in these kinds of films, it was a delight to see him play a more serious and fleshed-out character for once. His career goes back to 1916, though I've only seen a tiny handful of his films, including A STUDY IN SCARLET (1932), DRACULA'S DAUGHTER, MYSTERIOUS MR. MOTO, A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1938), THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS, REBECCA (1940), DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE (1941), THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE, THE PEARL OF DEATH, THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, and TERROR BY NIGHT.

I wish all of Warren William's LONE WOLF films had been this good!

OnesMedia's DVD-R has excellent picture & sound, though there's these odd sound gaps here and there. I'm guessing that all the damage seen in the newsreel excerpts were already there when the film was made in 1942!