Counter-Espionage (1942)

Film Perfection

The acting in this movie is really good.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Counter-Espionage (1942) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Nice entry in Columbia's The Lone Wolf series has Warren William back as Michael Lanyard and this time in Britain working undercover to stop some spies from getting their hands on some valuable information that could help them win the war. It doesn't take long for the police to think that Lanyard is working with the spies so he must clear his own name while stopping the evil ones. COUNTER-ESPIONAGE is a pretty good entry in the series that at least offers us a new look at the character as we're treated to some new material but sadly there's a tad bit too much of the familiar stuff that creeps itself into the film but more on that in a bit. For the most part fans of the series should enjoy the fact that Lanyard is battling someone other than jewel thieves or counterfeiters. Just about every Hollywood series was transforming their mystery characters into Nazi-fighters so it was only a matter of time before Lanyard entered the match. Overall this is a good entry because it was fun seeing the character out of his normal surroundings and we're treated to some very good direction by Edward Dmytryk. As you'd expect, William has no problem in his role as he's certainly grown quite comfortable in the part. Eric Blore returns as the butler Jamison and we've got Thurston Hall and Fred Kelsey back as the thorns in Lanyard's side. Hillary Brooke does a nice job as the lead female and Morton Lowry is fun as the lead villain, constantly chewing up the scenes. We even get brief parts from Forrest Tucker and Lloyd Bridges. The one problem I had with the film was the all-too-familiar "comic relief" with the American cops once again thinking that Lanyard is guilty of a crime. This hampered the Boston Blackie series as well but it seems after suspecting something a dozen times and be proved wrong each time that the police would believe Lanyard when he told them he didn't have anything to do with it.

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.

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.

Enjoyable wartime mystery featuring the Lone Wolf as a double agent in London. Ninth in the series, and written in 1942, this entry is directed by Edward Dmytryk (his second in the series). The plot revolves around the theft of plans for a beam device and whether they will be sent to Berlin by a new radio photo transmitter. The Lone Wolf uses sound as the means to learn the secret hide out of the spy ring and scenes of the Blitz are used to show audiences the devastation being doled out on America's British allies. Despite the predictability of the story line, the film is more than a bit enjoyable, and one of the best of the series.Warren William stars as the suave former jewel thief Michael Lanyard with his faithful sidekick and butler, Eric Blore. Also features Hillary Brooke as the love interest and Forrest Tucker as one of the Nazi spies. Although not credited, it certainly appears that a young Lloyd Bridges also appears albeit with a mustache. If true, he would have had a busy year since he also appears to be listed in over twenty other movies in 1942.