TCM is airing the first of Warren William’s nine appearances as Michael Lanyard a.k.a. The Lone Wolf tomorrow morning August 27 at 8:45 am EST. Unfortunately no Summer Under the Stars day for WW this year, but The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt does slip itself into the Ida Lupino schedule. Ida, who I love, is a little whacky here for me, and Virginia Weidler is downright annoying, but despite all that still an enjoyable movie which includes some early Rita Hayworth.

It’s a little different Lone Wolf for you as Leonard Carey plays Jamison as Eric Blore doesn’t join the cast until the next go-around in The Lone Wolf Strikes in 1940. Also missing are Fred Kelsey’s Dickens and Thurston Hall’s Inspector Crane, who was in 1935′s The Lone Wolf Returns starring Melvyn Douglas as Lanyard, but doesn’t return until The Lone Wolf Meets a Lady in 1940, Warren William’s third go-around as the Wolf.

I’ve included a couple of newspaper clippings for you in this post, as they’re kind of grainy and I can’t see myself being able to use them elsewhere. The first, up at the top of this post, is a sketch by an artist whose name I just can’t make out–it appeared in the March 19, 1934 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

The second, below, is a page from a 1932 edition of the Niagara Falls Gazette which I think goes to show just how popular Warren William was becoming at the time. There’s a large ad for The Dark Horse at the right and a smaller ad for Employee’s Entrance just to the left of it and situated just above the Gazette’s reviews for each of the films which stretches well below the area I’ve cropped out.

Hey Warren William fans, just wanted to let you know I’ve got a new place to write about classic film in general, a regular column on Examiner.com as the NY Classic Movies Examiner.  This is really going to be an extension of the MovieMeld column I’ve been writing on my other blog the VintageMeld, so if you’re aware of that one and like it, it’s basically getting a change of address.

Here’s my first article on the pre-code Fredric March and Sylvia Sidney film Merrily We Go to Hell.

Besides announcing it, there’s yet another reason I wanted to post about my new gig over here.  Look over my shoulder in the photo I used and you’ll see my little Warren William tribute.

It was a bit of a pain to do, A) because the only way I have to snap a pic of myself is from the webcam mounted on my monitor, which B) by design has a background cluttered with collectibles which C) aren’t at all relevant to a Classic Movies column!  And finally, D) the movie poster behind me is not framed so it took me about 20 minutes to get it positioned properly taking care not to ruin it!

As you may know, I’m a dealer of vintage movie cards and collectibles but at the same time I don’t touch movie posters–it’s not an area I’m knowledgeable in and there are plenty of experts already doing fine without me in this area.  But I have bought a few Warren William posters for my own collection when I’ve had the chance.  This one is for one of WW’s Lone Wolf pictures, One Dangerous Night (1943).  Just for you, here’s an image of the full poster:

Warren William as The Lone Wolf in One Dangerous Night (1943)

Hope you enjoy what I do in my new bit of space.  I think you’ll notice a definite concentration on my favorite periods for classic movies, the 1930′s and 40′s which will lean more towards the earlier part of that span.

PS: This blog is getting absolutely inundated with bot spam, so I’m trying out a spam program in addition to Askimet.  I’m going to log out after I post this to place a test comment, but from what I read it shouldn’t cause any difference in the experience for human users, except for what I’m told is a small percentage with Javascript disabled.  If that’s you, you may see a prompt to enable Javascript, but if not you can probably ignore this note.

Thanks, Cliff