Arsène Lupin Returns

The first MGM Arsene Lupin sound movie featured John and Lionel Barrymore as mighty antagonists, master thief and super cop. The RETURNS movie builds up the contest of similar seeming antagonists, a successful G-Man, forced to resign because of his self-promoting publicity, and a legendary thief who seems to have come back from the dead. The beginning of the film builds up the character of Warren William as a sleuth on the trail of a thief calling himself "Arsene Lupin." In short order, William is in France where he meets an aristocratic lady (the beautiful Virginia Bruce) with four young Boston terriers, which we never see again, and Melvyn Douglas as her friend. Douglas apparently has a country estate with various farm animals running around. Then begins the apparent duel -- William versus Douglas, one man suspecting that the other is the real thief who escaped death and the other thinking that he has to evade suspicion for committing a crime and maintaining his life style. The two dance around each other with their witty exchanges, while paying attention to the lovely Bruce. Douglas has to contend with the unexpected appearance of two buddies from his past (Clive and Pendleton) who think that their old life style has returned. Meanwhile, a formidable French police officer (George Zucco) is on the trail. Then begins a succession of events, all centering around a $250,000 emerald necklace, amid a flurry of misdirections, red herrings, shadowy figures, safe cracking, and a deadly shooting, until the satisfying conclusion is reached. A nice touch: the "confetti" thrown at the end. William is as suave as he is in his role as Perry Mason, Douglas is as debonair as he is in his films with Garbo, Bruce is more gorgeous than she is in BORN TO DANCE, even Zucco is more believable than he is in his horror films of the 40's. Also, watch for noted screen chewer Vladimir Sokoloff in his much younger years. One of the better crime films of the '30's with witty repartee, handsome actors, and a clever plot.

The Barrymore brothers scored well as Arsene Lupin and the dogged detective trailing him back in the early days of sound, so MGM decided the old thief could use a second go around.

It turns out he didn't die as per the original film, but is now living in quiet retirement, at least until some enterprising thief decided to do a job and pin it on him. Now it's up to Lupin to clear himself.

The plot of Arsene Lupin Returns is remarkably similar to Alfred Hitchcock's classic To Catch A Thief, right down to the French locale for most of the story. Of course this B film was shot on the MGM back lot.

For a B film, Arsene Lupin Returns boasts a remarkable cast of classic players. Melvyn Douglas, Warren William, John Halliday, Monty Woolley, George Zucco and Tully Marshall all had years of stage training before going into film. In fact when about five of these guys were in the same scene, I have to say I haven't so much perfect diction this side of a Ronald Colman film.

Given however it is a B film with a limited cast too much talk will give away the culprit. Looking over the list I can say any one of these guys by past roles could have been the thief. I'll say this though, leading lady Virginia Bruce didn't do it.

No color cinematography, no good French Riviera locations, but Arsene Lupin Returns has a nice story done by a group of the classiest players ever to be assembled on one movie.

And for a B film besides.

The Arsene Lupin films have been around since well before the advent of talking pictures and a wide variety of actors have played the role of this gentleman thief (sort of like the Lone Wolf or Boston Blackie before they went straight). Because of the massive turnover of actors and generally lackluster films, despite the series continuing on and off for decades, it never caught on with the public.

In this installment, it picks up three years after the last film. While the actors were different, the plot was a logical follow-up to the earlier film and once again, while the film was set in France, no one spoke with even the vaguest of French accents. This time, a fat-headed but brilliant detective (Warren William) is out to catch the thief but must contend with some decent plot twists to untangle the mystery.

This is a pretty good film of about the same quality as the earlier ARSENE LUPIN starring John and Lionel Barrymore. While this film did not have quite the same star power as this other film, Melvin Douglas and Warren William are both entertaining to watch. Sadly, however, despite a decent supporting performance by Virginia Bruce, there were also some disappointing performances as well. George Zucco (a perennial heavy from B-films) and Monty Wooley (a likable sort of rogue in most films) are pretty much wasted, as they are given very little to do. It's a shame, because with better writing, these two could have been major assets in the movie. Instead, Douglas and William are pretty much the whole show.

Famed number 1 G-Man Steve Emerson (Warren William) quits to start a private eye firm. He is hired by an insurance company to protect a precious emerald necklace. Before he gets there, someone makes an unsuccessful attempt to steal it. Count de Brissac is the owner and Lorraine is his niece. After the attempt, the insurance company is ending the policy in 8 days. The family takes it back to Paris. They are joined by family friend Rene Farrand (Melvyn Douglas) who becomes Steve's main suspect as the master thief Arsène Lupin.

This is an interesting return. After the Barrymores in the 1932 version, they make a comeback. It has a good back and forth. It's great to have smart people on both sides. This does have drawbacks from the traditional crime mystery. It doesn't have much mystery. This is carried by a few good actors.

"Arsene Lupin Returns" is a 1938 film starring Melvyn Douglas, Virginia Bruce, Warren William, Monty Woolley, and John Halliday.

Rene Farrand (Douglas) is engaged to a wealthy, beautiful woman, Lorraine de Grissac (Bruce). When a fabulous emerald necklace is stolen from Lorraine's uncle, everyone is a suspect. A private eye who once worked for the FBI, Steve Emerson (William) is brought in to investigate. The name of the famous jewel thief, Arsene Lupin, is tossed around, though he is dead. However, Emerson has never believed that, and there are clues pointing to his return from the grave.

Emerson is very suspicious of Farrand, and suspects that he might be the dead Lupin. In one scene, the necklace keeps turning up, first in one person's pocket, and then another's.

One bone to pick. One review here complained that NO ONE in this movie had a French accent, even though this story takes place in France. In France, the people speak French. They don't speak English with a French accent. So no accent is needed since one assumes they're speaking French. Following the line of thought of the review, if these people needed accents, so would anyone performing a Chekhov play need Russian accents, and you'd need Swedish accents for Strindberg. Incorrect.

This is a good movie with nice performances all around; the series never caught on, in part due to the fact that Arsene was played by different actors all the time.

Pleasant.