Passport to Suez (1943)

Not a whodunit, but a programmer about foreign intrigue. That's not surprising since the year is 1943, and WWII's outcome still hangs in the balance. So, can the Lone Wolf (William) thwart Nazi plans to close the vital Suez Canal, the lifeline to Allied war efforts in North Africa. To find the spies, he's got a lot of characters to sort through, including a stylish Ann Savage, who's already showing why Detour's (1945) Tom Neal is fatefully attracted. And catch the weird technology the Nazis are using to communicate, like threads in a handkerchief. All in all, it's an entertaining hour with the aristocratic William in fine form, along with Blore as comic relief. I just wish William were better remembered today. He could command the screen like few others. In fact, his pre-Code films, (Employees Entrance {1933}, et. al), remain recognized classics. Probably, the actor died too soon after the war (1948) to establish himself in later films. Too bad. Anyway, the movie's a solid and sometimes stylish programmer without being anything special.

Warren William as Michael Lanyard, the Lone Wolf, tries to keep the Nazis from getting control of the Suez Canal in "Passport to Suez," a 1943 film, and William's last as the Lone Wolf.As with many of this type of film, the mission is a mcguffin in this well-directed mystery that is filled with humor and atmosphere. The cast is particularly good - besides William and Eric Blore as his butler, Anne Savage is the femme fatale, Sheldon Leonard a nightclub owner, and the cast is rounded out by Jay Novello as a spy, Frederic Norlock as an intelligence officer, Sig Arno, and Lou Merrill.Most of the humor comes from Blore, and he starts the film off with some great comedy over a phone call. William takes his assignment seriously; this is a slightly more sober Wolf. A fitting ending to a great run.

With a long bow to Casablanca Warren William as Michael Lanyard The Lone Wolf gets an espionage assignment of which we're never quite sure because the Nazis capture him and valet Eric Blore.William has joined the war effort and the bad guys try to decoy him and the British authorities away from their actual purpose which is to bomb and disable the Suez Canal, lifeline of the British Empire. They've recruited no one less than Blore's daughter-in-law to be Ann Savage as one cool spy. Is there no end to their scheming?The film is set in Alexandria and it tries to be a cut rate Casablanca with Sheldon Leonard as nightclub owner Johnny who runs a café like Rick's where intrigue is an appetizer on the menu. Leonard usually a villain, is William's stalwart friend as the spies come real close to making a fool out of him.This was the last of Warren William's films starring him as the Lone Wolf. But the best was definitely not saved for last.

**SPOILERS** The "Lone Wolf" Michael Lanyard, Warren William, does his bit here in "Passport to Suez" for the allied, or good guys, cause. Lanyard prevents a plot by the Nazis to take over the rich oil fields in the Middle and Far East in an elaborately planned Pearl Harbor-like sneak attack.It's the Nazis plan to make a back door attack from the North on the Iraq Iran oil fields by invading natural Turkey! Thus outflanking the British 8th Army who's holding off Rommel's Afrika Corps at the Egyptian border in the South. The one thing that can make the Nazi plan successful is getting vital information on where the British 8th Army's armored and infantry units are stationed on the Egyptian/Libyan battlefront. Even more important is to get their hands on the layout-or map-of the minefields that the British had planted in the Western Desert in order to prevent an 8th Army counter-attack!Called on a secret mission to Alexandria Egypt by top British counter espionage man Sir. Robert, Frederick Warlock, Lanyard and his good friend the bumbling Bozo-like Jameson, Eric Blore, are told that the Nazi's plans for the conquest of the Mddle and Near-East will go into effect as soon as they get their hands on the secret plans, of British troop movements and minefield layouts, from the British Naval Admiralty in the city. It becomes very obvious to Lanyard that there's a Nazi spy, or spies, high up in the British foreign office here in Egypt! It's only later that Lanyard finds out that the spy is a lot closer to both him and Jameson then he could have ever thought!Somewhat more exciting "Lone Wolf" movie then what you would have expected with the smooth as silk and brainy Lanyard using his fists in him throwing devastatingly short left hooks, that could floor a Joe Louis or Billy Cann, instead of his wits to take on a gang of Nazi spies. Lanyard also gets to show off his flying skills by hopping on a WWI biplane and chasing and finally gunning down the fleeing Nazis. That's before they can make it back to preordained spot outside Alexandria Harbor, with the secret plans they stole from the British Admiralty, and be rescued by an awaiting German U-Boat.***SPOILERS*** It was the Nazis sinister plan to get to Jameson's son British Naval Officer Donald Jameson's, Robert Stanford, to unknowingly have him get the secret plans for them. Using Nazi Agent Valerie King, Ann Savage, posing as a British foreign correspondent to get romantically involved with Donald worked up to a point until Lanyard smelled a rat in their not so perfect "Perfect Plan": Valerie's forged passport!Knowing that time is very short with the Nazis about to put their invasion plans into action Lanyard together with Jameson now made to look by the Nazis as being in bed with them, due to young Jameson affair with Nazi spy Valerie King, have to work fast before the sh*t, the Nazi invasion, hits the fan! Lanyard & Jameson have to prevent not just the Nazis, who set them up, from carrying out their invasion plans but also keep the British Army, who have been given orders to shoot on sight, from shooting the two for being Nazi spies!