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Universal launched their Crime Club series in 1937 with The Westland Case. Preston Foster stars as detective Bill Crane with Frank Jenks as his assistant, Doc.

Robert Westland (Theodore von Eltz) will be en route to the electric chair in six days if Crane can't find evidence to clear him. He is accused of murdering his almost ex-wife who was found in a locked room. Her key was present; Westland had the other one. And his gun is nowhere to be found.

There are a couple of new leads, but someone kills the people who have them.

Crane's way of working out this case is somewhat complicated. That's putting it mildly. Nevertheless, it's a good mystery and Foster and Jenks are always fun.

I didn't see a great print of this, but it was worth viewing.

This time, it's Francis Lederer who takes on the role of Michael Lanyard in "The Lone Wolf in Paris" from 1938, directed by Albert S. Rogell. Eric Blore is his assistant, named Jenkins instead of Jamison.

The minute Lanyard and Jenkins enter their hotel, they are accused of theft! Lanyard has to show letters from Europe's top police forces to convince them he's out of the jewel robbery business.

When he gets to his suite, he finds a woman hiding in his open trunk as the house detectives search. They have robbery on the brain.

The woman's story unfolds. She is a princess. Hir mother used the crown jewels of her country as loan collateral. When she went to repay the loan, the people who gave her the loan decided they would rather rule the country. The theft will be discovered at her brother's coronation, which will then not take place.

Lanyard then begins his quest to get the jewels back, which have been replaced with paste.

Lederer is so handsome and dashing, and of course his Wolf has a much more European sophistication. Plus he's very romantic. He doesn't have Warren William's humor, but he's still good.

I didn't see the best print, but I recommend it. Lederer is a favorite of mine, a delightful actor. A week before he died at age 100, he was still teaching at his acting school.

There's not much I can add to all the wonderful analyses of this flawed film, and there's no point in repeating its sad history.

The Magnificent Ambersons is about a once great family entering the Industrial Age in America, watching their fortunes fade. Directed by Orson Welles, it seems very much his style - the closeups, the way some of the dialogue is presented, is reminiscent of Citizen Kane.

It is carefully and beautifully photographed to evoke the era. The house is very detailed and was so expensive, it was used in other films.

The cast is excellent - beautiful Delores Costello, Joseph Cotten, Anne Baxter, Tim Holt, Agnes Moorhead, and Ray Collins.

The problem with the film is that, due to the cuts, it doesn't hang together. It plays like "Scenes from The Magnificent Ambersons" instead of an entire movie. For me, there was just too much missing.

Also I have to agree with some posters - the film is built around the villain of the piece, played by Tim Holt, a horror as a child, responsible for ruining his mother's great romance, and determined to do nothing with his life. A hard man for whom to feel any warmth.

Orson Welles was a great artist, with an eye for talent, and the ability to tell an ambitious story. And there he was - with a film he considered better than Citizen Kane, out of the country making a movie that never happened, while the studio maligned his baby. I guess I'd say, I need to be there or they will ruin my film.

Cut forty minutes - yes, someone said, throw the film up in the air and grab everything but forty minutes. Great way to cut. Bette Davis said most directors were careful with what they gave the studio so as not to enable much cutting. Welles said Ambersons was "cut by a lawnmower."

Welles was a strange man, with extravagant taste and not a lot of discipline, unable to work within the confines of a studio system. A genius, yes. A practical bone in his body, no.

After all that, it's still worth seeing.