Warren William

Warren William is one of the most joyous discoveries any filmgoer is likely to have, because his moment to shine was in the precode era from 1929-1934 and everything that came after that crippled his talents no end. His name is hardly remembered today, except to those who have made that discovery and to them he's a bright star, unique in the history of film. Unfortunately an early death in 1948 at 53 left us with only 65 films to work through.

He was unique in the precode era because you could never tell whether he was really the hero or the villain. In fact he was both, combining both halves of the coin neatly together in such a way as to strip bare the truth behind whatever issue was being addressed in these films. He could and would do the most bare faced things, utterly uncaring of the consequences for anyone else, and yet we can't help loving him for it. No other villain has been so heroic and no other hero has been so villainous as one played by Warren William during the precode era.

After enforcement of the code began he was relegated to detective series and roles that seriously restricted his range. Nonetheless he was still watchable, even though he was inherently a shadow of his former self. He was the first screen Perry Mason, playing the role four times; he was also Philo Vance twice and Michael Lanyard, the Lone Wolf, in no less than nine films. Yet he also played opposite May Robson in Frank Capra's Lady for a Day, Claudette Colbert in Imitation of Life and Cleopatra and Bette Davis in the second film version of The Maltese Falcon, Satan Met a Lady.

Here are links to reviews here at Apocalypse Later, with some older reviews from my far less substantial 2006 blog at Hal and Dee at the Movies and links to the IMDb pages for each film. Ratings are for films watched since 2004, reviews since 2006. H is me, D is my better half.

Rating System
1 - Abysmal | 2 - Bad | 3 - Poor | 4 - OK | 5 - Good | 6 - Excellent | 7 - Classic

Reviews at Apocalypse Later
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
The Match King	1932	6	6	Howard Bretherton & William Keighley	IMDB
Employees' Entrance	1933	6	6	Roy Del Ruth	IMDB
The Mind Reader	1933	5	5	Roy Del Ruth	IMDB
Gold Diggers of 1933	1933	6	6	Mervyn LeRoy	IMDB
Smarty	1934	4	4	Robert Florey	IMDB
Dr Monica	1934	4	4	William Keighley	IMDB
The Secret Bride	1934	4	4	William Dieterle	IMDB
Living on Velvet	1935	4	4	Frank Borzage	IMDB
The Firefly	1937	4	4	Robert Z Leonard	IMDB
Madame X	1937	6	6	Sam Wood	IMDB
Arsène Lupin Returns	1938	6	5	George Fitzmaurice	IMDB
The First Hundred Years	1938	3	3	Richard Thorpe	IMDB
The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt	1939	5	5	Peter Godfrey	IMDB
The Man in the Iron Mask	1939	5	5	James Whale	IMDB
The Lone Wolf Strikes	1940	4	5	Sidney Salkow	IMDB
Lillian Russell	1940	4	4	Irving Cummings	IMDB
The Lone Wolf Meets a Lady	1940	5	5	Sidney Salkow	IMDB
Arizona	1940	4	4	Wesley Ruggles	IMDB
The Lone Wolf Keeps a Date	1941	3	3	Sidney Salkow	IMDB
The Lone Wolf Takes a Chance	1941	5	5	Sidney Salkow	IMDB
Passport to Suez	1943	4	4	André De Toth	IMDB

Old Reviews at Hal and Dee at the Movies
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
Under Eighteen	1932	6	6	Archie Mayo	IMDB
Beauty and the Boss	1932	6		Roy Del Ruth	IMDB
The Dark Horse	1932	5		Alfred E Green	IMDB
Skyscraper Souls	1932	6	6	Edgar Selwyn	IMDB
Bedside	1934	5		Robert Florey	IMDB
Times Square Playboy	1936	4	4	William McGann	IMDB
Satan Met a Lady	1936	5	6	William Dieterle	IMDB

Rated Not Reviewed
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
The Mouthpiece	1932	6		James Flood & Elliott Nugent	IMDB
Three on a Match	1932	5	6	Mervyn LeRoy	IMDB
Lady for a Day	1933	7		Frank Capra	IMDB
Upperworld	1934	5		Roy Del Ruth	IMDB
The Dragon Murder Case	1934	6	6	H Bruce Humberstone	IMDB
The Case of the Howling Dog	1934	6	6	Alan Crosland	IMDB
Cleopatra	1934	4		Cecil B De Mille	IMDB
Imitation of Life	1934	6		John M Stahl	IMDB
The Case of the Curious Bride	1935	6	6	Michael Curtiz	IMDB
The Case of the Lucky Legs	1935	6	6	Archie L Mayo	IMDB
The Case of the Velvet Claws	1936	5	5	William Clemens	IMDB
Day-Time Wife	1939	4	4	Gregory Ratoff	IMDB
The Wolf Man	1941	6	7	George Waggner	IMDB