Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

"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.

Beautifully mounted (especially in the photography and costume departments), but dull talk-fest. The normally stylish director George Fitzmaurice can do little with the slow-moving script. In this follow-up to the superb 1932 film, Maurice Le Blanc's celebrated "prince of thieves" has retired from criminal activity to enjoy life as a country gentleman. A jewel robber then usurps his identity. But who? To everyone but the dialogue-bound players in this drawing-room "mystery", the identity of the real thief is obvious.The support cast is studded with some of my favorite players, although I make an exception for Nat Pendleton who grossly over-acts as usual. The principals pour on the charm. Virginia Bruce looks stunning in Dolly Tree costumes. Melvyn Douglas and Warren William, both likewise impeccably dressed, vie for her affections, but John Halliday is forced to wrestle with a nothing role.

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.

Melvyn Douglas, (Arsene Lupin) keeps his real name a secret from everyone and gets himself involved with a stolen necklace and also has a romantic relationship with Lorraine DeGrissac, (Virginia Bruce) who both give an outstanding performance throughout the entire film. There is plenty of laughs and comedy in this film and it captures your attention and then turns quickly away from stolen jewelry and centers around all the characters involved in this mystery. George Zucco, (Perfect of Police) instead of playing the role as a crook which he has done all his acting career, is now a police man who tries to catch his criminal and suspects Arsene Lupin of stealing this necklace. Georges Bouchet, (Monty Wolley) plays low key in this film and has some very dark secrets which he does not want to reveal.