The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt (1939)

The clever leader of a group of spies invites our eponymous character (Warren William) to open a safe in return for $10,000. He declines and leaves the scene - but not before he leaves one of his distinctive cigarettes behind. With the constantly pursuing "Insp. Thomas" (Don Beddoe) and bumbling "Devan" (Tom Dugan) on his case, he now finds himself framed for a robbery - and that very cigarette is the conclusive proof the cops want! Aided by infrequent contributions from his valet "Jamison" (Leonard Carey), his attempts to get to the bottom of the mystery are frustrated at every turn by the hugely annoying ""Karen" (Rita Hayworth) who even resorts to a pair of handcuffs to make sure the "Lone Wolf" keeps her in the loop. To compensate for that constant irritation, we do get a few "colourful" scenes between her and the real woman behind the mystery here "Val" (Ida Lupino) that are worth a watch as the rest of this follows the traditional, well trammelled, lines towards it's conclusion. It's not really the story that matters here - it's the fun dynamic between the three actors and a reasonably lively script that help this keep from mediocrity.