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Shortly after the trial Atwill played the jolly Burgomeister of Vasaria, the place in which FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOFLMAN (Univ. ’43.) He was billed above Lugosi, who played the Monster. The probation, however, hurt Atwill’s pride as well as his career. Not only did he suffer public humiliation, but he also discovered that a restriction was placed on his potential employment by the Hays office, because of the headlines Atwill’s antics had caused. In April, ’43, Atwill returned to court, arguing that “The ends of justice have been served.” and requesting a termination of his sentence so he could again get a job. Attorney Pacht employed a rarely utilized section of the Penal Code, by which Atwill changed his plea from guilty to non-guilty. Judge McKay, who had sentenced Atwill, heard the case and decided: “Whereas this court does not condone any violation of the law, it still takes into consideration all the circumstances of the case. The person who caused this complaint to be made against Atwill was not actuated by a sincere desire to bring about justice, and I am convinced that the ends of justice have been met at this time.” The Judge then completely exonerated Atwill of all charges, saying: “You are now in the position. Mr. Atwill, where you can truthfully say you have not been convicted of a felony.” Crying, Atwill thanked the Judge and rushed from the courtroom.

With her husband cleared of his legal problems, Louise Atwill divorced him, obtaining a final decree June 18, ’43. During Atwill’s court adventures, Mrs. Atwill had received mail from people who suggested that any woman who could leave MacArthur and marry the Atwill of the headlines had a patriotic duty to kill herself. (In ’44. she married Col. AIf Heiberg. Living in Wash., DC. she was rumored in the ’60’s to he penning her memoirs. Close friends said if she made public all she knew about MacArthur and Atwill, “It will shake some circles harder than the earthquake in Alaska.” She died in ’65, without completing her reminiscences.)

To escape the smirks of Hollywood, Atwill traveled East after his exoneration, starring in ’43 summer stock packages of THE PLAY’S THE THING, THE OUTSIDER, and MY DEAR CHILDREN, hoping a Broadway offer would materialize. None did. Once the beau ideal of Broadway, Atwill returned to the movies, having fallen to the status of a character player whom even the poverty row studios were embarrassed to hire. He took what he could where he could get it, playing in such fare as Republic’s CAPTAIN AMERICA serial (’43) and PRC potboilers such as FOG ISLAND (’45). Universal kept its gates open – “But for the courage and magnanimity of one particular studio, I guess I should he a dead egg now” he said of that lot during his trials – but Universal also reduced the size of his assignments. Atwill played a heavy in a western serial, RAIDERS OF GHOST CITY (’44), and joined an all-star cast of screen rogues Karloff, Chaney, Carradine, Naish, Zucco – in ’44’s rowdy HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN. The mélange squandered Atwill in the tiny role of the inspector (with two good arms) who pursues Carradine’s Dracula into the fatal rays of the dawn. When Universal shot a second “monster rally” in ’45, HOUSE OF DRACULA, Atwill gained prominent billing, but again essayed a minor role – village constable.

Despite this lag in his carrier,Atwill remained professionally and privately irrepressible, playing all roles with his usual relish. On July 7, ’44, in Las Vegas, he married for the fourth time: 35-year old May Paula Shilstone, a Texas oil magnate’s daughter who worked as a radio singer and producer under the name of Paula Pruter. It was her second marriage. To Atwill’s delight he became the father of baby Lionel in the Fall of ’45.

Such happiness was tragically short-lived. In early ’46 Atwill menaced the comedy team of Carney and Brown in RKO’s GENIUS AT WORK, the climax of which found Atwill “in drag” (and sans moustache) as an old lady with Lugosi posing as his spouse. The rapid production schedule for this “B” film exhausted Atwill, and he came down with pneumonia. He battled the illness and returned to work in the Universal serial LOST CITY OF THE JUNGLE, but his condition grew worse. On April 22, 46, the 61-year old Atwill died of pneumonia in his Pacific Palisades home, with his wife at his bedside. (Universal would complete the serial with a double. George Sorel, shot from the sides and back.)

Despite the low esteem and distaste with which the theatre and cinema worlds had come to regard Atwill, his obituaries were respectful, focusing on his stage career and better pictures, his scandal mercifully overlooked. Atwill left the bulk of his $250,000 estate to his wife and infant son, with jewelry and personal effects left to his three brothers in England.

Few cinema villains ever sported so appreciative a leer for the indelicacies of melodrama as Lionel Atwill. As he said of his Hollywood sojourn to the NY “Times” in ’34, when many a perverse celluloid deed loomed in his notorious future: “I’ve been having a tremendous good time and I don’t see why I should stop.”

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