En las garras del Lobo

RON RANDELL and ALAN MOBRAY are the unfortunate replacements for The Lone Wolf and his faithful valet Jamison. Given the material, they do respectful work but none of it has much effect or can overcome the weak plot, all too familiar by this time.

JUNE VINCENT is the newspaper woman who gets to spout some snappy dialog in all of her confrontations with the newspaper boss, the police and Michael Lanyard, the Lone Wolf. WILLIAM FRAWLEY is a police inspector and DOUGLAS DUMBRILLE is an agitated newspaper publisher. STEVEN GERAY is a kidnapped diamond cutter.

She invites Lanyard to attend the opening of an exhibit featuring the unveiling of the world's third largest diamond, the Tahara Diamond. Naturally the jewels are stolen during a well planned robbery and Inspector Crane immediately suspects Lanyard of being the thief.

For devotees of the series, this one has all the familiar elements without any new twists. It's passable, but easily forgotten.

Columbia Pictures may have been one of the six major Hollywood studios, but when it came to their "B" level programmers there was not a lot of difference between them and Monogram, save better designed sets. "The Lone Wolf" was an early character from detective fiction whose exploits had been portrayed on film going back into the silent era, and had been best associated with actor Warren William, who of course by 1949 was deceased. This opened up the role to Australian actor and Errol Flynn lookalike Ron Randell, who gives his shot at The Lone Wolf the old college try without being terribly convincing at it; his reward would be roles in such films as "Omoo Omoo The Shark God." Alan Mowbray is the best part of "The Lone Wolf and his Lady;" the wit of his portrayal as The Lone Wolf's English sidekick Jamison -- not to mention the fact that he has the film's best lines -- help win the day for him. Lead actress June Vincent is appealing as The Lone Wolf's 'lady;' she comes off as a sort of poverty row Grace Kelly. William Frawley -- more than a year before he landed his signature role as Fred Mertz on television -- plays a hard-nosed police detective suited to his talents, but it is without much dimension; he is all bluster, stubborn and wrong about the case. "The Lone Wolf and his Lady" might play a bit better if you haven't seen other entries in the series, and it is really not as mediocre as some of the comments here state, though John Hoffman's paint-by-numbers direction is not a help and there are continuity issues galore. I found it reasonably entertaining by the end, though the second half of the film is clearly superior to the first; as short as it is, it still seems like it has a rather long and none-too-interesting set up.

Doesn't hold up well in comparison to the other "Lone Wolf" movies. Ron Randell is lively enough but he has a tough job trying to follow up ultra-suave Gerald Mohr and ultra-charming Warren William in an established series. Talented Alan Mowbray appears a bit uncomfortable but is still watchable. William Frawley of course is his usual gruff persona and is very effective as a policeman. He is really good in this movie, but wasn't he always?

I realize that this is a "B" movie but it lacks the gloss that the Gerald Mohr Lone Wolf films have (they were also B-movies but have a high level of gloss with good cinematography, lighting, etc.) And of course this movie can't hold your attention the way the Warren William films can, some of which were really well-made.

If you are a Lone Wolf fan you will still get the same successful formula and the usual jewel-thief plot that you are looking for. From this standpoint a Lone Wolf fan could possibly find this movie rewarding.

The Lone Wolf and His Lady (1949)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

The final film in Columbia's original series of Lone Wolf films finds Ron Randell playing the part of Michael Lanyard. This time out he's selling his life story to a newspaper reporter (June Vincent) and while the two are at the showing of a priceless jewel someone steals it and of course it's the Wolf that is blamed. With everyone thinking he's guilty, Lanyard must track down the real thieves. THE LONE WOLF AND HIS LADY puts the final stamp on the series and it certainly goes out in a fairly bad way. At just 60-minutes the film seems twice as long because everything we're watching is stuff we've seen countless times before and done much better. The biggest problem is the screenplay, which is so basic that it almost seems as if the screenwriter just copied bits and pieces from previous movies and threw them together. The identity of the real thieves is never all that interesting and even worse is the fact that you really don't care what happened and you care even less on whether or not Lanyard will be cleared. As the Lone Wolf Randell isn't all that good. I found him to be rather bland in the part and perhaps the actor knew this was just going to be one film and he just didn't put any effort into it. Vincent is always charming but she's not given anything to do. Alan Mowbray fills in as Jamison and he too is just bland. There's not any chemistry to be found among the cast and that's just another reason the film doesn't work.

The Lone Wolf series for Columbia finally wrapped with The Lone Wolf And His Lady. Things were getting a bit thin for the series and in this film Ron Randell became the final actor to essay the character of Michael Lanyard.

What really hurt this series was that Eric Blore had made his farewell appearance in the previous Lone Wolf entry. Alan Mowbray as Jamison the Butler with Randell as Lanyard just didn't have the chemistry. Blore when he played Jamison with that elfin wit and charm was making more of a fool of law enforcement than his employer was at times and that's saying something.

The plot has the notorious master criminal once again accused of stealing a diamond. He's at the exhibit because Douglass Dumbrille's newspaper is paying him for his memoirs and he's there with reporter June Vincent covering the opening. When the jewel is stolen as always the cops in the person of William Frawley accuses him.

I kind of liked the idea of The Lone Wolf writing memoirs for syndication. What spicy reading they'll make.

A lot spicier than the film however.