The Lone Wolf in London (1947) User Reviews

Pleasant enough bow-out

[Spondonman · 7/10 · 9 March 2007]

With plenty of "Mike Lanyard!"s being muttered by 2 suspicious Scotland Yarde types this entry launches into a post WW2/Victorian London setting, Mike has hardly arrived in Town before being accused of jewel robbery, co-incidentally these are the very jewels he needs to see in order to complete his forthcoming book on the subject with collaborator Claudius Augustus Lucius Jamison.

He gets called upon to do a ... legal job for a nouveau poor twit who likes leaving his safe door wide open, which leads to a murder of a lovelorn butler, and eventually ends up with the real jewel thief - who looked as lovely as ever despite the hairstyle - and with many amusing quips and scenes Lanyard and Jamison try to keep one step ahead of the police. As with The Notorious Lone Wolf it has a rather farcical ending however, not that I minded.

This was the penultimate Lone Wolf film, Gerald Mohr's last (and Eric Blore's) as Ron Randall took over for the to be avoided last. It was always a pleasant series, the Warren William entries generally better scripts and production values, but even the Mohr's are good to watch - if like me you like spending your time with valuable old potboilers like this.

Can't Escape His Reputation

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 28 January 2012]

Whatever actor played The Lone Wolf be it Melvyn Douglas, Warren William, Ron Randell or in this case Gerald Mohr, he cannot escape his reputation as a thief. No amount of good deeds done seems to prove this guy is no longer on the dark side.

Case in point while visiting London, Scotland Yard suspects Mohr of stealing those two matching diamonds, the Stars of the Nile. We know the butler didn't do it, he had them but Tom Stevenson was murdered and The Lone Wolf is implicated in that as well even though Scotland Yard was shadowing him. Not to mention the beautiful musical comedy star Evelyn Ankers and her maid Queenie Leonard as Ankers has her producer Alan Napier under her thumb. Never mind it all gets straightened out in the end.

The Lone Wolf In London saw the farewell appearance of Eric Blore as Michael Lanyard's invaluable valet Jameson. Blore really added something to this series, in many ways he kept his wits about him even better than his boss. Note the palming off of a jewel case back and forth right under the nose of the Scotland Yard cops who are searching both of them in broad daylight. Sheer genius.

This was a nice passable B film that did no harm to the reputations of its cast.

Neat little mystery marks appearance of a new Lone Wolf...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 27 October 2007]

The reformed internationally famed jewel thief is back in the guise of GERALD MOHR, replacing the late WARREN WILLIAM. He looks comfortable in the role.

The story, of course, starts with a jewel robbery and he, once again, is the prime suspect. The name "Michael Lanyard" is mentioned at least a dozen times in the opening scene which seems to be overdoing the explanatory exposition to the nth degree.

But the film itself is nicely paced, well written and smoothly acted by the entire case. ERIC BLORE, who describes himself as "a gentleman's gentleman or a cad's cad" is on hand again for plenty of comedy relief. EVELYN ANKERS is a woman of mystery (as usual), adding to the intrigue of the plot, which has the Lone Wolf solving a theft from the Scotland Yard safe. Seems the Lone Wolf is in need of cash, having spent all his money on research for his new book about famous jewels, especially a pair called The Eyes of the Nile. He's not the only character in need of heavy cash, thus the set-up for some stolen jewels that are the center of the mystery.

As usual, the plot unwinds at a fast pace and all the loose ends are tied up during the last five minutes.

Summing up: Nothing special, but not bad as far as these series go.

The Series Running Out of Gas

[Michael_Elliott · 23 May 2012]

The Lone Wolf in London (1947)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Stop me if any of this sounds familiar. Michael Lanyard (Gerald Mohr), better known as The Lone Wolf, is visiting London doing research for his upcoming book when some priceless jewels are stolen. Scotland Yard believes he did the crime so he must once again prove that he's innocent by nabbing the bad guys. THE LONE WOLF IN London was the third and final time that Mohr would play the part and it was the next to last in the original wave of films from Columbia. It's easy to see that the series was on its final legs as everything going on here just seems like stuff we've seen countless times before and what's hurts this film so much is that every other time we've seen it it was done much, much better. The entire film has a "been there, done that" feel to it and this includes the various comic banter between Lanyard and Jamison, once again played by Eric Blore. This comic back and forth between the two started back when Warren William was still in the series and as time went on the banter got to be more and more annoying in each film. The same is true here as very rarely does anything funny happen with the lone exception being at the start when Jamison goes to visit the help's quarters. The actual mystery in the film seems to have taken a backseat as everything pretty much just plays out and there never seemed to be any wish for the viewer's to get in on the action and try to figure out what's going on. The screenplay really doesn't offer anything new and that's not a good thing. Mohr isn't too bad in his part but you can't do much without a screenplay. Even Evelyn Ankers can't add much to this thing.

The Eyes Of The Nile Caper

[profh-1 · 6/10 · 17 February 2023]

Reformed international jewel thief Michael Lanyard has made a deal with a publisher to write a book about rare jewels, but runs into a snag when the focus of his last chapter, a pair of identical diamonds called "The Eyes of the Nile", prove elusive. It seems they were only recently recovered from a Nazi hoard and were temporarily in the possession of Scotland Yard, so he stops by there to get the info he needs to finish his book... only to find, they were stolen from the Yard just the day before. NATURALLY, the cops assume HE did it, and has unbelievable nerve to come to them before they go pick him up despite having no evidence of his guilt!

What follows is one of the most confusing plots in the entire LONE WOLF series. Nearly the entire first third of the film seems to ramble on before it gets going, during which a formerly-rich man suddenly in need of cash asks Lanyard's help pawning his jewel collection for him (which of course the cops are very suspicious of), Lanyard is briefly romanced by a music-hall singer whose show was financed by someone who "suddenly" came into money, Jamison gets very friendly with the maid who works for both the rich man AND the singer (that's almost too much of a coincidence, isn't it?) and the rich man's future son-in-law gets increasingly suspicious and downright offensive in his attitude and behavior. I think the problem is that it seems as if nothing's going on, when in fact, a LOT is going on, but you don't see how it all connects up until the last act of the story! When it arrives, Lanyard convinces the real thief (who's also guilty of murder on the side) that his partner plans to blackmail him, and he uses Jamison to get the mastermind of the crime, said henchman AND the cops to all show up at the airport at the same time to prove to the cops who the real guilty party is. The finale is the most exposition-heavy ending I've seen outside of THE CASE OF THE BLACK CAT with Ricardo Cortez (1936). It's completely NUTS!

Gerald Mohr makes his 3rd (and final) appearance as "Michael Lanyard", and it's a toss-up for me which I liked better, this or ...IN MEXICO. He gets to shine in a few scenes, such as when he confronts the rich guy about being lured in and framed, and explains half the plot for pretty much the entire audience, since without his saying so most people watching would probably still have NO idea what was really going on.

Eric Blore makes his 11th and also final appearance as "Jamison", who seems more helpful and less annoying than in many previous films.

Frederick Warlock is "Inspector Broome", who comes across as more reasonable, polite and patient than Lanyard's longtime nemesis Crane ever was. I'm not sure if I believe him when he claims, at the end, that he somehow knew Lanyard was innocent from the beginning. I've also seen him in MURDER OVER NEW YORK, MAN HUNT, DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE (1941), RANDOM HARVEST, SHERLOCK HOLMES IN WASHINGTON, PASSPORT TO SUEZ (in which he played a far-more suspicious police inspector), SHERLOCK HOLMES FACES DEATH, THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, THE WOMAN IN GREEN, PURSUIT TO ALGIERS, TERROR BY NIGHT, and DRESSED TO KILL (he really was a regular in the Basil Rathbone HOLMES series).

Dennis Green is "Detective Inspector Garvey", who Broome gladly assigns to follow Lanyard, since the man is obsessed with trying to "pin" whatever he can on him, no matter what lengths he has to go to. Garvey is the kind of police officer who frankly, gives ALL cops a bad name.

Evelyn Ankers is "Iris Chatham", the singer who's just involved with too many people and knows too much for anybody's good. I've seen her in quite a few things as well, including THE WOLF MAN, THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN, SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE VOICE OF TERROR, CRAZY HOUSE, SON OF DRACULA, THE INVISIBLE MAN'S REVENGE, THE PEARL OF DEATH, and TARZAN'S MAGIC FOUNTAIN.

Alan Napier is "Monte Beresford", who financed Iris' show, but proves to be involved in a lot more than that. Long a favorite of mine, I've seen him in THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS, RANDOM HARVEST, LASSIE COME HOME, THE UNINVITED, TARZAN'S MAGIC FOUNTAIN, TARZAN'S PERIL, JULIUS CAESAR (1953), JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH (1959), THE PREMATURE BURIAL, THE SWORD IN THE STONE, MARY POPPINS, MY FAIR LADY, THE LOVED ONE, and of course, 120 episodes of BATMAN plus the 1966 feature film!

Mohr's 1st LONE WOLF outing was really lame, but his next 2 were both quite good, despite the insane story structure of the 3rd one. I don't know why Columbia decided to stop here. The following year, Mutual did a LONE WOLF radio series, with Mohr continuing to play Lanyard in that. But the year after that, Columbia did one more LW film, but recast both Lanyard & Jamison in it-- and it wasn't very good, which no doubt explains they stopped THERE. 5 years went by before THE LONE WOLF tv series aired, with entirely-different people involved on both sides of the camera.

"Tell me Sir, how do you always manage to outwit the police?"

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 10 June 2016]

The Lone Wolf, Michael Lanyard (Gerald Mohr) is uncharacteristically low on dough, so decides to accept an offer from Sir John Klemscott (Vernon Steele) to put part of his jewel collection in hock for a sum of ten thousand pounds. Sir John apparently didn't think this out far enough because he didn't leave himself any leverage to get his baubles back, but that's neither here nor there because that's not the way the story played out.

Nor was it ever established how Sir John wound up with the 'Eyes of the Nile' in his office safe in the first place. They were obviously stolen from Scotland Yard's safekeeping, but how did he ever manage that? Maybe one's not supposed to think about all that with all the other characters introduced into the story to keep one guessing. Of course for Scotland Yard Detective Inspector Garvey (Denis Green), the jewel theft is pretty much an open and shut case - it has to be the Lone Wolf, even though he just arrived in the country the same day.

Keep an eye on Lanyard when he makes his way down the phone book list looking for a favorite fence; he reads off 'Tandler, Tanaka, and Tang', but those names aren't in alphabetical order. Maybe the Brits have a different kind of phone book.

The more I think about it, the movie really did have quite a few silly elements. Who lays out a phone cord half way across a floor to make it convenient for Lanyard to kick it out of Woolerton's (Richard Fraser) hand as he tries to dial the police? And in the wrap up to the story, Lanyard explains that it was Iris Chatham (Evelyn Ankers) who killed her ex-husband Robards, but how could she have done that while Woolerton was tailing him all day? The best though had to be the way Robards successfully maneuvered his auto to a stop when he was already dead.

Say, I don't know about you, but I think that The Lone Wolf had us all by the jewels.

The series is really starting to show its age

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 16 November 2007]

You really have to feel sorry for poor old Gerald Mohr in being cast as Michael Lanyard ("The Lone Wolf"). Sure, his three Lone Wolf films were entertaining, but because the role had been played so long and so well by Warren William, many fans (including myself) longed for him in this film. Why Columbia did not use William is unknown to me--as William made movies through 1947 before dying of cancer and Mohr began making the films in 1946. Perhaps William was too sick for the strain of the role or maybe the studio was stupid in thinking the public would embrace another actor or perhaps William himself just wanted a change. So at the onset, I was NOT favorably disposed towards the film but at least it did still have Eric Blore--William's old side-kick.

In this film we find Lanyard in London doing some research for a book on gems. Uncharacteristically, though, he is practically broke--something you would not expect as his character always seemed to be independently wealthy. And when, not surprisingly, some gems are stolen, the stupid British police automatically assume Lanyard did it and ignore all other possible leads. This is nothing new--something that has occurred in many previous Wolf AND Boston Blackie films. In fact, without William's charm and style, this film seems more like a Blackie film than anything else. That is, a Blackie film with Eric Blore.

So overall, the film is a bit flat and offers nothing uniquely good but it's also inoffensive and palatable--sort of like white rice. Worth a look, but don't assume most other Lone Wolf films are of similar quality and possessing so little energy or charm.

The lone Wolf in London

[coltras35 · 5/10 · 6 March 2023]

Michael Lanyard (Gerald Mohr) is suspected of stealing two fabulous diamonds from a vault in Scotland Yard, where they were being held for safekeeping, but the Yard can't prove he did it. Later, Lanyard is summoned by a member of the nobility to help the latter raise money to pay a blackmailer. Lanyard later finds the evidence and ensnares the culprit.

This is the second Lone Wolf featuring Gerard Mohr as Michael Lanyard and he comes across better here, a bit dreamy and romantic yet quick to put up his fists or use his guile. Of course, he is not as good as Warren William, but he's not too bad in the role and has his own style. As for the film, it's an ok entry, though a little muddled and too leisurely in the plot. Evelyn Anders is a standout character as the villainess.