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.
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