LONE WOLF, THE - IN MEXICO(1947)
Another poor copy! Gerald Mohr returns for a second
round as The Lone Wolf and Eric Blore returns for
his 10th round as his faithful man servent Jameson!
Again not a terrible movie, just not of the caliber
of the earlier Lone Wolf movies! B+
A review from IMDb.com:
One of the few entries that has never aired on Turner
Classic Movies, "The Lone Wolf in Mexico" (1946), like
the Monogram Charlie Chan entry "The Red Dragon" (1945),
features a studio-bound Mexico City with no interesting
exteriors (1944's "The Falcon in Mexico" at least was
partially shot outdoors and has the look of authenticity).
The budgets for Columbia's Lone Wolf were about the
same as RKO's Falcon but this latter entry suffers
from overly familiar territory. On vacation south of
the border, Michael Lanyard (Gerald Mohr) visits a
shady gambling casino run by Henderson (John Gallaudet)
which substitutes fake diamonds for the genuine article.
He meets up with a former flame (Jacqueline De Wit),
her croupier husband (Bernard Nedell), and a debt-ridden
beauty (Sheila Ryan) who wants our hero to recover some
gems that she'd hocked. A decent cast enlivens the
proceedings, especially the welcome return of Eric
Blore as faithful manservant Jamison. Nestor Paiva
(Lucas in "Creature from the Black Lagoon") plays the
police inspector and Chris-Pin Martin has an unbilled
part as an amusing taxi driver who sleeps on the job.
After Warren William exited the series with 1943's
"Passport to Suez," Columbia revived it in 1946 with
"The Notorious Lone Wolf," bringing back Eric Blore
but replacing William with Gerald Mohr, who played
the unbilled murder victim in a previous Wolf, 1942's
"One Dangerous Night." Following the release of
"Mexico" in Jan 1947, Mohr made one final appearance
in "The Lone Wolf in London," easily the best of
the three, with a standout performance from Universal
beauty Evelyn Ankers playing a femme fatale in one
of her last roles. A very busy actor, especially on
television, Mohr has perhaps been unjustly maligned
for his three Wolf entries, all of which ploughed
the same material that audiences had grown tired
of (he died in 1968). Columbia tried once more with
"The Lone Wolf and His Lady" (1949), which sat on
the shelf for a full year before it was released.
Ron Randell replaced Gerald Mohr while Alan Mowbray
replaced Eric Blore. The 1954 TV series which
followed featured former Saint Louis Hayward in
the title role. - kevinolzak