The Lone Wolf and His Lady

Plot

The much-valued Tahara diamond is looted during its opening showcase. A suspicious Inspector Crane (William Frawley) suspects reformed jewel thief and current private detective Michael Lanyard (Ron Randell), alias "the Lone Wolf", to be the perpetrator and promptly arrests him. In actuality, the true masterminds are Steve Taylor (Robert H. Barrat) and Joe Brewster (Philip van Zandt).

An eagle-eyed Jamison (Alan Mowbray), Lanyard's butler, spots the two criminals' hideout. It is revealed that they are involved with precious stone cutter Myriber Van Groot (Steven Geray). Nearby news anchor Grace Duffy (June Vincent) decides to join Jamison and the Lone Wolf, who has evaded capture, in storming the jewel thieves' hiding spot. Taylor and Brewster are handcuffed but in the middle of the scuffle, the Tahara is accidentally flung out of the window. Upon retrieval by Duffy, the jewel is found to be a fake. Lanyard deduces that Van Groot took away the real diamond and has the police capture him.

Production

After Gerald Mohr stopped portraying the title character Lone Wolf, also known as Michael Lanyard, the production company and distributor Columbia Pictures selected Australian actor Ron Randell as his replacement. In addition, Alan Mowbray replaced Eric Blore as Lanyard's butler Jamison.

John Hoffman served as director of the film. Rudolph C. Flothow was in charge of production for Columbia Pictures, while Michael Stuart Boylan wrote the screenplay based on a story by Richard Dein. Philip Tannura signed on as cinematographer. The set decorator was James Crowe. Mischa Bakaleinikoff headed the musical direction, and James Sweeney edited the film. Principal photography officially began on August 9, 1948, and ended on August 20, 1948.

Reception

The Lone Wolf and His Lady was theatrically released in the United States in August 1949. Film historian Leonard Maltin described the film as, "The Wolf turns newshound to cover the exhibition of a famous gem, and of course it's stolen, and of course he's suspected. Randell previously helped kill the Bulldog Drummond series, and does the same here in this final entry. Mowbray inherits Eric Blore's role as Jamison the valet." As a "relaunch" of the series, The Lone Wolf and His Lady was not considered successful, subsequently, Columbia ended the film series.