The Lone Wolf in London (1947) Leslie Goodwins

Last I saw of the Lone Wolf, Michael Lanyard, he was arriving back in the States after spending the war in Europe. That was the first of the three Gerald Mohr Lone Wolfs and this is the third, but it finds him back in London. He's apparently writing a book on the great gems of the world, a logical choice what with him being a reformed jewel thief, and his only incomplete chapter is on a pair of twin stones called the Eyes of the Nile. They're in London, after having being recovered from some German general but just as Lanyard turns up to look at them, they're stolen and of course Scotland Yard suspect him.

Enter a bunch of other characters who twirl the plot strands around and drag the Lone Wolf into subplots involving not just jewel thievery, but blackmail and murder, plus a number of crosses, double crosses and more. It really highlights just what the first of the three films Gerald Mohr made as the Lone Wolf should have been and wasn't.

This one had a lucid story that while never particularly surprising, held together well. There's much better acting than before, not just from Mohr himself but from Eric Blore as Jamison who has rarely been better and supporting actors like scream queen Evelyn Ankers. The direction was solid, the dialogue good and often funny, even the music was good. Possibly most amazing of all, especially given the opening scenes of stock footage, there was no embarrassing digs at the English. Much more like it.