The Phantom Of 42nd Street (1945)

Starring Dave O'Brien, Kay Aldridge, Alan Mowbray, Frank Jenks, Edythe Elliott
Directed by Albert Herman
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

At the urging of his editor, a newspaper drama critic turns investigative reporter to solve murders connected to a theater showing classical plays, mounted by a wealthy family. 

A low budget production from PRC, the film lacks any particularly well-known stars, although O'Brien is a more than competent lead as the newspaper critic, and Mowbray had been a reliable character actor for decades, as he is here.  They're surrounded by familar faces from many a poverty row production, including Jenks, Stanley Price, Robert Strange, Milton Kibbee, and Jack Mulhall as the predictably flustered detective.  Although the identity of the murderer won't come as a big shock to anyone, the picture is efficiently directed and the screenplay presents a wealth of suspects while distinguishing them well enough from the other actors.  However, although O'Brien and Aldridge's characters are definitely interested in each other, their romance is given short shrift in favor of comic relief scenes with Jenks and his dimwitted girlfriend, played by Vera Marshe.

Terror By Night (1946)

Starring Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Alan Mowbray, Dennis Hoey, Renee Godfrey
Directed by Roy William Neill
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

Sherlock Holmes is engaged to protect a valuable diamond aboard a train traveling from London to Edinburgh, but when the gem disappears and its owner is murdered, Holmes suspects an old foe.

One of the final pairings of Rathbone and Bruce as Holmes and Watson, and despite the film's low budget, there's some entertaining mystery and suspense in sort of a small-scale version of Agatha Christie's "Murder On The Orient Express."  Though a good portion of the film is devoted to Watson's errors in trying to question the suspects, Rathbone still is given plenty of opportunity to shine, and Neill makes the most of some stock footage in convincing us the game's afoot on a speeding train.

The Lone Wolf And His Lady (1949)

Starring Ron Randell, June Vincent, Alan Mowbray, William Frawley, Collette Lyons
Directed by John Hoffman
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A newspaper trying to remake itself with sensational new stories hires former jewel thief Michael Lanyard to cover the exhibition of a new diamond, but he becomes the prime suspect when it's stolen.

The final film in Columbia Pictures' long series of Lone Wolf adventures, it recasts the roles of Lanyard and loyal butler Jameson with Randell and Mowbray, and although they're not bad, they of course never got an ample opportunity to get comfortable in their roles.  Randell is capable enough, if not quite as suave as former Lone Wolves Warren William and Gerald Mohr, but while Mowbray is a fine actor, he doesn't have quite the presence or comic timing of Eric Blore, whose absence from the series after numerous appearances is definitely felt.  The mystery itself is no better or no worse than those in the other Lone Wolf films, but it's still an entertaining concoction, just not quite as much for me as the earlier films in the series.