THE LONE WOLF was a syndicated TV series in the 1954-55 season that ran for thirty-nine episodes. It ‘s based on the Joseph Louis Vance character that appeared in a series of novels that began in 1914, eight books with another by Carl W. Smith in 1947. They were quite popular in their time, some say The Lone Wolf was the inspiration for The Saint, and inspired a couple of dozen movies as well as this series. Not to mention a modern day, female version from Moonstone Books.

In this series, he functions as a private investigator and in the episodes I’ve seen no mention is made of any criminal past. But not exactly as your common, garden variety P.I. I’ve never seen any sort of office in any of the shows. He flies in and out of the country quite frequently, spending more time on the continent and in Mexico than in the States.

But he dresses the part of a P.I. of the era, wearing tench coats and snap brim hats, smoking heavily(four times in the half hour story linked below). He seems to get hit on the head a lot as well and, of course, he’s always ready to help the downtrodden with never a thought of any recompense.

In one episode, THE WEREWOLF STORY, Lanyard is asked by a law firm to check on a client, a very wealthy, slightly dotty, old lady that has bought a castle in The Balkans and intends to live the rest of her days as the queen she imagined as a young girl. He meets her in France where she announces they are leaving for the castle. The Balkan prince, and his daughter, that sold her the castle are there also. A sinister looking pair, they are not happy to see him. He learns why when the old woman shows him a paper she has to sign that says she can never sell the castle and, upon her death, it reverts back to the Prince.

Lanyard smells a rat.

Michael Lanyard is played by Louis (Charles) Hayward, an actor born in South Africa in 1909. Educated in England and the continent, during WWII, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps and commanded a photographic unit that filmed the Battle of Tarawa for a documentary that won the 1945 Academy Award for best documentary(short subject). He managed a night club for a period until he displayed some acting skill and playwright Noel Coward became his patron. He starred as Simon Templar in three films in 1938, 1940, and 1953. He also starred in the 1938 THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK.

Youtube seems to have only one episode available:

The Las Vegas Story (both DeForest Kelley and Jerry Paris appeared)

A lot of well known actors, maybe not back then, appeared on the show. Barbara Billingsley(Leave It To Beaver), Harry Morgan(Dragnet and M*A*S*H), Ernest Borgnine(McHale’s Navy), Jean Byron(Patty Duke Show), Beverly Garland, Marjorie Lord(The Danny Thomas Show), DeForest Kelley(Star Trek of course), Kenneth Tobey(quite a few of my favorite monster movies from the fifties), and Jerry Paris(Dick Van Dyke show) were some of them.

A final note. Of the thirty-nine episodes, thirty-one were similarly titled as THE something STORY.

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