Michael Lanyard takes a vacation to Mexico, where his valet Jamison insists it's time for HIS vacation as well, and he wishes to be treated an as equal. However, the usual pattern emerges when a former flame from Monte Carlo shows up trying to involve him in some shady deal, a croupier at a crooked casino is murdered just when he's trying to hand Lanyard an illegal proposition, a woman in debt plants a jewel in Jamison's pocket as a way of then trying to blackmail Lanyard into helping her, another murder follows, and of course, before long, Lanyard decides to NAIL the real criminals, clear himself, and have loads of FUN doing so!
Let me get this out of the way right here: ...MEXICO is a HUGE improvement over the previous film, THE NOTORIOUS... Gerald Mohr's been one of my favorite actors since first seeing him on TV in the late 60s, and it was infuriating to see him in a film as badly-written as that one was. With this, he comes closer to what I expect from him, and the plot is almost a throwback to the late 30s installments... before Columbia's writers turned Inspector Crane into such a complete IDIOT. The best part of this film, in fact, may be the total absence of Crane, apart from a teletype message FROM him in New York, warning the Mexican Police that Laynard is arriving in Mexico on vacation... he HOPES.
Generally, Eric Blore as Jamison is entertaining, though at times he can be annoying. This time around, he only very briefly got on my nerves, when he was considering stealing a jewel from a woman he was giving a car ride to. Of course, his pride in his own restraint was sabotaged when SHE wound up planting the jewel on HIM, something Lanyard flat-out refused to believe!
Unlike many of these films, for much of the story, I genuinely found myself wondering... "WHAT is really going on?" I liked the fact that it wasn't completely obvious, and actually kept me guessing. The owners of the "somewhat illegal" casino (HOW can something be considered "somewhat" illegal?) seemed mostly legit at first... before it turned out they were up to several different shady things at the same time. It was therefore hilarious, when Lanyard, forced to steal jewels from their safe, then proceded to steal them back from their actual owner, and replace them back in the casino safe, just as the news of the latter theft made newspaper headlines.
I think the most entertaining part of the film, however, had to be Nestor Paiva as Police Captain Carlos Rodriguez. Warned by Crane, he goes to the hotel, whose manager fully expects him to arrest Lanyard, but who he instead welcomes as an old friend he hasn't seen in years. When things start happening, naturally, he questions Lanyard, repeatedly declaring, "I HATE mysteries!", but, even when he's forced to arrest Lanyard at one point, he never really wants to do it, and near the end happily accepts Lanyard's help in catching the real criminals. (By then, they've managed to rack up fraud, theft, kidnapping and at least 2 murders!) I've seen Paiva in so many things, including THE SPIDER'S WEB (1938), PHANTOM RAIDERS, THE GREEN HORNET STRIKES AGAIN, MEET BOSTON BLACKIE, TARZAN'S DESERT MYSTERY, THE FALCON IN MEXICO, MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, I THE JURY (1953), CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, REVENGE OF THE CREATURE, and episodes of JONNY QUEST (1964).
Even the finale is fun, as Rodriguez sends a similar telegram to Lanyward's next destination, only one written a lot more positive than the one Crane sent at the beginning.
When TCM ran most of the series back in the mid-2000s, this was not among them. No wonder, even they can't find a decent copy. It is, of course, included in OnesMedia's THE LONE WOLF FILMS COLLECTION (15 films from 1935-1949), but comes with a "warning" about the picture quality. While the opening credits didn't look too promising, most of the film is VERY watchable, and better than some others I've seen thanks to them. I plan on getting a lot more of their box sets before I'm through!