The Gay Falcon
                  
        
Director: Irving Reis
Year:  1941
Rating: 6.5
If you find The Saint series of films and the Falcon films somewhat interchangeable and confusing, there is a reason for that. They were sort of meant to be. RKO produced both series and began with the Saint films that were quite popular though considered B films. They starred the urbane suave George Sanders who could so easily play either side of the coin of good or evil. Though Louis Hayward was in the first Saint film, Sanders took over for the next five films until the series production was moved to London to take advantage of a financial loophole and also to get away from the author of the Saint books, Leslie Charteris, who was an interfering nuisance. Sanders did not go along with the move to London. Since this was in the middle of WWII I can hardly blame him!



Charteris kept demanding that Sanders was not good enough and that the films should star an A actor like Gable or Grant. In those days sequels and film series were almost always B films to fill out the double features and A actors would never appear in them. Though to my mind Sanders is pretty darn close to top tier and Cary Grant as The Saint would have been wonderful. All that has clearly changed now with sequels the name of the game in Hollywood. Two more Saint films were made in London starring Hugh Sinclair and then the series ended with a sigh of relief from RKO to be rid of Charteris and the fee he was charging per film. Well, it turned out that was not quite the end.



Sander's last film as the Saint was released in 1941 and in the same year the first Falcon film with him now starring as Gay Laurence aka The Falcon was released. This was based on a short story from Michael Arlen that nobody knew of but it was similar enough to The Saint so that they could claim the Falcon films were not based on Charteris's character. And Arlen came much cheaper. In the end though Charteris sued RKO for plagiary and they settled out of court.



There are different biographical details between the Saint and the Falcon but Sanders plays him almost exactly the same way - charming, roguish, an eye for pretty women and nonchalant in the face of danger. At one point the villain asks the Falcon why he should not shoot him dead in cold blood to which he answers "well give me a minute and I am sure I will come up with something".



The Falcon has retired from crime sleuthing and is engaged to a society woman (Nina Vale) and trying to set up a brokerage business in which he has no clients, no equipment and no data. Fortunately, a dame comes along asking for his help to which the Falcon's sideman and comic relief (Allen Jenkins) tells the swizzle that he is out of the help damsels in distress business and she should contact Ellery Queen (another mystery series of books and films produced at Columbia). But The Falcon can't help himself especially as the seeker of his help is Wendy Barrie who is delightful in the film as his Girl Friday and who was in loads of B films and a few Saint film’s as well.



Jewel robberies are taking place at high end soirees thrown by Mrs. Wood (Gladys Cooper who had roles in many famous films and was Mrs. Higgins in My Fair Lady) and when the Falcon goes to the party a murder occurs and The Falcon is on the trail. At 66 minutes this moves quickly and is quite solid with a few other character actors as well that are familiar - Edward Brophy as an irritated cop, Arthur Shields and his always present Irish accent as the Inspector and the Turkish actor Turhan Bey early in his career who would go on to star in a number of "exotic" films like Arabian Nights and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. A good start to the series.