If you recall George Sanders was the Saint until 1941 with his last film
as that character in the 1941 The Saint in Palm Spring. Then RKO in their
infinite wisdom moved the franchise to London for tax credit purposes and
handed the reins over to Hugh Sinclair. But they liked Sanders in the role
and so created The Falcon in which he is basically the same character with
a different name. Or so the author of the Saint believed and Charteris sued
RKO and won an out of court settlement. Sanders was The Falcon in three previous
films but by this fourth one he was entirely sick of playing in these B films
and asked to get out. And he did. They write him out of the series in this
film and hand over The Falcon to his brother in the film but also his older
brother in real life, Tom Conway. RKO thought this was likely the last Falcon
film - they didn't want to lose Sanders and figured he would agree to make
one more to help his brother. RKO was surprised and pleased to find out that
the films actually did better with Conway.
Conway was probably quite happy to take the role as he had been kicking
around Hollywood for a few years and not really getting anywhere. Sanders
had gotten RKO to sign up his brother as a way to stop supporting him. He
had a bit of a reputation - a heavy drinker and once back at school had held
a loaded gun on a teacher. Including this one, he was to make ten Falcon
films. He has the same slightly charming upper class cadence and manners
as George, but without the smarm that oozed up at times with Sanders. And
which made Sanders quite memorable. He could up the ooze and be the bad guy
and lower it and be the hero. Conway never gained the same fame as did his
brother - stuck mainly in B films but some good ones - these, a couple as
Bulldog Drummond and in three of the classic Val Lewton horrors - Cat People,
I Walked with a Zombie and The Seventh Victim (the Lewton films while he
was doing The Falcon). I always enjoy coming across him in anything and he
makes a fine Falcon.
Both brothers are in this one. A dead body is found on a luxury liner and
is identified as Tom Lawrence (Tom Conway). It isn't obviously and Gay Lawrence
(Sanders) who was greeting him at the dock realizes that but keeps his mouth
shut. Both investigate though Gay is hit by a car and goes into a coma and
that allows Tom to take over the gist of the film. Eventually the investigation
leads them to a German spy cell with a plan to assassinate a high official.
The only other actor that I recognize is Keye Luke who had lost his gig in
the Charlie Chan films. Here he is the Falcon's butler. Ya, a long ways from
Chan's Number 1 son. A decent enough film that keeps its cards hidden.
