In the previous film, The Falcon's Brother, George Sanders, the original
Falcon was written out and his movie and real life brother introduced to
keep the series going for another nine films. This is the first that Tom
Conway did on his own and he and the film are fine. Not all that surprising
in that Edward Dmytryk is directing. This is the sixth in his B film phase
that I have come across - he did films for the Lone Wolf, Boston Blackie
and now the Falcon. They are all slightly better than the others in the series.
Only a few more films before he hit it big. Not so for Conway as he pretty
much got stuck in B films for his career which I admit is a mystery to me
as he has the looks and style to have gone further.
The Falcon can never say no to a lady in distress even when she breaks into
his bedroom while he is in bed and demands at the point of a gun that he
helps her locate her missing brother. He obliges of course - the lady in
question (Rita Corday) is attractive with one of those Hollywood mysterious
European accents. Hard to resist a girl with an accent. It is a set-up though
and the Falcon, Tom Lawrence, is knocked out and framed for a murder and
bank robbery. With the cops after him he tracks a clue to an upstate resort
hotel and soon is being targeted or the witness to other murders. All nicely
done on a small budget at a little over 60 minutes of running time. Not a
minute is wasted.
In the cast is the female reporter from the last film (Jane Randolph), Edgar
Kennedy as a puppeteer which always makes him suspicious in my book, Richard
Loo (one of the most often used Asian actors in these years - mainly in small
uncredited roles but a few big ones as well) as the Falcon's butler who gets
a nice no pidgin English role here and Harriet Hilliard as the hotel manager.
She is better know as Harriet Nelson but had not met Ozzie at this point
- fifteen years on TV in the Ozzie and Harriet Show made her famous to all
in my generation.
