The 11th film in the Falcon series and a very
solid one. It is directed by Joseph H. Lewis who was later to direct the
low budget cult classic Gun Crazy. He does a fine job here keeping the plot
moving, throwing in a few twists, doing some location shooting around San
Francisco and giving the film a touch of noir. At one point the Falcon (Tom
Conway) takes a beating that is pure The Glass Key or Murder, My Sweet. Lawrence
isn't on top of his game here - he keeps getting lured into traps and paying
for it.
He is taking a train to San Fran with a sidekick for a vacation. Why he would
bring a sidekick along I don't know. I usually hate slow-witted sidekicks
but in this case I forgive the writers as he is played by Edward Brophy,
one of my favorite dese and dose character actors. He spends most of the
film looking for a wife for a tax deduction and he pays for it as well with
a black eye and a litany of insults. I liked the one in which the woman tells
him that she just buried her third husband and he looked better in the coffin
than Brophy does. Any way, they meet a little girl on the train and when
her travelling companion is murdered the Falcon steps in. "Oh boss we are
on vacation". Turns out to be a bunch of people interested in her and her
older sister (Rita Corday yet once again in a Falcon film). Some of these
interested people end up getting killed. Robert Armstrong is also in the
cast. Two more Falcon films to go with Tom Conway.
