Devil’s Cargo (1948) – 4.5
Well, just to get it out of the way. There is no cargo nor the devil in the film but an ok title for a mediocre film. With the end of the George Sanders/Tom Conway Falcon series in 1946, one might have thought it was over. But it had one more gasp in it and a Poverty Row studio took it up in 1948 with this film and two follow-ons. It was picked up by Philip Krasne who had bought Charlie Chan and the Cisco Kid after Fox dropped them. The new Falcon was actually the old Falcon - based on the radio show where his name was Michael Watling. He didn't give the films much of a budget though - this one was shot in ten days and the next two in seven days. They look even cheaper than that.
This first one has a so-so plot buried in there somewhere under all the over brush. The Falcon is played by John Calvert who comes across like a salesman at a low budget shoe store who has taken the pennies out of the loafers. Or a two-bit magician which in fact Calvert was. That isn't fair - he played Hollywood at one point. But his best trick may have been living till 102 in 2013. He is pretty awful. Kind of smarmy with heaps of attempted charm but with the lines the writers give him that is a hopeless chore. When he ends up in the hospital, the nurse asks him are you in pain, he answers only the pain I feel that I never met you before. At an appointment he sits on the secretary's desk - Mr. Watling you can go on in. "Do I have to. I would rather sit here all day and look at your pretty face". If you could pick up lines with that swill back then, I would have done alright.
Delgado comes to the Falcon and tells him he just killed a man and wants to turn himself in. And here is $500 to hold on to this key. Simple enough. That is a night out on the town. Or two. But it is a tad more complicated. People are after the key and one of them is one of my favorite comedy relief character actors - Tom Kennedy - but here he is a bad guy and no comedy in sight. The key ends up opening a locker in a bowling alley - how often do we see bowling alleys anymore - and it blows up. Other suspects make themselves known - Lyle Talbot, Rochelle Hudson and Roscoe Karns. They all deserved better.
There are some weird bits in here. When Delgado goes to the Falcon's apartment the door isn't locked and he walks right in and goes into the Falcon's bathroom where he is taking a bath. The Falcon stands up and says since we now know each other what can I do for you. At the end of the film the police captain does the same. Lock your door man. That is just creepy. While he and Delgado wait for the cops the Falcon does magic tricks. He pulls a duck out of a pot and a goldfish bowl from a towel. Who goes around with a duck in their bathrobe? The Falcon does.
Appointment with Murder (1948) – 5.0
Well, the second film in the John Calvert Falcon series is an improvement over the first. Sort of like saying a rash is better than the mumps. The script is certainly no worse than a thousand other B crime films - actually better than many I have come across. But it just looks so darn cheap. And Calvert as the Falcon does not grow on you. But thankfully no more scenes of people walking in on him taking a bath and no more magic tricks. Just that even in a B film he is an actor who should have been playing the squirrely guy who could not get the girl and so shot her.
It is a somewhat convoluted plot which I like. It helps keep me awake. The Falcon is working for an insurance company trying to locate two old masters that were stolen from a Count. This has taken him to Milan where he locates one of them but the whole thing seems squigy (my own word). A painter offers it to the Falcon for $2500 and gives it to him to hold till he gets the money. Later he tells him that it is fake but no one will know. The Falcon returns to Los Angeles to match the painting up with its sister which is in an art gallery. Run by an attractive woman who wants both to sell. For $150,000. A lot of moola. The Falcon gets beat up a couple of times, has a gun pointed at his head a few times, is lied to many times. A strange ending when an innocent is shot, the cops come, take away the villain and leave - and I am thinking what about the guy who was shot on the floor - did they forget him? Somebody call an ambulance.
Search for Danger (1949) – 5.0
What I like about this new version of the Falcon is his drinking habits. He goes into a bar, sits on a stool. The bartender asks him what he will have. A coke. With what. With a straw. I don't know if this was early product placement but the Falcon drinks cokes a few times. My kind of guy. That would be me. Except it would be Coke Zero. Now is that product placement on my part you may ask. This was the third and final of the John Calvert Falcon films and none too soon. This was the last Falcon film but there was a TV series in 1954 starring Charles McGraw. Like the first two films the plot is convoluted and overly talkie but not terrible. Bogart could have done something with this but not Calvert really. As I mentioned in a previous review, Calvert was first a magician and second an actor with only a short career.
The Falcon - credited as Michael Waring but it sure sounds like Watling - is hired to find Andrews who slipped off with $100,000 from his two partners. They want it back. The Falcon finds him but Andrews later turns up dead and there are a barrel full of suspects. A couple potential femme fatales, the two partners, another detective and even the Falcon. Who has the money? The Falcon goes back and forth and back and forth and back and forth questioning the suspects till finally one of them slips. The two partners are Albert Dekker and Ben Welden, Myrna Dell was a blonde B bombshell and James Griffith with 229 credits on IMDB is the Lieutenant with the familiar voice that I have heard so often though I could not quite place him. So a decent B cast of characters. Welden in particular stands out with a body as wide as it is tall and a glint in his eye that is terrifying as he smiles and hits you. The print quality of these doesn't help much and I somehow doubt any one is in a rush to clean them up.
Well, just to get it out of the way. There is no cargo nor the devil in the film but an ok title for a mediocre film. With the end of the George Sanders/Tom Conway Falcon series in 1946, one might have thought it was over. But it had one more gasp in it and a Poverty Row studio took it up in 1948 with this film and two follow-ons. It was picked up by Philip Krasne who had bought Charlie Chan and the Cisco Kid after Fox dropped them. The new Falcon was actually the old Falcon - based on the radio show where his name was Michael Watling. He didn't give the films much of a budget though - this one was shot in ten days and the next two in seven days. They look even cheaper than that.
This first one has a so-so plot buried in there somewhere under all the over brush. The Falcon is played by John Calvert who comes across like a salesman at a low budget shoe store who has taken the pennies out of the loafers. Or a two-bit magician which in fact Calvert was. That isn't fair - he played Hollywood at one point. But his best trick may have been living till 102 in 2013. He is pretty awful. Kind of smarmy with heaps of attempted charm but with the lines the writers give him that is a hopeless chore. When he ends up in the hospital, the nurse asks him are you in pain, he answers only the pain I feel that I never met you before. At an appointment he sits on the secretary's desk - Mr. Watling you can go on in. "Do I have to. I would rather sit here all day and look at your pretty face". If you could pick up lines with that swill back then, I would have done alright.
Delgado comes to the Falcon and tells him he just killed a man and wants to turn himself in. And here is $500 to hold on to this key. Simple enough. That is a night out on the town. Or two. But it is a tad more complicated. People are after the key and one of them is one of my favorite comedy relief character actors - Tom Kennedy - but here he is a bad guy and no comedy in sight. The key ends up opening a locker in a bowling alley - how often do we see bowling alleys anymore - and it blows up. Other suspects make themselves known - Lyle Talbot, Rochelle Hudson and Roscoe Karns. They all deserved better.
There are some weird bits in here. When Delgado goes to the Falcon's apartment the door isn't locked and he walks right in and goes into the Falcon's bathroom where he is taking a bath. The Falcon stands up and says since we now know each other what can I do for you. At the end of the film the police captain does the same. Lock your door man. That is just creepy. While he and Delgado wait for the cops the Falcon does magic tricks. He pulls a duck out of a pot and a goldfish bowl from a towel. Who goes around with a duck in their bathrobe? The Falcon does.
Appointment with Murder (1948) – 5.0
Well, the second film in the John Calvert Falcon series is an improvement over the first. Sort of like saying a rash is better than the mumps. The script is certainly no worse than a thousand other B crime films - actually better than many I have come across. But it just looks so darn cheap. And Calvert as the Falcon does not grow on you. But thankfully no more scenes of people walking in on him taking a bath and no more magic tricks. Just that even in a B film he is an actor who should have been playing the squirrely guy who could not get the girl and so shot her.
It is a somewhat convoluted plot which I like. It helps keep me awake. The Falcon is working for an insurance company trying to locate two old masters that were stolen from a Count. This has taken him to Milan where he locates one of them but the whole thing seems squigy (my own word). A painter offers it to the Falcon for $2500 and gives it to him to hold till he gets the money. Later he tells him that it is fake but no one will know. The Falcon returns to Los Angeles to match the painting up with its sister which is in an art gallery. Run by an attractive woman who wants both to sell. For $150,000. A lot of moola. The Falcon gets beat up a couple of times, has a gun pointed at his head a few times, is lied to many times. A strange ending when an innocent is shot, the cops come, take away the villain and leave - and I am thinking what about the guy who was shot on the floor - did they forget him? Somebody call an ambulance.
Search for Danger (1949) – 5.0
What I like about this new version of the Falcon is his drinking habits. He goes into a bar, sits on a stool. The bartender asks him what he will have. A coke. With what. With a straw. I don't know if this was early product placement but the Falcon drinks cokes a few times. My kind of guy. That would be me. Except it would be Coke Zero. Now is that product placement on my part you may ask. This was the third and final of the John Calvert Falcon films and none too soon. This was the last Falcon film but there was a TV series in 1954 starring Charles McGraw. Like the first two films the plot is convoluted and overly talkie but not terrible. Bogart could have done something with this but not Calvert really. As I mentioned in a previous review, Calvert was first a magician and second an actor with only a short career.
The Falcon - credited as Michael Waring but it sure sounds like Watling - is hired to find Andrews who slipped off with $100,000 from his two partners. They want it back. The Falcon finds him but Andrews later turns up dead and there are a barrel full of suspects. A couple potential femme fatales, the two partners, another detective and even the Falcon. Who has the money? The Falcon goes back and forth and back and forth and back and forth questioning the suspects till finally one of them slips. The two partners are Albert Dekker and Ben Welden, Myrna Dell was a blonde B bombshell and James Griffith with 229 credits on IMDB is the Lieutenant with the familiar voice that I have heard so often though I could not quite place him. So a decent B cast of characters. Welden in particular stands out with a body as wide as it is tall and a glint in his eye that is terrifying as he smiles and hits you. The print quality of these doesn't help much and I somehow doubt any one is in a rush to clean them up.