El Halcón en San Francisco

Tom Conway and retainer Ed Brophy are on their way to San Francisco on a train when they make the acquaintance of young Sharyn Moffett. The Falcon charm work on women of all ages and the little girl asks for his help saying she's become a prisoner in her own home. Her rather severe nurse is later murdered on the train and the Falcon and the always helpful Goldie Locke are involved.

Besides Moffett this caper will involve her older sister Rita Corday, a former bootlegger from Prohibition days Robert Armstrong, a Dutch importer John Mylong and a poor man's Gale Sondergaard Fay Helm.

This is one of the bloodiest Falcon episodes that RKO did. A whole lot of people die in this one, especially in an incredibly bloody climax.

Conway is charming as usual and Brophy provides much needed comic relief in this story. Still even his relief was too much. He reads that he can pay less income tax when married and starts coming on to every woman he sees with inevitable results. Now if Conway had done it...........

The Falcon, Tom Lawrence,(Tom Conway) travels on a train heading for San Francisco along with his partner Goldie Locke, (Edward Brophy) and they are planning a vacation to take in the sights of San Francisco. On the train they encounter a very young little girl named Annie Marshall ( Sharyn Moffett) who is looking for her lost dog and meets up with the Falcon and his partner. Annie tells the Falcon she is being held captive in her home by her butler and nurse and the Falcon decides to investigate this girls problem, but is interrupted by the murder of the Annie's nurse. There is all kinds of bad situations the Falcon gets into with plenty of beatings and he also encounters Duke Monet, (Robert Armstrong) who has a sinister past and is involved with a silk smuggling racket. There is excellent photography through out the City of San Francisco and old buildings long gone.

Tom Lawrence, The Falcon, is on a train for a vacation in San Francisco. Along for the ride is his sometimes sidekick, Goldie Locke. They meet a cute 9-year old girl named Annie Marshall and her equally cute little dog, Diogenes. She claims she's being held prisoner in her own house in SF. The Falcon and Goldie don't believe her, but then Annie's nurse turns up dead and the SF PD suspect The Falcon. He now believes Annie's story and sets about finding out what's going on. The story gets a little complicated and the viewer has to watch close to keep up. There's no Cliff Clark and Edward Gargan to provide comic relief as bumbling New York cops and the film suffers for it. There is plenty of stock footage of San Francisco to keep the viewer interested. Watch for Myrna Dell in a bit part as a hotel guest who is definitely not interested in Goldie. 9-year old Sharyn Moffett is quite good as Annie. Both her parents had been in show business and her mother pushed her into a Hollywood career. Sharyn was quite religious and soon left the business, got married, and moved to Pennsylvania where both she and her husband became Episcopalian ministers. Sharon (she changed the spelling to the biblical way) later became head of the national Big Sisters Organization.

I watched this expecting, given the budget limitations of B-picture series, to see only a few "establishing shots" of San Francisco from stock footage, but a surprising number of scenes appear actually to have been shot on location -- or were at least very convincingly matted. Even more impressive is the film's rather successful grasp of San Francisco atmosphere. Too-handsome tough guys, a twisted dame with a streak of brutality, a gloomy Nob Hill mansion, and details like the extras in the nightclub scene and the furnishings in the dame's apartment are all done quite as well as in the higher-budgeted "Out of the Past." Some continuity elements seem to have been left on the cutting room floor, as in other RKO noirs, but to good effect, and it is obvious the bit players (including Dorothy Adams) were carefully chosen. Better preserved than some of the Falcon pictures, this one merits attention beyond the context of the series.

After 5 Falcon films without him, Goldie Lock makes his return with Ed Brophy in his first of 2 – although he had played a cop in the 1st Falcon film in 1941 too. This was also Tom Conway's 8th outing in the title role - this time with a cold - to Rita Corday's 5th as suspect. "In San Francisco" was an earthier entry in the series, with some realistic acting, more violence to go with some of the seedier locales and a punchier storyline: all adding up to make an excellent film [11/13].

A little girls' guardian is found dead on a sleeper train, suave passengers Tom Lawrence and Goldie offer to take her home but get arrested for child abduction. It turns even nastier when various shady parties think that the Falcon's working for the other side, leading to him getting roughed up in his quest to find out what's going on. The trail leads to an ex-bootlegger, an old moll in a ridiculous hat, silk smuggling – in short, an interesting and cogent plot with a satisfying climax. Thankfully the possibilities with cute little Annie in tow were not taken up, a very brief bedtime reading of Peter And The Wolf was as close as we got. Comedy was supplied by Brophy with the running gag of him trying to become a married poyson to save on his income tax payments.

It's always been my favourite Conway Falcon movie, best for those of us who like watching 1940's b&w detective b pics whether in a series or not.