Appointment with Murder

This is the 15th of the 16 Falcon films, and the second starring John Calvert as the Falcon. There are no witty lines in this film at all, which is entirely without humour, and it is all played absolutely straight. There is no pet dog, as the rather inadequate dog of the previous film has been dropped without explanation, and Calvert does not try to be 'cute' this time. (In the previous film he did a few magic tricks with things appearing and disappearing in his hands, which were not very good either, and they have been ditched too.) The story is about two stolen paintings by the renaissance artist Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506), the intrigues, two murders, and other attempted murders, connected with them. Are they fakes? Are they real? Some of the characters believe one thing and some believe the other. No less than two corpses are left lying while the characters go off and do other things. In one case, the Falcon flies to America leaving a dead man lying in a room in Milan. And in the other case, a hotel desk clerk's corpse is left lying behind his desk, entirely forgotten by both the Falcon and the police as they leave the hotel. Evidently, the script writer did not remember that murder victims cannot be disposed of simply by turning a page in the script, but require people to collect and bury their bodies. This is another extremely low budget effort, and an undistinguished one. Calvert has the annoying habit of grinning most of the time, for no particular reason. Either he was sternly lectured as a child to 'smile, Jonnny, smile', or some acting coach told him he must lighten up, so that he thought contorting his face in inappropriate grins was the way to do it. You know how some dogs attempt to imitate the smiles of their owners, well Calvert is like a dog who does that. As for this film, undemanding fans of old mystery films will find it interesting for the complexities of the story.

This is the second of John Calvert's three "The Falcon" features released on 24 NOV 48.

You may recognize many of the actors from the time. That is part of the fun in watching; this includes the third Falcon, John Calvert, who might not be as revered as the first two Falcon actors.

-------- Michael Waring aka The Falcon (John Calvert) is hired by an insurance company to retrieve two stolen paintings. In the process, he travels to Italy and encounters murder.

The plot thickens when many people are double-crossed and even the paintings are suspected to be forgeries.

Will the Falcon succeed? Or there just might be another murder!

In the second of three 'Falcon' mysteries starring John Calvert, he is working for Lyle Talbot's insurance company recovering stolen paintings. The trail leads to Italy, where an interesting variation on the 'Gold Ring' confidence game is in operation. Artist Peter Brocco offers Calvert a painting by the artist of the stolen paintings. While Calvert is thinking the deal over -- because he's not sure they're real -- he is offered a huge profit on them; the confidence game will end after he has paid and taken possession, whereupon they will be stolen from him.

It's a nicely tangled mystery that leads him to Catherine Craig, a gallery owner and art authenticator in Los Angeles, and cross and double cross. Every time Calvert seems to have been swindled, he gets out of it with such nonchalant ease that all suspense is drained out of the movie: demonstrating that it takes more than a pencil-thin mustache, an erratic Ronald Colman imitation, and the writers on your side to make a movie star.

Another forgettable in-name-only Falcon movie from Film Classics starring John Calvert. The plot has the supposed Falcon Michael Watling (Calvert) tracking down stolen paintings for an insurance company. Riveting stuff. Most scenes involve Calvert walking into a drab room and exchanging boring lines with someone you wouldn't be able to pick out of a lineup five minutes later. It's a cheap-looking film with little action or humor. Just lots of talking and not a single line of memorable dialogue. Calvert is very dull. He may sound a bit like Lee Van Cleef but has none of his screen presence. I miss Conway and Sanders. This is not a good movie. Only of interest to insomniacs.

Not that RKO was the cream of studios in Hollywood. But those Falcon movies that were done there looked like Gone With The Wind next to these last Falcon movies with John Calvert. In fact this independent makes a typical PRC film look good.

Calvert is off to Italy and back searching for a pair of paintings that the owner Peter Brocco claims were stolen. When Calvert finds one of them he finds out also it's a fake and the artist who copied it is murdered.

So it's back to Los Angeles and to art dealer Catherine Craig who is involved though Calvert does not know how much.

These Falcon films aren't a patch on the George Sanders/Tom Conway films done at RKO. This one is one dull snooze.