La Relève du Faucon

George Sanders plays The Falcon for the last time in "The Falcon's Brother," a 1942 programmer starring Sanders, Tom Conway, and Jane Lawrence. The intricate plot focuses on a fashion house and a fashion magazine, poisoning with cigars, mistaken identity, and lots of other things in a mere 1 hour and 10 minutes or so. It's 1942, so you can also expect Nazis to be involved. "Something changed after Pearl Harbor," a character tells Gay (Sanders). "Most things," he agrees.

This film was the transition so that Sanders' real-life brother, Tom Conway, could take over the series. Sanders was somewhat smoother than his brother, more suave and handsome, but Conway was a serviceable actor, and their speaking voices were somewhat close. There was just something about Sanders that made him so good as the Falcon and the Saint - panache maybe. Both Gay and Tom go after the women like crazy in this one. Always fun and light entertainment.

This is the fourth of the Falcon films, in which both George Sanders and his real life brother Tom Conway appear. It was the occasion for the handover of the role. Sanders and Conway have many scenes together, and vie to out-do each other in suaveness and urbanity, and it is a tie. Then Sanders is knocked unconscious and spends much of the film in bed, which he doubtless found restful. At the end, Sanders sacrifices his life in the struggle against Nazism (it is after all 1942 and the plot deals with German agents) and presto, Tom Conway is and for the remaining series of films will be the Falcon. This film has a higher budget than the preceding ones (there is even a ship), the plot is complicated, it is all more solid and convincing. In fact, it is a very entertaining tale. Keye Luke has now become the falcon's butler, adding his own charm and wit to the team, and doing amusing impersonations of pidgin English (he was Chinese) when he wants to put off 'dames' who phone too often. The falcon's sidekick is now played by Don Barclay, which like the addition of Keye Luke is a great improvement. This film was edited by Mark Robson, later to be a famous director, and the improved editing shows. However, because the screenwriters have changed, all the great gags and one-liners have disappeared, there is no more crackling dialogue, and the Falcon series is no longer a laugh a minute.

This is the most Famous Falcon Film, the one where one brother gets fed up with the title role so the other brother steps in and continues the series for another 4 years. George Sanders was nearly always good in these kind of roles but personally I always preferred Tom Conway, maybe he just looked more comfortable in B pictures. I also preferred as sidekick Allen Jenkins as Goldie to Don Barclay as Lefty. The film quality isn't very good at this distance, sometimes it's so jumpy and grainy the continuity and the acting resemble Monogram more than RKO - are all extant copies from '50's TV dupes?

Basically Gay Lawrence is after the people who murdered someone supposed to be his brother Tom, for a while both are on the case before Gay becomes hors de combat. Tom has to do the detective work himself for most of the film.

The patter between the Inspector played by Cliff Clark and flatfoot Ed Gargan is repetitive but entertaining - "I'm boss. You don't mind do you?", James Gleason was also good in the role previously. Jane Randolph as the nosey reporter who doesn't seem to do much reporting is decorative but apparently unappealing to the Falcon: the solving of the crimes are everything. Not so vice versa - the Falcon would continue as a lady-killer of seismic proportions!

All in all a most enjoyable 1940's murder mystery B film, but nothing really extraordinary in a most enjoyable series of 13 up to 1946.

Fast-moving espionage mystery, last for George Sanders, in the Falcon series. Plot include a fairly neat transition to real-life and character brother to take over and continue the fight against Nazi Germany. George is suave with the ladies (because he knew it was his last film in the series?). Lots of twists and turns as we weave our way through poisoned cigars (La Prima Donna), break ins, impersonating an officer, clues that disappear, house of fashion and a fashion magazine. In the end, the Falcon takes the shot meant for a Latin American diplomat and brother Tom Lawrence accepts the challenge from a foreign voice on the phone who warns him that he will get what his brother did if he doesn't leave well enough alone. Well, it was 1942 and no self-respecting producer wasn't going to have his hero support the war effort. Not a great movie, but enjoyable and about as good as these ever got. Recommended.

This is a B-movie detective film from back in the day when such series were common. While The Falcon series isn't as interesting or fun as Charlie Chan or Sherlock Holmes, it is one of the better examples of the genre. Interestingly enough, growing up I often couldn't remember if I'd just seen a Falcon film or a Saint film, as both series were produced (for the most part) by RKO and many featured George Sanders playing the same character in almost every way aside from their name! The formula and action was identical--both detectives were sophisticated rich guys who mostly dabbled in investigating crimes out of a desire to avoid boredom or meet women! From a historical standpoint, this is THE must-see film of either series, as it stars George Sanders AND his nearly identical-looking and talking real-life brother, Tom Conway--who when on to play The Falcon in nine films! It seems that George was tired of this series work and wanted out of the contract, so they decided to use his equally talented older brother--who made a smooth transition to the role. In fact, it's pretty cool to see BOTH Falcons in the same film and I really appreciated the unusual and unexpected ending (which I WON'T divulge so I'll keep it suspenseful).

Apart from Conway and Sanders, the film is also better than the average Falcon film, as the plot is very good and the supporting cast all do an excellent job of combining mystery with a light sense of humor. This isn't an intellectual or deep film, but represents a good and watchable B-movie that has held up well through the years.