The Falcon in Danger

The Falcon films, both with George Sanders and Tom Conway in the lead role, are on the most part very enjoyable. There are some very good ones like the first two Sanders Falcon films and 'The Falcon Strikes Back'. At the same time there are a few lacklustre ones, with 'The Falcon in Danger' being one of the biggest examples.

Not unwatchable certainly. Tom Conway continues to thrive and enjoy himself as the title character, everything that Sanders brought to the role are also present in Conway's performance and with full impact. The music is lively enough, and on the most part the production values are slick and atmospheric. Cliff Clark is much better here than in his previous two Falcon films, where he suffered from poor writing that made his character a mugging buffoon and that James Gleason was (still is admittedly) sorely missed, here he's amusing at being befuddled and indignant.

It starts off well too, with a tense opening (pretty poor effects aside) that makes one wish that the rest of 'The Falcon in Danger' was just as good. The roller-skating scene is funny, Elaine Shepherd is alluring and fits well enough and Edward Gargan boasts the best comic moments.

On the other hand, any sense of danger and suspense is lost after the opening. The running time is too short, which has not always been a problem in a film series with short durations but it was less forgivable with so much crammed in and paced so frantically here. 'The Falcon in Danger' does suffer from trying to cram in and tell too much in a short space of time, which makes a lot of the mystery underdeveloped and confused, with almost all of it a long way from suspenseful, and a few scenes and transitions rushed. The script is full of red herrings and sudden revelations, a vast majority of which done rather unsubtly and out of nowhere, any surprises turn out even not to be all that surprising.

A lot of the mystery is forced to take a backseat to the romance, which is dull and lacks chemistry. A contender for the worst thing about 'The Falcon in Danger' is the exceedingly annoying performance of Amelita Ward, if there was an award for the worst or most annoying performance in a Falcon film Ward's a very strong contender.

Summing up, starts off well and definitely watchable, but the rest of the film doesn't match up to the promising standard of the opening, being rushed, over-stuffed and confused and Ward really grates. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Tom Conway, playing the Saint knock-off his real life brother George Sanders abandoned to him, is actually in danger: of getting married. He aso has a fine little mystery to solve, when a plane sets down at the airport with no one aboard.

RKO actually paid for some good writing for Conway's series; this one is credited to Craig Rice and Fred Niblo Jr. RKO stocked it liberally with starlets, and there's the always watchable Clarence Kolb around as an 'industrialist' near the center of the story. Another Falcon movie was the first to use a Raymond Chandler story as its plot basis. The results were pretty good mysteries and some nice cheesecake. This one lives up to that undemanding standard for a second feature.

The sixth Falcon movie (third starring Conway) has Tom Lawrence investigating how two industrialists disappeared from a plane mid-flight. The opening crash landing of the plane is pretty cool. This one doesn't match up with the continuity of the last film. Falcon has a Southern belle fiancée now? What happened to his reporter girlfriend? Amelita Ward, who plays the fiancée, would return in the next picture playing a different role. Elaine Shepard and Jean Brooks play the other two pretty women the Falcon flirts with. Clarence Kolb is fun. I could listen to his voice all day. Pretty good mystery this time around. I would have rated this a 7 but the annoying fiancée gets old fast. The movie would've been improved greatly by cutting her part out entirely.

Okay Falcon entry, but nothing more. The plane crash with no one aboard makes a good opening grabber. So who was aboard and what happened. Too bad the narrative soon clogs up in convoluted fashion. As a result, the whodunit part is clouded over by congested secondary parts, such that the final reveal becomes somewhat anti-climactic.

Also, the programmer lacks needed verve from a largely unmotivated cast—Ward's ditsy southener tries but is more annoying than charming. And are we really supposed to believe the super-refined Falcon would choose her as a fiancé! Also, it looks like director Clemens simply filmed the script without style or mood.

What the film does have are a couple of engaging scenes. There's the crowded roller-skating rink using 'crack the whip' that sends the ultra-dignified Falcon flying, a humorous touch from a by-gone era. Then too, the Falcon playing Gene Autry on a run-away horse gave a stunt double, I expect, a good payday.

Look for minor notables among the supporting cast—Richard Martin (George Morley) who later played Tim Holt's sidekick Chito Rafferty from that cowboy series; Erford Gage (Evan Morley) from the Val Lewton horror series and one of the few actors killed in action in WWII; and the distinctive but uncredited Ian Wolfe (butler) from hundreds of RKO productions of the time.

All in all, it's a routine programmer that could have used a slimmed down narrative and cast to better fit the slender 65-minute runtime.

I like Tom Conway as The Falcon, and this was a very good mystery. What was annoying was the presence of The Falcon's southern fiancée, who never shut up through the whole picture, even during crucial moments. Hard to believe that such a sophisticated character as the Falcon would have put up with her for more than five minutes.

The rest of the movie is actually quite good and a neat mystery about money and people disappearing out of a flying plane. There's a very funny roller-skating scene, funny because of the way it was filmed. The Falcon on roller skates? Who would have believed it? Despite its shortcomings, it's an entertaining movie if you can ignore that fiancé.