The Falcon in Hollywood

A great tour of the RKO backlot. Tom Conway suave as ever gives us a turn around the streets of 1940's Hollywood, including a trip to the Hollywood Bowl. Barbara (Della Street) Hale is on hand again as are the fabulous Sheldon Leonard and Robert Clark(I) in his second film role. Veda Ann Borg is brash and funny, Konstantin Shayne mutter Shakespeare with panache, and Jean Brooks(II) adds her charm to an early send up of Edith Head. And take a look at that lovely underrated under used Rita Corday. It all starts at the Hollywood race track, a mad dash around street cars down the Boulevard and ending up at the RKO gate. Prop rooms, prop building, soundstages, costume shop, the RKO stock swimming pool and finally the loft of the soundstage. It's fast, funny and an exceptional tour of a working studio. There is even a charming Arab actor Useff Ali as the "I can play any ethnic" in what is only one of his two film roles. Too bad he didn't have a longer career.

The B pics at RKO had a great family of ensemble players..........Enjoy them.

Back to the city and business as normal (?) for Tom Lawrence aka the Falcon in solving crimes the cops can't [#10/13]. "Hollywood" had a nice sunny feel to it, the War was a million miles away and people wanted to get even further away from it with an escapist movie industry to help.

The Falcon's busy losing at a racetrack but quickly gets mixed up with 2 beautiful women (Hale and Corday) and embroiled in tracking down an apparently stolen handbag. This leads to Sunset Pictures backlots where the body of a murdered man is discovered along with a gallery of suspects. The 2 best things here are the riveting but unfortunately intermittent tour of the RKO studios and props as the Falcon and his wisecracking female taxi driver played by Veda Ann Borg investigate, and the tight intelligent scripting. I wished there'd been much more behind the scenes for an even better picture of the studio. I kept expecting Borg to exclaim "Come up to my place!" – Conway wouldn't have been as backward as Sinatra! John Abbott as the Shakespeare-obsessed studio boss had many amusing scenes, and Emory Parnell effortlessly swapped from baddie in Mexico to goodie in Hollywood. And the story actually made solid sense this time without detracting from the entertainment, you can follow it from first to last, and even though the baddie's identity is pretty obvious from early on it was all logically explained. The searching of dead Ted's apartment has always stuck with me though for the bit where the Falcon and Borg are philosophising about how sad a dead man's room is and the poignant line about if he had been "worrying about tragic things like a broken shoelace" that morning.

Recommended to fans of the genre, not to others. One of my favourite Falcon's, one I've watched again and again and still hope to.

Falcon in Hollywood, The (1944)

*** (out of 4)

Entertaining entry in RKO's series has The Falcon (Tom Conway) on vacation in Hollywood when a famous actor is murdered. The finger points to various people in the production so The Falcon must sort it all out. This is perhaps the best that I've seen from the series due in large part to a very good supporting cast and a nice little mystery that remains interesting throughout the film. Most of the action takes place on the backlot of a studio so we get all sorts of nice scenes, which work themselves well into the mystery. A lot of Hollywood props are used as gags or evidence and this too adds to the fun. The characters working on the film within the film are all very entertaining. We get your typical crazy German director, the playboy, a jealous wannabe star and a producer who's always going around quoting Shakespeare. Conway is also very energetic here and delivers his best performance in the role since The Falcon's Brother.

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', though also a few disappointments like 'The Falcon in Danger' and 'The Falcon in Mexico'.

On the most part, 'The Falcon in Hollywood' is very entertaining and one of Conway's better overall Falcon films. Certainly a big improvement over the previous two Falcon films 'Out West' and 'Mexico', both lesser efforts. Not everything works, Cliff Clark and Edward Gargan are missed and while Emory Powell and Frank Jenks are serviceable enough their characters don't have as much impact and their comedy not as interesting.

As a result of having so many people bumped off, it is not hard to figure out very quickly who the perpetrator is, who admittedly I suspected early on. The ending is a little rushed too to a lesser extent, and the start of the film is a tad routine and pedestrian.

However, a lot also does work. The music is lively and haunting enough, and on the most part the production values are slick and atmospheric with particularly nicely done photography. A new director is on board here and there is a very obvious and much-needed energy injected. Further advantages are a very playful script with dialogue that crackles with wit and a mostly absorbing story that is never less than bright, breezy and fun with some suspense and great twists and turns.

Conway gives one of his best performances of the series, performing with suavity and a lot of witty energy. Barbara Hale and Rita Corday are alluring and charming, while brassy and sassy Veda Ann Borg really does liven things up.

In conclusion, very entertaining if flawed and one of the better Conway Falcon films and amongst the top half of the series overall as well. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Fast paced mystery, surprisingly unpredictable. It's nice to see so many locations in Los Angeles of the mid 1940's. Much of the film gives you studio backlot scenes, and behind the camera context, within a Hollywood soundstage. Even so, the story draws you in, and the characters are believable. The film moves at a good pace, and keeps you guessing. Thoroughly enjoyable.