The Falcon in Mexico

Falcon in Mexico, The (1944)

** (out of 4)

The Falcon (Tom Conway) travels to Mexico where he gets involved with murder and a mysterious painting. This entry gets a minor leg up from the Mexican locations, which are probably just backlot shots but the actual mystery itself is rather bland. The screenplay is all over the place and even when the killer was revealed it still didn't make too much sense. Conway is really hit and miss in this series and I'd have to call him a major miss here. The supporting cast isn't any better and many of the members from previous films, including Cliff Clark, are missing here, which doesn't help matters.

Something happened to the Falcon on his flight down to Mexico. He was never the same after he landed.

For the first 15 minutes or so of this movie -- set in a large U.S. city -- everything is terrific. The Falcon meets two beautiful women, commits two minor crimes, finds a corpse, gets wrongly accused of murder, escapes from custody and learns that something mysterious is going on south of the border. It doesn't all happen in exactly that order, but there's plenty of fast-paced fun.

But once the Falcon and one of the women fly to Mexico, the excitement levels off. The plot slows to a crawl. Events, including murders, seem almost random, and even the characters appear bored at time. At one point, the Falcon warns a Mexican gentleman that somebody may try to kill his daughter. The man shrugs off the tip and assures our hero that Mexico is a very safe place. He's not even curious about where the threat comes from!

The problem with the main part of this movie is that there's so much Mexico, there's no room left for mystery. There's travelogue-style footage of lakes and mountains, and some of it is very good. There are songs in Spanish, performances of masked Mexican dancers and shots of Mexican fishermen at work. There are even stereotypical "comic" Mexicans who talk like Speedy Gonzales. But there's no suspense, and the ending is very weak.

Considering when it was made, "The Falcon in Mexico" probably had a public relations component. During World War II, the U.S. government encouraged Hollywood to portray Latin America in a favorable light. But in a mystery movie, an exotic setting goes only so far. After a crackerjack start, this little whodunit is ultimately unsatisfying. It's at its weakest where it should have been strongest.

after 16 minutes anyway. Not that it detracts from a nice little comedy-mystery, but this was an even cheaper affair than usual from RKO as they used up a lot of stock rustic Mexican background film to lilting music here while the main characters glided or drove about in front. Tom Conway as the Falcon looked as handsome and debonair as ever (no. 9/13 – I don't count those last 3 non-RKO efforts with John Calvert), and had to do without the comedy double act of Clark and Gargan from now on.

Investigation of a painting painted by a dead man (with an art gallery eerily similar to the one in Woman In The Window) leads to murder and theft; the Falcon is chased by the cops while he's chasing the baddies all the way into deepest Mexico. The dead painter's daughter was played chockful of feminine intuition by Martha Vickers, next step for her was the cute Big Sleep. She also uttered my favourite line from all of the Falcon films – "My father lived at this inn while he was alive" – wonderful stuff! Nestor Paiva played a helpful ambiguous peasant and Joseph Vitale a rather unhelpful serious dancer, some of their best stuff was to come later with Paramount. The only downer was the climax could've been handled with a little more sensitivity, but in these pics time was money!

Another excellent and engrossing Falcon outing for the cognoscenti, serious people shouldn't waste their valuable time.

"The Falcon in Mexico" is a 1944 entry into "The Falcon" series, by now starring Tom Conway. In this story, Tom Lawrence (The Falcon) is in Mexico investigating the possibility that a dead artist might not be so dead after all, after he sees the model for one of the artist's portraits. The artist has been dead 15 years, but if that's the case, this woman has discovered the secret of eternal youth - until she winds up dead. Did I mention the portrait looks like a paint by numbers? Martha Vickers plays the artist's daughter, who keeps "seeing" her father. Mona Maris is her remarried stepmother who dances in a Mexican club with her new husband.

The movie is okay, with an abrupt ending, which isn't unusual in these films, and the movie seems like an ad for visiting Mexico. Supposedly some of the footage is from the Orson Welles' debacle "It's All True." If so, I'm glad RKO found good use for it.

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'.

While it's watchable enough, 'The Falcon in Mexico' is one of the series' weaker films. It has good things certainly, but too much is lacking too. The photography is slick and atmospheric, and Mexico looks stunningly exotic here. There is some playfulness in the script, while the mystery does start off quite well.

Salvaging it the most is the cast. Conway continues to thrive and enjoys himself evidently, everything that Sanders brought to the role Conway also brings and just as effectively. A charming Martha Vickers and a very funny and full of life Nestor Paiva are the supporting cast's standouts, Fernando Alvarado is also appealing.

However, the story does suffer from a lack of suspense, erratic pacing (tries to be bright and breezy, which it is sporadically, but is too hectic more like), a very vague and weird motive for the criminal, not being focused on enough with Mexico being favoured over it and a very abrupt ending. The stock Mexican music sounds cheap, not like the Falcon series at all, and the musical interludes were unnecessary and irrelevant to the story, also placed at inappropriate times.

The travelogue stuff is striking but doesn't add a lot and slows down the film. William Berke's direction is undistinguished, and too much of the script is awkward and confused.

On the whole, an uninspired entry in a mostly enjoyable series that suffers from too much Mexico and not enough Falcon mystery. 5/10 Bethany Cox