The Gay Falcon (1941)

The "GAY FALCON" is a wonderful mystery movie with George Sanders as the Falcon. As other reviewers have commented, his brother, Tom Conway made a more believable Falcon. Wendy Barrie is very entertaining. The character of Goldie Locke as portrayed by Allen Jenkins is much more tongue and cheek than future character actors portraying the Goldie Locke character. I have viewed most of the Falcon movies, mostly on TCM. Presently, the Falcon series is being ran on Saturday mornings at 10:45(EDT). If you have a DVR make sure you record for future viewing.The earlier Saint movies with George Sanders are all great, also.If you enjoy this genre of movie, you will enjoy Boston Blackie and Charlie Chan,too.

I haven't seen any of the other Falcon films, so I have the benefit of seeing this and not knowing what comes afterwards. Quite frankly, having watched I can't guess what comes next - whether Gay Lawrence (the Falcon) stays with his fiancée and an impending marriage that never quite comes off becomes some kind of running joke like John Howard's Bulldog Drummond of the late 30's, or if Wendy Barrie's character Helen Reed becomes the Falcon's new girl, or if the Falcon has no girl or another girl entirely in the coming entries, but the ending had me wanting to see the next one.Of course the wit and wisdom of George Sanders is a plus in any film, and as The Falcon it is unclear what his background is in this entry. The Falcon seems to be a man of means, but he doesn't seem to have a profession nor does he seem to be a reformed criminal either. At the beginning of the film he has set up shop as a broker on Wall Street to satisfy his fiancée that he is through with "crime detecting" as she calls it and wants to settle down, although when she drops in to visit both The Falcon and his assistant Goldy Locke are dead asleep at their desks. She has come to ask him to a society party, the idea obviously bores him, and he declines. Later, though, the personal secretary of the society woman giving the party shows up (Wendy Barrie as Helen Reed) and pleads with the Falcon to attend the party, as jewelry has been stolen at all of the woman's recent parties, and another robbery will ruin her reputation. Suddenly the Falcon is interested in attending, but doesn't tell his fiancée why.Jewelry is not stolen at this party, but one of the guests in attendance slips the Falcon an expensive ring while they are dancing - she has no explanation as to why she does this and seems to have the Falcon confused with someone else. A few minutes later she is found shot dead. Worse, Goldy is held as a material witness to the crime, so now the Falcon is involved and must solve the crimes. Meanwhile he has both an angry fiancée on his hands and the society lady's swooning secretary, who loves the adventure of tracking down criminals alongside the Falcon.This is a very good entry that has a very interesting supporting cast. Allen Jenkins is a natural and in good contrast to the suave Sanders as the Falcon's assistant. Edward Brophy is cut from the same cloth as Jenkins and is good as a police detective. Turhan Bey shows up outside of a Universal film for a change as an exotic and mysterious suspect. Arthur Shields, brother of Barry Fitzgerald and a dead ringer for him, seems a bit out of place as Inspector Mike Waldeck, whom the Falcon is more than ready to give credit to for solving the crime.Recommended as a fast paced good start to the series.

The Gay Falcon, the first movie in the Falcon series, finds the Falcon (George Sanders) ready to give up both women and detective work at the request of his fiancé. This promise, however, doesn't last long as a pretty woman with a story of stolen jewelry soon walks into his life. In no time at all, the Falcon is up to his elbows in murder and hiding out from the police. The only way to clear his name is to find the real killer.This may have been George Sanders first time out in the role of the Falcon, but he wears the role with the familiarity of a favorite old sweater. I would argue, however, that his Saint series (which ended just prior to the start of the Falcon series) was so similar to the Falcon that it was hardly a stretch for Sanders. Regardless, Sanders makes everything seem so effortless and natural. He is joined by an especially strong cast. Gladys Jenkins, Edward Brophy, and Arthur Shields should be familiar to any fan of classic B-fare. Oddly though, all are upstaged by the strong performance of Nina Vale who surprisingly only appeared in two other films. I can't believe she didn't do more. She's quite good and imminently watchable. As for the movie, none of the Falcon movies are particularly deep affairs and The Gay Falcon is no different. It's light, breezy entertainment. The 1940s style of comedy/mystery films has always appealed to me and The Gay Falcon is a nice example. The comedy elements hit their mark and are, at their worst, amusing. Nothing to make you fall in the floor with laughter, just good, light-hearted fun. The mystery elements in the movie also work and are sufficiently convoluted to make it interesting throughout. And it helps that the final solution to the mystery at least makes sense and is ultimately satisfying. Director Irving Reis keeps things moving at an entertaining pace with no time for a wasted scene in the movie's relative short 67 minute runtime. Overall, it's a solid effort.

At the request of his girlfriend, Gay Laurence has stepped out of the detective business to become a stockbroker. Bored out of his brilliant mind, Gay jumps at the chance when a young lady tells him of the socialite Maxine Wood, who throws parties every few weeks but has had problems with robberies each time. With the police unable to catch the thief, Gay goes to the party to help out but, on this occasion, the crime turns to murder – putting Gay and Goldie right in the middle of it.I have never watched a Falcon film before and I took the opportunity to watch this film when BBC2 ran a mini-series of the films in the early morning during the summer. The title is innocent enough and it is only time (and the change in language) that has made it seem rather inappropriate – certainly such a film (or a character) would not be include the word gay if these films were made today! Aside from that obvious remark, this is a pretty enjoyable film if you are prepared for what it is trying to be – a very light, amusing little mystery that entertains. The semi-tongue in cheek tone to the film takes away from the actual mystery plot but it is still just about interesting enough to engage.What the film does better is to inject a nice comic tone into everything. The action involves a touch of comedy at all times and plenty of the lines and side-issues (the girlfriend). The acting mostly follows this pattern with Sanders surprising me with a very light touch – he really seemed to be enjoying himself! I have only seen Sanders in more serious roles and I did enjoy seeing him in relaxed mode. Support is great from Jenkins; his is hardly a well-written character (he is only a standard comic sidekick) but he plays well and is actually quite funny in his couple of scenes. Barrie is quite fun and makes for an attractive love interest while Vale is good enough to make her subplot part of the movie rather than it seeming tacked on. Shields, Dunn and Brophy are all amusing as the usual inept cops of the genre!Overall this is not a great film but, if you know what to expect, it does manage to be entertaining. The actual plot is not that good but just about does enough to keep you watching but it is the comic tone and well-pitched acting that makes it fun to watch. At just over an hour running time, I found it to be the film equivalent of a nice little snack – certainly not filling but enjoyable for the short time it takes to finish it!