dougdoepke Routine Falcon entry with plenty of eye candy for the guys and a good look at high fashion, post-war style. There's some mystery in who's trying to get the stolen formula for industrial diamonds. But as in most Falcon entries, the emphasis is not on whodunit ( like Charlie Chan, for example). Instead, it's on the right mix of humor, action, and intrigue. Plus, there's Conway who unfortunately makes his last appearance as the incredibly smooth Falcon. Here, Goldie gets some amusing caustic lines; the Falcon has a heckuva scrap with a bigger guy and loses; while various shady characters maneuver to get who knows what. All in all, the 60-minutes amounts to a solid, if unexceptional, entry in the RKO series. (In passing—too bad leading lady Meredith got mixed up in a bogus criminal conviction the year after this movie that knocked a big hole in her career. Judging from her work here, she had the looks and ability of an A-grade leading lady.)

writers_reign This is a typical example of the kind of film that followed a strict formula in the thirties and forties; it was obligatory that there be a 'professor' and/or 'scientist' who was so unworldly and unprepossessing that the wonder was he had ever married in the first place yet in every case he had not only married (his wife was seldom mentioned let alone seen) but sired an equally obligatory attractive/lovely/beautiful daughter, who, in the first reel, contrives to meet the lone private eye or 'hero' figure and introduce him to the 'professor' moments before the 'professor' is murdered by crooks seeking his 'formula'. In a 65 minute movie this usually leaves 60 minutes for the hero to 'solve' the case, often, though not always, coming under suspicion himself. This is probably no better and no worse than lots of others and it does have small roles for Ian Wolfe and Jason Robards Snr.

Spondonman The 13th and last RKO Falcon film starts with the mutual injunction by Tom Conway as Tom Lawrence alias the Falcon and Ed Brophy as Goldie of "No dames!" whilst they prepare to go on vacation. While you're still wondering what they're going on vacation from as they hadn't had a job since the beginning of the 1st film in 1941 (with Sanders as Gay though and Jenkins as Goldie) they bump into a woman and get dragged into a seedy industrial espionage caper.They promise to help her when her uncle is murdered, by taking an envelope containing the details of a formula to make substitute industrial diamonds to his business colleague in Miami. Suspect everyone here except the cops here who are after Lawrence – and Goldie for the murder. To console himself Goldie keeps paraphrasing travel brochures: "On the coldest day you can always enjoy the warmth of a nice cosy electric chair" for one. Some nice languid atmospheric nightclub scenes rub shoulders with some especially bad behaviour from the baddies. Favourite bit: the dignified game of hide and seek/hunt the thimble the imperturbable and suave Lawrence has with the baddies on the sleeper train. Least favourite bit: the most embarrassing scene in the entire series in the alligator wrestling hut – definitely thrown in for the kids!All in all not the best in the series but yet another entertaining outing, with an overall satisfying plot and many episodes even in this that make me wish they could have gone on for just a few more years as Columbia did with Boston Blackie, although RKO were churning these out faster. Absolutely no sex, not much violence (in fact none at all by today's high standards), and positively no message all make this type of film anathema to serious people who can only regard movies as an art form that must depend on these three pillars.Three Diet Falcon's were made later with John Calvert in the title role, I don't mind them but could never bring myself to count them into the main series, which Tom Conway had made his own by this time. Sad also that it was all downhill after this for Conway, who moved into TV, voice overs and even played Norman Conquest in Park Plaza 605 rather well in 1953. He also developed serious eye and alcohol problems – I don't know if they were linked – wound up poverty stricken and after a spell in hospital in 1967 was found dead in his girlfriend's bed. For us folk that want to at least we still have his 10 entertaining Falcon's plus a number of other worthy, even classic RKO movies from 1942 to 1946 with which to remember him by.

kees90210 This film is a fun little private eye detective story like they aren't made any more. It's all there: Tom Conway is the suave detective called The Falcon, Goldie Locke (what's in a name) is his wisecracking bumbling sidekick, Louisa Braganza is the damsel in distress, and of course there are the damsels maid, the professor with the secret formula, the bad guy that wants the formula, and the police inspector who's after The Falcon. There is a murder, and The Falcon gets implicated. The scenery is night clubs, expensive hotel rooms, a luxury train, the suburbs, and beautiful cars. Go watch this little gem when you see it pass by on afternoon TV!