Gaylord Laurence, a famous globe-hopping adventurer, has apparently fallen in love and promised his VERY bossy fiancee that he'll give up crime investigations-- and other women-- and settle down with a real job, as a Wall Street Broker. Well, bored out of his mind, that doesn't last long, as he's invited to a society party given by a female socialite whose parties tend to have jewelry being stolen at them. Next thing, he & his ex-convict sidekick Jonathan "Goldie" Locke are mixed up in theft, murder, and the usual stuff one finds in 1940s "B" mystery movies.
Depending on who you ask, Leslie Charteris was getting fed up with how badly RKO was treating his character THE SAINT, took back the film rights, and then made a deal with the brand-new RKO British Productions to do SAINT films more in line with his stories. RKO looked around for a replacement series, and settled on THE FALCON. But this is a bit odd. Charles H. Huff (under the name "Drexel Drake") created the character of "Michael Waring"-- alias "The Falcon"-- who appeared in 3 novels from 1936-1938. But then, Michael Arlen created another character, "Gaylord Falcon", also known as "The Falcon", who appeared in a single novel in 1940. And RKO decided to adapt THAT novel... despite (from what I've read many years ago) Charteris having already SUED Arlen for plagiarism! I can't be sure what the truth is under these circumstances. Did Charteris sue Arlen-- or RKO-- or BOTH? In any case, many have insisted (with some justification) that RKO's FALCON series was "very similar" to RKO's SAINT series, so it would seem RKO was giving Charteris the middle finger. As it happens, the movie THE GAY FALCON came out (you'll pardon the expression-- HEEHEE) 5 months after RKO British's THE SAINT'S VACATION with Hugh Sinclair. In my view, BOTH films in very different ways were major steps UP from the earlier THE SAINT IN PALM SPRINGS, which, along with THE SAINT STRIKES BACK and THE SAINT'S DOUBLE TROUBLE, were all dire enough for me to well believe Charteris was unhappy with RKO.
George Sanders returns (well, SORT of) as "Gaylord Laurence", who, while he may be imitating Simon Templar to a degree, strikes me as a rather "low rent" imitation. He's just not as stylish or classy or, dare I say it, "crazy" as Templar should be-- but then, Sanders' Templar almost never was. Here, he's got a fiancee, yet flirts with every woman in sight right in front of her, and she vacillates between angry-as-hell and utterly-forgiving. Between that and her general bossiness, I'd have never gotten involved with someone like her to begin with.
Allen Jenkins STEALS the picture as "Goldie Locke", the patented comedy sidekick, wanting to stay out of trouble, never being able to, getting found at the scene of a murder not once but TWICE, and harrassed mercilessly by the cops, even after they figure out he's too dumb to be guilty. Jenkins was a highlight of several of the PERRY MASON films, and if anything, he's even funnier here. He remained a highlight in the first 3 films, but strangely was not in the 4th one at all-- and, the character was repeatedly recast in all the subsequent sequels!
Willie Fung, perpetually typecast as Chinese butlers, waiters, ship stewards, and the like, is "Jerry", Gay's butler. After reading some 25 SAINT books, it struck me that Simon Templar often had a regular butler, but, you ALMOST never saw one in any of the films or TV series! This might be a case of the FALCON being more true to the SAINT books than the SAINT movies, which would lend credence to the idea of Charteris suing the studio. Like Goldie, Jerry was apparently played by a different actor EVERY time the character appeared. Was it too much to ask for consistency?
Speaking of which... Arthur Shields (younger brother of Barry Fitzgerald) is fabulous as Gay's cop friend "Inspector Mike Waldeck", who has no trouble wanting to arrest Gay or Goldie whenever trouble erupts, but is smart enough to know that they're PROBABLY not the ones he's really after, and also smart enough to let Gay point him at the real culprits. That puts him more on a level with Inspectors Fernack & Teal from the SAINT series, and miles ahead and above Inspectors Crane or Farraday from the LONE WOLF and BOSTON BLACKIE series (both of whom were outright MORONS). I've seen Shields in THE SIGN OF THE CROSS, THE LOVES OF EDGAR ALLAN POE, RANDOM HARVEST, LASSIE COME HOME, THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, TARZAN AND THE SLAVE GIRL, and as the host of YOUR SHOW TIME. Shields was so good in this, it totally baffles me that he was replaced in the follow-up by the equally-fabulous James Gleason, playing apparently the identical character, who was oddly renamed "Mike O'Hara".
Ed Brophy is "Detective Bates". I've seen him in many things, including THE THIN MAN, THE SOLDIER AND THE LADY, CALLING PHILO VANCE, THE INVISIBLE WOMAN, and sometime after this, he would play Goldy Locke in 2 later FALCON films. But, like "Mike", "Bates" would be recast with Edward Gargan in the 2nd film.
Eddie Dunn is "Detective Grimes". Funny enough, he WOULD return in the sequel!
Hans Conreid plays the police sketch artist, and in a very brief scene, ALSO nearly steals the picture. This is a film over-flowing with fun and funny writing. Conreid returned in the next 2 films, but each time playing a different character. Of course, I'll always remember him as Disney's "Captain Hook" and as Jay Ward's "Snidely Whiplash".
Nina Vale (alias Anne Hunter) plays Gay's loud, bossy, over-the-top, and possibly BI-POLAR fiancee. Oddly, she only has 4 credits to her name at the IMDB.
And then there's Wendy Barrie, making her 4th appearance with George Sanders-- RKO must have loved teaming them up. While at times she seems hooked on speed or some other form of uppers, her character here, "Helen Reed", is actually the NICEST of the 4 she played opposite Sanders, and wound up coming very much in handy as a self-appointed sidekick. A one-time real-life girlfriend of Bugsy Siegel (NO KIDDING!) she was also the real-life inspiration for the character of "Wendy Darling" in the PETER PAN story. (NO KIDDING!!!)
In addition, there's also Turhan Bey, who I'll always remember as George Zucco's protoge in THE MUMMY'S TOMB, and Gladys Cooper, who I'll always remember as Henry Higgins' mother in MY FAIR LADY.
This was one REALLY fun movie, and, as others have pointed out, the mystery plot even made sense. There's a moment near the end where Gay ties up a dangling plot point mystery from halfway in the movie, and when he mentioned it, I wound up yelling at my TV! It's always nice when you can see that the writers are actually paying attention to the story they're doing.
I find it ironic that, when I was taping these off local Philly commercial channels decades back, this was actually the LAST of the Sanders / Conway films I wound up seeing. I just got it again as part of the Onesmedia FALCON box set (ALL 16 films in one compact place!), and the picture quality is pretty good (apart from recurring sparkles and streaks) while the sound is VERY clear. I'm looking forward to working my way through the whole box, and comparing the quality against my decades-old videotapes.
