jacobs-greenwood The fourth film, and the transition, in the Falcon seriesThe Falcon (George Sanders) goes to meet his brother's boat, arriving from South America, only to find out that he's dead. The police inspector (Cliff Clark) and his detective (Edward Gargan) rule it a suicide, by poison; the Falcon surreptitiously finds that it was murder. Sanders also discovers that the body isn't his brother, but doesn't let the bumbling police know. Instead, he follows a woman who departed the ship after confirming that she knew his brother, but also did not reveal the identity of the body to the police.The Falcon and his sidekick Lefty (not Goldy this time), played by Don Barclay, follow the woman to a fashion salon; she is the head fashion designer there. While Sanders watches her inspect an unusual ring in a back office, he witnesses her being shot dead, briefly struggles with the escaping assailant (causing the murder weapon to fall at her side), but then must flee himself when he hears the police coming. The gun is removed by someone before the police arrive. Upon exiting the building, Sanders sees the ring on the finger of someone in a car, which then runs him over, sidelining him until the end of film.His brother (Tom Conway) takes over, working with Lefty and Marcia Brooks (Jane Randolph), a fashion reporter who didn't reveal Sanders' presence at the fashion salon to the police, to solve the mystery. Showing it's politically incorrect age, there are some dated scenes with the Falcon's Asian houseboy (Keye Luke - Charlie Chan's "No. 1 Son"), who speaks perfect English, mocking himself and his race by speaking "pigeon English" to obfuscate police and the women who pursue the Falcon.The missing gun is found, having been hidden a couple of times in amusing places, and turns out to belong to the murdered woman's underling, Paul Harrington (James Newill). However, he is cleared when the ballistics expert claims it's not the murder weapon. Harrington remains under suspicion by Conway et al when they discover a link between his fashion magazine covers and the timing of some key events in the war.About this time, Sanders recovers, learns of the magazine clues and figures out the significance of the ring just in time to save the day. The film ends in a way which facilitates Conway assuming the Falcon's duties from Sanders (who no longer wanted to continue the role) for the future films in the series.

Michael_Elliott Falcon's Brother, The (1942) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Fourth in the series was also the last to feature George Sanders as he was growing tired with the role. This time out The Falcon (Sanders) gets put into a coma so his brother (Tom Conway) shows up to take over a case involving Nazis. Having Sanders top billed here is a major cheat since he's only in the opening ten minutes and the final five. The rest of the time has his character lying in bed but all the scenes in his room are shot without showing an actor, which makes it clear Sanders wasn't there. Conway was Sanders real life brother so that's a unique little thing and he does a fine job at carrying the film and he would do so for eleven more features. The story itself is pretty interesting but it certainly misses Allen Jenkins whose character isn't here but another character played by Don Barclay takes over.

Spondonman This is the most Famous Falcon Film, the one where one brother gets fed up with the title role so the other brother steps in and continues the series for another 4 years. George Sanders was nearly always good in these kind of roles but personally I always preferred Tom Conway, maybe he just looked more comfortable in B pictures. I also preferred as sidekick Allen Jenkins as Goldie to Don Barclay as Lefty. The film quality isn't very good at this distance, sometimes it's so jumpy and grainy the continuity and the acting resemble Monogram more than RKO - are all extant copies from '50's TV dupes?Basically Gay Lawrence is after the people who murdered someone supposed to be his brother Tom, for a while both are on the case before Gay becomes hors de combat. Tom has to do the detective work himself for most of the film. The patter between the Inspector played by Cliff Clark and flatfoot Ed Gargan is repetitive but entertaining - "I'm boss. You don't mind do you?", James Gleason was also good in the role previously. Jane Randolph as the nosey reporter who doesn't seem to do much reporting is decorative but apparently unappealing to the Falcon: the solving of the crimes are everything. Not so vice versa - the Falcon would continue as a lady-killer of seismic proportions!All in all a most enjoyable 1940's murder mystery B film, but nothing really extraordinary in a most enjoyable series of 13 up to 1946.

bob the moo As often happens, Gay Lawrence stumbles into the middle of a murder investigation when he arrives at the scene by chance. When the police think that the victim was Gay's own brother, Tom, Gay plays along to find why someone is happy to have Tom killed – even though the body is someone else. Investigating the case further, Gay links up with Tom and they continue together – until Gay is badly injured in an attack on them. Tom continues the investigation finding it leading to a plot involving Nazi plotters in deep cover.I haven't seen the rest of this series so I'm not sure what the quality is like, but on the basis of this film I must say that things look bad because this handover entry is one of the lesser of the Falcon films that I have seen. The actual plot is OK when it finally gets going, but this takes too long and plot development really only happens in the final fifteen minutes. Up till this point the film is rather dull – trying to tie things together and hand things over before it settles to actually doing the job of entertaining the audience with this entry. The change is characters came about because Sanders no longer wanted to do the series, having become bored with it – just like his life, when he became bored, he simply left without fuss. In fairness to Sanders, he seems a bit happier knowing that he is on his way out and gives a better performance than he did in 'Falcon Takes Over', the film before this one, where he seemed half dead. Sander's real half brother, Tom Conway, takes over the lead in this film and, once he is allowed to do it he is actually OK – nothing special but, in a simple film, just as able to do the job as Sanders, even if he has a bit less of a natural presence on-screen. The change in support characters was where the main loss is felt though. Replacing Jenkin's Goldy with Barclay's Lefty was a lazy move – Barclay simply apes Jenkins' wit while the script offers no reason for his sudden involvement in the series – where did Goldy go?! Likewise Chief O'Hara is replaced by Inspector Donovan and Clark simply copies the style of O'Hara – annoying because it feels like the writers just didn't bother to do anything with this fresh start other that tread water, understandable with the basics but minor characters could have been altered a bit at least.Overall this film was a necessary step in keeping the series going despite the loss of two of the regulars as well as the actual Falcon. For this reason the film never really gets going as it is too busy handing over. The change in minor characters is a real annoyance because it is done without thought – but not have as annoying as the very glib way that it just kills Gay off and then establishes Tom with a predictable 'here we go again'. A poor film for obvious reasons that will likely even annoy Falcon fans.