Tonight's Movie: The Falcon in Danger (1943)
Following the film's intriguing start, Tom Lawrence (Tom Conway), aka the Falcon, ends up aiding Nancy Palmer (Elaine Shepard); Nancy's industrialist father (Clarence Kolb) is missing after the plane crash. One of the Falcon's prime suspects as he unravels the mystery is Nancy's jealous cousin Iris (Jean Brooks). Needless to say, the Falcon has everything wrapped up in the film's breezy 69-minute running time.
The Falcon is aided and abetted in this fun entry by his "fiancee" from Texas, Bonnie (Amelita Ward). Bonnie seems to believe that she and the Falcon are engaged, and while he goes along with the notion, he clearly doesn't take the idea seriously.
Amelita Ward, who plays Bonnie, has a nice goofy sense of comic timing. She would go on to play a different character in the next Falcon film, THE FALCON AND THE CO-EDS (1943). Ward was married to actor Leo Gorcey, who appeared in the Dead End Kids and Bowery Boys films.
Jean Brooks was the first wife of director Richard Brooks. She appeared in five FALCON films, playing a different character in each one! (Actress Rita Corday also managed to play five different characters in the series, but she happened to skip this film.) Brooks was just 47 when she passed away in 1963.Cliff Clark and Edward Gargan return as Inspector Donovan and Detective Bates. Look for Ian Wolfe as the Palmer butler.
This was the first of three entries in the FALCON series directed by William Clemens. Clemens had previously directed the NANCY DREW series of films starring Bonita Granville.
Reviews of the earlier films in the series: THE GAY FALCON (1941), A DATE WITH THE FALCON (1942), THE FALCON TAKES OVER (1942), THE FALCON'S BROTHER (1942), and THE FALCON STRIKES BACK (1943).THE FALCON IN DANGER is part of the Falcon Mystery Movie Collection, Volume 1 from the Warner Archive.
It's also had a release on Region 2 DVD in the UK.
posted by Laura @ 11:08 PM
4 Comments:
The Falcon and his gals are always fun.
I nominated you for a Liebster award. http://www.kl5film.com/2012/08/liebster-award-time.html
The Falcon in Danger is my second favorite of these films after The Falcon's Brother, but they're all fun. Oddly, I don't like The Saint movies as much even though they're basically the same series.
I agree, Caftan Woman!
Dave, I was gone all weekend, belated thanks for the very kind words! I'll be reading your post tomorrow.
Mark, thanks for the feedback. I haven't tried the SAINT movies yet but hope to do so once I complete the FALCON series.
Best wishes,
Laura
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