Appointment with Murder

This is the second of John Calvert's three "The Falcon" features released on 24 NOV 48.

You may recognize many of the actors from the time. That is part of the fun in watching; this includes the third Falcon, John Calvert, who might not be as revered as the first two Falcon actors.

-------- Michael Waring aka The Falcon (John Calvert) is hired by an insurance company to retrieve two stolen paintings. In the process, he travels to Italy and encounters murder.

The plot thickens when many people are double-crossed and even the paintings are suspected to be forgeries.

Will the Falcon succeed? Or there just might be another murder!

The remarkable John Calvert stars as The Falcon in "Appointment with Murder" from 1948. This was one of three Falcon films made in 1948 by Calvert.

In this film, The Falcon (now called Michael Waring) is working for an insurance company and is sent to Europe to trace some paintings. He becomes involved with art forgers and the murder of an art forger in Italy.

A note about the name - supposedly The Falcon's name here is Michael Waring but it sounded in the film like Watling every time someone said it.

Calvert was debonair and sophisticated, but the movies aren't as much fun as the films with George Sanders. This film was very dry without the usual humor seen with The Falcon.

Calvert's actual career was that of a magician. He was the inspiration of Siegfried and Roy, and Mrs. Houdini said he was second to Harry as far as talent. Throughout his life, he traveled extensively doing magic shows, teaching, and occasionally doing a bit of acting.

Calvert was invited to perform his magic act both on Broadway in New York City and at the London Palladium Theatre on his 100th birthday. He died at the age of 102.

Another forgettable in-name-only Falcon movie from Film Classics starring John Calvert. The plot has the supposed Falcon Michael Watling (Calvert) tracking down stolen paintings for an insurance company. Riveting stuff. Most scenes involve Calvert walking into a drab room and exchanging boring lines with someone you wouldn't be able to pick out of a lineup five minutes later. It's a cheap-looking film with little action or humor. Just lots of talking and not a single line of memorable dialogue. Calvert is very dull. He may sound a bit like Lee Van Cleef but has none of his screen presence. I miss Conway and Sanders. This is not a good movie. Only of interest to insomniacs.

After the Falcon series ran its course with Tom Conway at RKO, the character was taken over for a few films with John Calvert in the role, made on a low budget for the interesting "Film Classics" company, which specialized in indie crime/noir/mystery films for a few years in the late 40s--this was the 2nd of 3 such Falcon entries. It most resembles the later PRC product, but is a step below PRC in the professionalism department, with a mix of veterans and seeming amateurs in the cast, and with a few small cheap sets. The plot revolves around art theft and fraud, and setting is LA and Italy, Italy being represented by a room and a staircase! John Calvert is quite different from Tom Conway as an actor--yes,he is tall and has a thin moustache, and he speaks in an subdued, educated manner, but he isn't the charmer or the wit of Conway's character, and here he is in the employ of an insurance company, where he reports to the hardest-working-man-in-b-movies, Lyle Talbot. There's never really any doubt about who does what to whom, but the various characters are all attempting to fool other characters as to their true identity and motives, so the "mystery" is how long that will keep up... as well as whether the Falcon will be able to resolve the art fraud situation. I've watched this film twice in the last year, and it's a decent late 40s low-budget mystery that's as good as the average 45-47 PRC film or late 40s/early 50s Eagle-Lion/Lippert output. Like a good little-known detective novel that you stumble across from the 40s or 50s, this film does what it needs to do and no doubt satisfied its audience in its day. Director Jack Bernhard--who made the amazing Decoy and the almost-as- amazing Violence the year before at Monogram--doesn't have the same kind of over-the-top, pulpy material to work with here, but no doubt could work efficiently in the vein of a William Berke or a Sam Newfield. Don't expect another Decoy here. Anyone who is seriously into low-budget post-WWII detective movies enough to even know what this film is will probably want to see it.

In the second of three 'Falcon' mysteries starring John Calvert, he is working for Lyle Talbot's insurance company recovering stolen paintings. The trail leads to Italy, where an interesting variation on the 'Gold Ring' confidence game is in operation. Artist Peter Brocco offers Calvert a painting by the artist of the stolen paintings. While Calvert is thinking the deal over -- because he's not sure they're real -- he is offered a huge profit on them; the confidence game will end after he has paid and taken possession, whereupon they will be stolen from him.

It's a nicely tangled mystery that leads him to Catherine Craig, a gallery owner and art authenticator in Los Angeles, and cross and double cross. Every time Calvert seems to have been swindled, he gets out of it with such nonchalant ease that all suspense is drained out of the movie: demonstrating that it takes more than a pencil-thin mustache, an erratic Ronald Colman imitation, and the writers on your side to make a movie star.