La Relève du Faucon

'The Falcon's Brother' is most notable for being George Sanders' last outing as the Falcon and his real life brother Tom Conway debuting and taking over nine more times subsequently. Having really enjoyed the first three films, 'The Falcon's Brother' was decent enough but somewhat of a disappointment at the same time.

Of the four Falcon films with Sanders, to me it's the weakest, with a lot of merits but also some glaring flaws. While Sanders is underused and it is somewhat obvious that he had tired of the role (having performed with more enthusiasm in the first two films) he is charismatic and suave enough. Conway is a strong presence, making a more than credible role debut.

Mostly the supporting cast were underwhelming, but Jane Randolph was suitably sprightly and spunky with great rapport with Conway (it is their scenes where the film particularly comes alive) and Keye Luke is very amusing and brings a real charm to a character that could easily have been annoying and out of place.

'The Falcon's Brother' looks just fine, with a lot of elegance and atmosphere in the settings and the film is shot with style and class as well as a real sense of genre. The music is lively and haunting, and the story is mostly suspenseful and engrossing, going at an efficient pace, faring stronger in the mystery elements than the comedy. It's complicated but it doesn't feel jumpy or rushed, which is remarkable for a film that is not that long.

However, Stanley Logan's direction while efficient is unimaginative while the ending does feel rushed and abrupt. The comedy is amusing and light enough, but doesn't crackle as much as the previous three films and some of it veers on the repetitive, while the patriotic elements are laid on too thick and don't really fit very well.

Particularly disappointing is the notable and deeply lamented absences of James Gleason and Allen Jenkins, scene stealers in the previous films. The replacement characters/actors are not only not as good, they don't even come close and are vastly inferior. Saw no point to the character of Lefty, and the film even fails to provide a reason for Goldy's absence which harms the continuity somewhat, and Don Barclay plays him witlessly and all annoyance and no sense of fun or charm. Cliff Clark resorts to buffoonish mugging, and Edward Gargan is particularly hampered by repetitive material (particularly the patter between him and Clark) and struggles to bring freshness to it.

In conclusion, decent if disappointing. Good for curiosity value but there's better in the series. 6/10 Bethany Cox

When I was a kid I used to enjoy these Falcon movies, but today they seem so corny and the images are so confined to the B-movie genre that they're barely watchable today. This one only interests me because it's the last in the series for GEORGE SANDERS, who insisted on bowing out of the Falcon series by having himself killed by an assassin's bullet in the final reel. This gave TOM CONWAY, who shares the screen with his half-brother in this one, the chance to assume the Falcon role for the next nine films.

This one involves Nazi spies, Latin America, poisoned cigars, an assassination attempt on a Latin American diplomat and lots of red herrings to hide the fact that The Saint is not the only one assigned to the case. It's a modest entry in the series and never rises above the routine material to be anything more than a forgettable programmer.

JANE RANDOLPH proves that she had a certain style as the feminine lead and her scenes with Conway and Sanders are the most enjoyable aspects of the film.

George Sanders plays The Falcon for the last time in "The Falcon's Brother," a 1942 programmer starring Sanders, Tom Conway, and Jane Lawrence. The intricate plot focuses on a fashion house and a fashion magazine, poisoning with cigars, mistaken identity, and lots of other things in a mere 1 hour and 10 minutes or so. It's 1942, so you can also expect Nazis to be involved. "Something changed after Pearl Harbor," a character tells Gay (Sanders). "Most things," he agrees.

This film was the transition so that Sanders' real-life brother, Tom Conway, could take over the series. Sanders was somewhat smoother than his brother, more suave and handsome, but Conway was a serviceable actor, and their speaking voices were somewhat close. There was just something about Sanders that made him so good as the Falcon and the Saint - panache maybe. Both Gay and Tom go after the women like crazy in this one. Always fun and light entertainment.

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.

This is the fourth of the Falcon films, in which both George Sanders and his real life brother Tom Conway appear. It was the occasion for the handover of the role. Sanders and Conway have many scenes together, and vie to out-do each other in suaveness and urbanity, and it is a tie. Then Sanders is knocked unconscious and spends much of the film in bed, which he doubtless found restful. At the end, Sanders sacrifices his life in the struggle against Nazism (it is after all 1942 and the plot deals with German agents) and presto, Tom Conway is and for the remaining series of films will be the Falcon. This film has a higher budget than the preceding ones (there is even a ship), the plot is complicated, it is all more solid and convincing. In fact, it is a very entertaining tale. Keye Luke has now become the falcon's butler, adding his own charm and wit to the team, and doing amusing impersonations of pidgin English (he was Chinese) when he wants to put off 'dames' who phone too often. The falcon's sidekick is now played by Don Barclay, which like the addition of Keye Luke is a great improvement. This film was edited by Mark Robson, later to be a famous director, and the improved editing shows. However, because the screenwriters have changed, all the great gags and one-liners have disappeared, there is no more crackling dialogue, and the Falcon series is no longer a laugh a minute.