User reviews

The sixth Falcon movie (third starring Conway) has Tom Lawrence investigating how two industrialists disappeared from a plane mid-flight. The opening crash landing of the plane is pretty cool. This one doesn't match up with the continuity of the last film. Falcon has a Southern belle fiancée now? What happened to his reporter girlfriend? Amelita Ward, who plays the fiancée, would return in the next picture playing a different role. Elaine Shepard and Jean Brooks play the other two pretty women the Falcon flirts with. Clarence Kolb is fun. I could listen to his voice all day. Pretty good mystery this time around. I would have rated this a 7 but the annoying fiancée gets old fast. The movie would've been improved greatly by cutting her part out entirely.

Yes, the plot was a little "messier" - as well as the print in this entry in the Falcon series [#6/13], but in spite of all that still very enjoyable. The gang was all there – Lawrence, Clark and Gargan, plus regular Falconite Jean Brooks, the RKO staircase from Ambersons/Cat People was seen to good advantage in Clarence Kolb's house - no Goldie however.

Passenger plane crash lands at airport at the beginning of the film and is found to be literally running on empty – a wealthy industrialist who was on board is presumed kidnapped, especially when ransom notes are left for his daughter. The Falcon is asked to help solve the mystery by 2 beautiful women. It gets … slightly complicated from here, what with murders, a bitter daughter of a missing employee, stolen securities, a broken padlock, and a foreign antique dealer with 2 trigger happy sons but a rather splendidly cluttered shop. Not a second in the 67 minutes was wasted! The only thing that really grated was the Falcon's girlfriend played by Amelita Ward laid her jealousy on with a trowel, and from being amusing at first got irritating – there was a seriousness there I never liked! Favourite bit: Carefree Gargan helping himself to beer and sandwiches at the gambling den and continually interrupting his boss Clark.

Not the best Falcon film but not too bad, anyway well worth watching for fans and well worth avoiding for enemies.

Another Falcon mystery, starring the usual crew, Tom Conway and Jean Brooks. When a plane crash lands, they find it completely empty. A mystery, since a millionaire is now missing. The other passengers were left behind at the last stop. The coppers track down the falcon to assist, and find him in a speakeasy, of course. When the kidnappers demand ransom, the falcon tries to figure out who is behind it all. And how is the antique store involved in this? You'll recognize Clarence Kolb, as the kidnap-ee... he was always the wise old senator, or the rich old uncle. This one goes all over the place, but it's watchable. Except for the annoying, screeching girlfriend (Amelita Ward) she's yackety yack the whole film. Directed by the usual Bill Clemens. This one is an RKO shortie, at 69 minutes. A roller skating rink? Really??

A small airplane comes in to land at an airport but it drifts off course and crashes. The police investigate but find the plane empty – totally empty. The plane was meant to have a couple of wealthy industrialists on board as well as a shipment of money. When the daughter of one of the men (Nancy Palmer) gets a ransom note she goes to Tom Lawrence for help – much to the annoyance of Tom's newest and suspicious fiancé Bonnie Caldwell. Tom takes the case anyway and arranges the drop off of the ransom money to be a sting operation – it fails but he gets a number plate that starts him on the trail of the kidnappers and the truth about how passengers and crew seemed to vanish in mid-air.

Having taken the reigns from his half-brother George, Tom Conway continues as the new Falcon with this intriguing and rather enjoyable little film that only suffers from not being as clear as it really could have been. The film opens with a plane landing empty with the crew and passengers missing; it is an interesting opening that is not reduced by the poor effects on the plane.

From here on the simple premise gets a bit more confused as it brings in various threads; it is still interesting but it isn't as gripping as it could have been for much of the middle section – but it gets better towards the end as things get clearer. It isn't anything special but the story does compare to the other Falcon stories.

Where it doesn't compare is in the cast, which has seen a lot of changes over the past few films. With Sanders gone, Conway struggles and he really can't fill the shoes of the Falcon. His performance is OK but he is not really memorable and doesn't command the attention in the same way Sanders did. Ward fills the usual 'fiancé in tow' role but she is annoying and unnecessary. Shepard is a bit better, mainly because she feels like part of the story and not part of the formula. Clark keeps on with his role and he is pretty good – the memory of O'Hara is gone and Clark just fills the same material well enough. A wise choice was to drop the comedy sidekick to the Falcon, meaning that the story doesn't need a side issue for him (Goldy) to do. Instead the comic relief here is in the form of Gargan as Bates. None of them really make an impression even if they are all OK – meaning that there isn't really anyone holding the attention of stealing scenes, giving the material an average feel at times.

Overall this is an OK entry in the series in terms of story but it is a poor one in regards total value. The delivery is a bit messy and the characters are all just the formula rolled out again but, with no really good performances they stand out as just that – formula. The end product is OK but nothing special and the end of the series (if not already definite due to Sanders departure) was now not very far away at all.

Tom Conway, playing the Saint knock-off his real life brother George Sanders abandoned to him, is actually in danger: of getting married. He aso has a fine little mystery to solve, when a plane sets down at the airport with no one aboard.

RKO actually paid for some good writing for Conway's series; this one is credited to Craig Rice and Fred Niblo Jr. RKO stocked it liberally with starlets, and there's the always watchable Clarence Kolb around as an 'industrialist' near the center of the story. Another Falcon movie was the first to use a Raymond Chandler story as its plot basis. The results were pretty good mysteries and some nice cheesecake. This one lives up to that undemanding standard for a second feature.

When a passenger plane crash lands at a small airport, the emergency services are puzzled by the rather Marie Celeste scenario they discover. Where have the people gone? More importantly - where have $100,000 gone too? "Iris" (Jean Brooks) is the daughter of one of the missing men and she determines to engage the services of the "Falcon" (Tom Conway) to get to the bottom of this mystery. Before he can sink his teeth into the investigation though, her father reappears - all on his own - with a rather fantastic tale of mid-air hijackings and anti-government conspiracies. Is he telling the truth or is he implicated in some nefarious plot, too? It's standard wartime fayre, this - a slightly far-fetched plot that at least gets the imagination going to compensate for some rather join-the-dots acting and writing. The denouement is a wee bit different and though I still think it's a shame George Sanders didn't stay with this franchise, Conway does enough to keep it watchable and just a little intriguing.

When a plane crash lands without anybody onboard, the Falcon investigates after a ransom is demanded for an industrialist who was onboard.

This was probably my favorite entry in the series I've seen so far. The plot is pretty simple, but it was paced well and had enough action to keep me interested. I once again enjoyed Jean Brooks' performance, and Amelita Ward was fun as a Southerner who's engaged to our hero (a far cry from her performance in The Falcon and the Co-Eds). One thing though - why do the villains/spies in cheap 40s mystery/thriller films always hideout in antiques shops?

A passenger plane crash lands at the airport, but no one is onboard. The police is buffled. Police Inspetor Timothy Donovan tries to recruit Tom Lawrence aka The Falcon (Tom Conway), but his fiancée Bonnie Caldwell reminds him that he promised to give up solving mysteries. Nancy Palmer has her father, one of the passengers, being held for ransom. The Falcon is always eager to help a damsel in distress.

This is an old style whodunit with some comedy coming from Bonnie. They seem to have made her the comedic sidekick and gotten rid of Goldie Locke. This franchise needs some stability with its cast of characters. The constant changing does not help.

The Falcon films, both with George Sanders and Tom Conway in the lead role, are on the most part very enjoyable. There are some very good ones like the first two Sanders Falcon films and 'The Falcon Strikes Back'. At the same time there are a few lacklustre ones, with 'The Falcon in Danger' being one of the biggest examples.

Not unwatchable certainly. Tom Conway continues to thrive and enjoy himself as the title character, everything that Sanders brought to the role are also present in Conway's performance and with full impact. The music is lively enough, and on the most part the production values are slick and atmospheric. Cliff Clark is much better here than in his previous two Falcon films, where he suffered from poor writing that made his character a mugging buffoon and that James Gleason was (still is admittedly) sorely missed, here he's amusing at being befuddled and indignant.

It starts off well too, with a tense opening (pretty poor effects aside) that makes one wish that the rest of 'The Falcon in Danger' was just as good. The roller-skating scene is funny, Elaine Shepherd is alluring and fits well enough and Edward Gargan boasts the best comic moments.

On the other hand, any sense of danger and suspense is lost after the opening. The running time is too short, which has not always been a problem in a film series with short durations but it was less forgivable with so much crammed in and paced so frantically here. 'The Falcon in Danger' does suffer from trying to cram in and tell too much in a short space of time, which makes a lot of the mystery underdeveloped and confused, with almost all of it a long way from suspenseful, and a few scenes and transitions rushed. The script is full of red herrings and sudden revelations, a vast majority of which done rather unsubtly and out of nowhere, any surprises turn out even not to be all that surprising.

A lot of the mystery is forced to take a backseat to the romance, which is dull and lacks chemistry. A contender for the worst thing about 'The Falcon in Danger' is the exceedingly annoying performance of Amelita Ward, if there was an award for the worst or most annoying performance in a Falcon film Ward's a very strong contender.

Summing up, starts off well and definitely watchable, but the rest of the film doesn't match up to the promising standard of the opening, being rushed, over-stuffed and confused and Ward really grates. 5/10 Bethany Cox

I like Tom Conway as The Falcon, and this was a very good mystery. What was annoying was the presence of The Falcon's southern fiancée, who never shut up through the whole picture, even during crucial moments. Hard to believe that such a sophisticated character as the Falcon would have put up with her for more than five minutes.

The rest of the movie is actually quite good and a neat mystery about money and people disappearing out of a flying plane. There's a very funny roller-skating scene, funny because of the way it was filmed. The Falcon on roller skates? Who would have believed it? Despite its shortcomings, it's an entertaining movie if you can ignore that fiancé.

Okay Falcon entry, but nothing more. The plane crash with no one aboard makes a good opening grabber. So who was aboard and what happened. Too bad the narrative soon clogs up in convoluted fashion. As a result, the whodunit part is clouded over by congested secondary parts, such that the final reveal becomes somewhat anti-climactic.

Also, the programmer lacks needed verve from a largely unmotivated cast—Ward's ditsy southener tries but is more annoying than charming. And are we really supposed to believe the super-refined Falcon would choose her as a fiancé! Also, it looks like director Clemens simply filmed the script without style or mood.

What the film does have are a couple of engaging scenes. There's the crowded roller-skating rink using 'crack the whip' that sends the ultra-dignified Falcon flying, a humorous touch from a by-gone era. Then too, the Falcon playing Gene Autry on a run-away horse gave a stunt double, I expect, a good payday.

Look for minor notables among the supporting cast—Richard Martin (George Morley) who later played Tim Holt's sidekick Chito Rafferty from that cowboy series; Erford Gage (Evan Morley) from the Val Lewton horror series and one of the few actors killed in action in WWII; and the distinctive but uncredited Ian Wolfe (butler) from hundreds of RKO productions of the time.

All in all, it's a routine programmer that could have used a slimmed down narrative and cast to better fit the slender 65-minute runtime.

Second in the Tom Conway Falcon series. Without much merit, but passable watching if you have not much else to do. It just does not seem like the actors had their hearts in this project. Tom Conway delivers his lines and not much else. Amelita Ward as the Falcon's female sidekick from Texas is simply too annoying and thankfully is shipped off to her former fiancé Buck Thompson at the end of the movie never to be seen again in the series. Two damsels in distress keep the Falcon off balance but their rivalry is just not credible. One of them, Jean Brooks, makes appearances in multiple Falcon movies but never again as part of a "crack the whip" at a roller rink. Clarence Kolb does a good job as the missing wealthy industrialist. Interestingly, in this entry, the policemen do not stand out and are more part of the woodwork then important characters. The plot is reasonably fair but viewers today will have to make allowances for the unexplained events such as blackouts, German-accented heavies, and gambling dens being converted to dining rooms which may not be quickly understood by a modern audience. Some of more important the scenes pass too fast to hear the words being said and understand their significance to the storyline. There is a critical clue that should allow the viewer to identify the true culprit before the end of the movie. As usual, the Falcon attracts your pretty women.

Another Falcon adventure featuring a murder mystery, beautiful women, and bumbling police detectives. This one has a plane land by autopilot with nobody on board! Two industrialists are missing, along with the pilot. Then two ransom notes are sent and the daughter of one of the missing men naturally seeks out The Falcon for help. Cliff Clark and Ed Gargan provide a strong police presence as the cops who always seem to be one step behind hero Tom Lawrence. There are three beautiful women. Amelita Ward is Bonnie Caldwell, the Falcon's super annoying fiancé, who seems to scream every line. Amelita later married Leo Gorcey. Jean Brooks plays Iris Fairchild, and comes off best. She was already drinking heavily when TFID was made, but it doesn't show in her work here. Elaine Shepard plays Nancy Palmer. Aside from bringing The Falcon into the case, she doesn't have much to do here. Richard Martin, AKA Chito Rafferty, appears as a gun-toting hood who menaces the hero a time or two. The fun is trying to figure out who murderer is. I had it guessed wrong right up until the end. As always, the final scene features a beautiful girl rushing into The Falcon's arms and begging him to come solve her mystery, which introduces the next Falcon feature film. That next one is The Falcon and the Co-Eds, and both Jean Brooks and Amelita Ward are in that one, although in different roles. So glad that Bonnie Caldwell character was phased out.

A plane lands with nobody aboard, making a crash landing on automatic pilot. The police come to The Falcon (TOM CONWAY) for assistance in the mystery of the vanishing crew but he's reluctant to help them. That is, until a pretty girl tells him her father was aboard the plane and wants him to help her. His girlfriend, a Southern gal played by AMELITA WARD, persuades the Falcon to take the case.

The plot thickens when another damsel in distress shows up, the niece of a wealthy man who needs to find her uncle and reveals a blackmail plot over missing securities that makes her afraid there's been a kidnapping. All of this happens within the first fifteen minutes, so you can see how crammed with events the plot gets in a very short time.

Despite all the red herrings, I did manage to put my finger on the right suspect long before the end. Too much plotting spoils enjoyment of this one with too much cramming of plots and sub-plots in brief running time.

Trivia note: AMELITA WARD, who plays the annoying and whining Southern woman that Conway manages to get rid of, was the body double for Olivia de Havilland's twin sister in THE DARK MIRROR ('46).

I like old B-detective films and have seen dozens. And of all these series films, the Falcon films are among my favorites--even the later Tom Conway versions (that were slightly less enjoyable than his brother's Falcon films). It has the usual amiable performance by Conway and a decent script (without the usual bumbling cops--here they actually weren't totally stupid) but is totally destroyed by one of the most awful and annoying characters I have seen in this type of film. In other words, an exceptional film is undone by one major weak link--this time in the form of Amelita Ward as Tom Lawrence's totally obnoxious fiancée. While she isn't hideous to look at, her personality is so bad that she would be the perfect poster child for a "retroactive abortion campaign". I simply wanted this loud-mouthed and ditsy dame to die and die soon--and hopefully painfully.

You can't blame all of this on Ward, as I suppose she was just being the sort of wretched character the writers and director envisioned. However, with so much of the film showing excellent and intelligent writing, I truly wonder what was going on here that we don't know about today. For example, could Ward have have held incriminating photos that forced RKO to put her in the film or perhaps the writers wanted the public to totally hate her? These might explain the discrepancy between this character and the rest of the film!! As far as the plot goes, it's pretty interesting and is all wrapped up nicely, but because Ward is so terrible and so grating, I don't recommend this film to anyone but those determined to see every film from the series. Don't say I didn't warn you!

When $100,000 in securities goes missing and two corpses show up, cue for the Falcon (Tom Conway), the debonair detective to try and solve the mystery. This enjoyable mystery has a suspenseful beginning with an empty plane crashing at an airport ...

Tom Conway ( the brother of the former Falcon, George Sanders) is quite a likeable lead, who works well with his clingy Texas girlfriend in solving the mystery. The plot is quite engaging, the mystery behind the missing men is quite well done, and the finale is quite exciting. A well written Falcon mystery. Elaine Shepherd also co-stars and she's quite a looker.

This entry in the Falcon series (or was it a serial?) begins almost in the middle of a cliffhanger, with an unmanned plane managing to land itself on almost exactly the right runway (with the help of some pre-Thunderbirds model work) what happened to the passengers and crew? Must be another case of the Gremlins. The police is baffled, so they raid an illegal gambling den, just to find Tom Conway, The Second Falcon, in his third adventure and second solo case. Like his younger, more famous brother he is forever having fiancée frustrations. Also looking for Tom are two young women who are related to the missing industrialists (a blond and a brunette). Both of them have received a ransom note demanding 25 thousand. Unfortunately, this drop off/pick up/ransom money exchange happens to coincide with Tom's girl Friday's horse riding plans. Although The F. claims these proud animals terrify him, and despite there being several skilled riders nearby, guess who has to save the day (and fails) when one of the ladies' horses runs wild? The crooks get away while our hero almost runs over a nanny with a pram (how positively incorrect of him).

Some evidence is pointing to one of the girls fiancées being a suspects (engagements are never a good sign where the Falcon is around). This Mr. Gibson is a horse betting man deep in debt. On the other hand, he never sleeps over so he can't be a complete cad. Maybe it's the bookie and his enforcers who done it instead? During a confusing mish mash of a skirmish, The Falcon gets shot at close range, but after a single scene in the hospital he's back on the case (where was his old assistant Goldie to catch the bullet?). Just in case one of the two girls is pulling the strings, everybody goes ice skating to follow- and of course fall over each other. Finally an unexpected eye witness shows up to tell his side of the story via flashback. Tom eventually uses Lieutenant Columbo logic ("you couldn't have because....") to get his criminal. This film may only run for an hour and a bit, but there sure is a whole lot crammed into it (current filmmakers should take not of this). What I want to know is how come some of the stock shots are so degraded when they can't have been more than ten or twenty years old? And did they really think nobody would notice?

6 out of 10

Aviation had not progressed enough for what happens in The Falcon In Danger to have happened then. Not sure it could happen now.

A plane lands and there's no one on board. Everybody is baffled and even the police in the person of Cliff Clark turns to The Falcon for aid. Tom Conway might not be interested in helping the law, but when both Elaine Shepherd and Jean Brooks related to two missing men ask, what's a Falcon to do?

There's a third woman, Amelita Ward, a Texas heiress who wants to brand a Falcon. She is downright annoying with her presence in the film.

Interesting story about betrayal, blackmail, and murder. But kind of far fetched.

Falcon in Danger, The (1943)

** (out of 4)

Sixth film in the series has The Falcon (Tom Conway) investigation a mysterious plane that lands without a pilot, crew or passengers. That storyline is actually very interesting and highly entertaining but the film makes the mistake of telling the secret behind it at the twenty-minute mark. After that a second mystery starts and it never reaches the entertainment level of the first one. Conway is on par with his two previous films and the supporting cast is entertaining enough, if not exactly good. Cliff Clark takes over the role of the Inspector and does a fine job. Each of these films have had The Falcon followed around by his "fiance" and this plot joke is certainly wearing thin by now. The Falcon works on his own this time out so there's not too much humor in the film. The film picks up somewhat during the final act but even so it's not enough to make this one of the better films in the series.