Peereddi I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

HottWwjdIam There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

JohnHowardReid Producer: Maurice Geraghty. Copyright 17 March 1944 by RKO-Radio Pictures, Inc. New York opening at: 17 March 1944. U.S. release: March 1944. Australian release: 20 July 1944. 5,910 feet. 64 minutes. SYNOPSIS: When a wealthy cattleman dies in a New York nightclub, the murdered man's fiancée, accompanied by The Falcon, entrains for Texas.NOTES: Number eight in the sixteen-picture "The Falcon" series. (The numbering in the book The Great Movie Series is incorrect. There is a teaser for The Falcon in Mexico at the end of this movie, although the heroine in the movie itself is actually enacted by Mona Maris, not Zedra Conde).COMMENT: A novel entry in the series. True, the identity of the killer is pretty obvious. So obvious indeed that most audiences will discount that suspect as a possibility and look for someone else. So the suspense is well maintained nonetheless, and there are plenty of thrills on the way. Also the western setting allows for some new wrinkles on the urban mystery formula. An edge-of-the-seat stagecoach ride comes as a standout. And we like the way The Falcon handles himself on the box seat and in the saddle.Romance is provided by an attractive trio, headed by Carole Gallagher (a new girl on the block, this is her only starring role. In fact she is credited in only two other movies: Hit Parade of 1947 and 1948's The Denver Kid, in both of which she has only minor roles. A pity! She's a lovely girl and fine actress). Edward Gargan (pronounced "Garrigan") makes the most of some worthwhile material handed him by the scriptwriters and holds up the humor end with ease. We love his running gag with the educated Indian. Tom Conway, the perfect Falcon, maintains his usual suave composure, and receives excellent support from Cliff Clark (the detective), Donald Douglas (the lawyer), Minor Watson (the chief suspect), Barbara Hale (the suspect's pretty daughter), and Joan Barclay (the murdered man's ex-wife). The direction by William Clemens is highly competent (if unobtrusive), while Harry J. Wild contributes the creative, consistently skillful photography.

blanche-2 Nice idea - bringing the urbane Falcon (Tom Conway) out west to solve the murder of a rancher (Lyle Talbot) killed by a rattlesnake bite in New York City. The rancher had a fiancée (Carole Gallagher), an ex-wife (Joan Irwin), and helpers (Minor Watson and Barbara Hale as his daughter), all of whom seem to have something to hide. Once out west, the search is on for the rancher's will and deed to his house, and the Falcon finds himself in danger.This is actually a pretty good mystery with some old-fashioned Indians and prejudices thrown in - this is pretty common in old films, and gives one a good idea of the sensibilities of the time. Barbara Hale, who went on to play Della Street on "Perry Mason" is the most familiar face here - young and pretty, she started out as an RKO starlet. Carole Gallagher, the fiancée, had the beauty of a Lana Turner but alas, none of the spark, and her career didn't amount to much. Tom Conway does a good job at the Falcon, but I admit that I prefer George Sanders in the role.This is an okay entry into the series.

robert-temple-1 This is the eighth of the Falcon series. At this point, the series gets a bit silly. Perhaps inspired by The Marx Brothers Go West (1940), this misguided attempt to combine a detective thriller with a stagecoach (still used by an eccentric) and men riding around with six-shooters on their hips (although it is 1944), seems a bizarre attempt to import an urban thriller into a Roy Rogers movie. The rocks and trees are the very same ones remembered from childhood, past which all the cowboys rode in all those black and white Westerns. There are even morose Indians, useful for a few gags, since when a white man says 'How' to one of them, the Indian answers: 'Very well, thank you.' There is a lot of humour, and some lively lines are spoken. The plot is sound, with some interesting twists like a ring containing rattlesnake venom with two sharp spikes, which can be jabbed into someone to simulate a rattlesnake bite. If some restraint had been shown (but none was, and all was thrown to the winds), this thriller-out-west could have worked, cowboys and all, with Tom Conway wryly observing the quaintness of Texas customs. However, all the good points of this Falcon thriller are drowned in a sea of Western silliness, like a gun floating in a bowl of mush. Falcon fans will want to watch it anyway, because they are forgiving souls.

bob the moo Tom Lawrence aka The Falcon is out enjoying himself in a New York nightclub full of society types. Among them is a Texan playboy who suddenly starts complaining of a pain that feels like a snakebite, before dropping to the floor and dying. Investigating the body, Lawrence finds two marks indicating a snake had indeed bitten the man but soon finds that a minor detail as the man's fiancé flees the scene and catches a train back to Texas. Lawrence follows her and finds the police have already gotten to Texas via plane and are waiting legal papers to take her back. Lawrence investigates the murder with all the suspects on the victim's ranch in a case where he risks his own life.By this stage in the series, things were looking like flagging and the location being built into the title (Texas and, later, Hollywood) suggested to me that the series wasn't relying on plotting and character to bring the audience in but seemed to be looking to the switching location to be enough to make the series suddenly feel fresh and interesting. In this regard the film fails because this is just the same formula but this time put into a setting that is poorly used and never really fits with the Falcon's style. The mystery story is still worth watching though because it is enjoyable in a b-movie sort of way. The setting is annoying and just seemed to be a way to drag in lots of western clichés into the film – Indians, shoot-outs, horse riding etc without really adding value at all. Fans will feel that this could have been better and they would be right because it is only average at best and isn't the best of the series by a long shot; meanwhile the causal viewer will probably not bother with this at all.The cast are OK, filled as it is with the usual b-movie actors. Conway is a great Falcon and is the main selling point of the series with a smart performance that is lacking Saunders' rather snide edge. Hale was a nice surprise since I only know her from the Perry Mason series and she is interesting in her character. Gallagher is a bit bland and blonde and isn't very impressive. Without a sidekick for the Falcon, Gargan is the sole comic relief and he does it reasonably well without interfering with the main thrust of the film, meanwhile Clark delivers a much more serious performance as the Inspector. Talbot has a few seconds of screen time and the rest of the cast are pretty clichéd Texan role although the Indians have some minor revenge by mocking Detective Bates' assumptions of their intelligence! Overall this is an average entry in the series but it is still good enough for fans to consider it worth seeing. The location is a big distraction and isn't used very well at all but the plot is reasonably interesting and the playing is quite enjoyable for a b-movie. Like I said, worth seeing it for fans of the series like myself but I doubt that this will be the Falcon film that wins over the casual viewer.