Highly Overrated But Still Good

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

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', though also a few disappointments like 'The Falcon in Danger'.While it is still very much watchable, 'The Falcon Out West' is one of the series' weaker outings. There is a lot to like still, the music is lively and haunting enough, and on the most part the production values are slick and atmospheric with particularly nicely done photography. William Clemens directs efficiently, and the story mostly is bright, breezy and diverting if a little short on suspense and surprises.Conway evidently enjoys himself in the lead, sharing all the qualities that Sanders brought in his outings. Barbara Hale brings zest and allure to her role, while Edward Gargan is handles the comedy relief amusingly and Cliff Clark is pleasingly more understated and serious.However, while the script has often been a strength in the Falcon films it's 'The Falcon Out West's' biggest faults. It does lack the crackling wit and playfulness of the best outings and instead feels lazy and tries to throw in too many western clichés that feel very ill-fitting. In fact, the setting and the story do feel too disconnected from one another and don't fit together, the Falcon feeling too out of place within such a rustic setting and the inclusion of the western genre clichés are clumsy and jarring rather than clever.Carole Gallagher is also very bland in an underwritten role, and sometimes the film feels rushed in trying to cram in a lot in the short (too short?) running time.Overall, watchable but a little disappointing and not one of the better Falcon films. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Falcon Out West, The (1944) ** 1/2 (out of 4) A Texas millionaire is murder with rattlesnake venom so the Falcon (Tom Conway) heads to Texas to investigate. This film is a tad bit better than the previous two films due mostly to having a Western location, which adds a different touch to the typical murder mystery. Conway is more energized here and delivers a fine performance and even the supporting players are a step up from previous films with Cliff Clark stealing the show as the dimwitted but tough trying Detective. The mystery itself is pretty good with a lot of decent plot twists and even some stuff dealing with Indians who work on the ranch.

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.

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.