Disappointment for a huge fan!

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This 60-minute programmer shows just how efficient and entertaining Hollywood's little films could be during its so-called Golden Age. It's the first of the Falcon series, at a time when amateur sleuths (Boston Blackie, The Saint, et al.) were popular movie fare. Here, the great George Sanders plays Gay Lawrence aka "the Falcon", and an imposing presence he is both physically and intellectually. No wonder the ladies line up. So what's going on at old lady Gardner's swanky parties where expensive jewels seem to disappear as part of the festivities. And guess who is intrigued enough to get on the case. Then too, he's got help from an array of lively supporting players. I love these 40's films where the women's styles are fancy and eye-catching, like the hats that sometimes resemble alien life forms and the dresses that hike up when they sit. No wonder Lawrence is often distracted. He's got two lovelies, Vale and Barrie, giving him the eye, and maybe more if he'd just slow down a bit. The plot doesn't really matter, convoluted as it is. Instead there's enough character color, snappy dialog, and lively pacing to more than compensate. However, put the writers ahead 60-years to our time. What would they think of having macho Sanders utter their innocent line, "Just call me Gay". Sometimes, I guess, changes over time are not always for the better.

Irving Reis' film - the first in the Falcon series based on a character created by Michael Arlen - possesses most of the virtues characteristic of a good "B" movie: a taut plot-structure; a brisk, no-nonsense style of filming combining stock footage with studio sequences comprised largely of shot/reverse shots; and a clutch of memorable performances from characters given full opportunity to show off their abilities. Allen Jenkins' "Goldie" Locke, all arms and legs and quizzical looks as he vainly tries to escape arrest by the police, has one delicious moment where he is asked to describe a criminal for the benefit of a police artist, and ends up describing the police inspector Mike Waldeck (Arthur Shields) instead. Nina Vale's Elinor Benford, a star-struck fan of The Falcon (George Sanders) thoroughly enjoys herself as she ends up in scrape after scrape, if only for the fact that she can sit next to the Falcon in a car and repeatedly ask him: "So what do we do next?" Gladys Cooper plays an affluent socialite, apparently vulnerable but concealing a devious nature; while Turhan Bey enjoys himself as a dubious Mexican lounge-lizard. At the center of the film, both physically as well as structurally, is Sanders' Falcon; I did not realize just how well-built he actually was, as he dominates the frame, dressed in a variety of costumes from evening dress to a hobo's outfit. Regrettably THE GAY FALCON perpetuates racist stereotypes characteristic of that time: Willie Fung's performance as the comic Chinese servant Jerry is particularly jarring. Nonetheless the film passes the time quite agreeably.

I have seen this movie several times (months ago), and kept it on my DVR, meaning to write a review. Don't miss this movie. I have seen most of the Falcon series films (both with Sanders and Conway), and this (which happens to be the first Falcon film) is by far the best. It is excellent in its own right.Everything about it is great -- the writing, direction and acting. Nina Vale, the Falcon's fiancée, comes off very well; I wonder why she made so few films. I particularly liked Wendy Barrie; I think this is her best performance. No need to mention all the other great well-known supporting cast.There isn't a wasted scene in the movie. It was meticulously made. Wonderful dialog and gibes. Very logical screenplay.One perplexing thing about the move, and it doesn't bother me much: throughout the movie, the Falcon (Sanders) is saying that he loves Elinor Benford (played by Vale) and wants to marry her. Yet in scene after scene he is constantly flirting with Helen Reed (played by Barrie) and other women, in front of Elinor. And the women return the favors.

This is a pleasant B-film from The Falcon series with (by today's standards) a misleading title.GEORGE SANDERS is the woman-chasing sleuth who always manages to get involved in a crime the police cannot solve without his help. WENDY BARRIE is the flirtatious woman who goes along with him on a series of adventures that have them on the hunt for the murder of a woman wearing a very expensive diamond. ALLEN JENKINS is Sander's side-kick, amusing as usual in a supporting role.The cast is full of surprises--never expected to see GLADYS COOPER as a rich society dame with a key role in the mystery, TURHAN BEY (a rising young star at the time), and EDWARD BROPHY and ARTHUR SHIELDS as baffled police officers.Sanders says every line in that dryly sarcastic manner he would use as Addison deWitt in ALL ABOUT EVE years later, but he seems to be enjoying his role. There's nothing very ingenious about the plot, but it does come up with a surprise toward the end because Sanders has information withheld from the viewer.