The Falcon in Hollywood (1944)

The Falcon investigates the murder of an actor on a Hollywood backlot.

Director:

Gordon Douglas

Writers:

Gerald Geraghty (screenplay), Michael Arlen (based upon the character created by)

Stars:

Tom Conway, Barbara Hale, Veda Ann Borg

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Tom Conway	...	Tom Lawrence
Barbara Hale	...	Peggy Callahan
Veda Ann Borg	...	Billie Atkins
John Abbott	...	Martin S. Dwyer
Sheldon Leonard	...	Louie Buchanan
Konstantin Shayne	...	Alec Hoffman
Emory Parnell	...	Inspector McBride
Frank Jenks	...	Lieutenant Higgins
Jean Brooks	...	Roxanna Miles
Rita Corday	...	Lili D'Allio
Walter Soderling	...	Ed Johnson
Useff Ali	...	Mohammed Nogari
Robert Clarke	...	Perc Saunders
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
George DeNormand	...	Truck Driver (scenes deleted)
Nancy Marlow	...	Mail Clerk (scenes deleted)

Storyline

Vacationing in Hollywood doesn't free the Falcon from investigating murder. The victim is an actor whose fashion designer wife has been having an affair with a director.

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Plot Keywords:

murder | the falcon | detective | horse race | numerology | 

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Taglines:

DANGEROUS LOVE IN HOLLYWOOD! (original ad - all caps)

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Genres:

Crime | Mystery | Drama

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

8 December 1944 (USA)

Also Known As:

El halcón en Hollywood

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum - 3911 S. Figueroa Street, Exposition Park, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

RKO Radio Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

67 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The tenth of sixteen movies for the suave detective nicknamed "The Falcon" starring Tom Conway.

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Goofs

(at around 1 min) The Falcon is in backseat of taxi driven recklessly by the Vera Ann Borg character but when they arrive at a movie studio, he exits the driver's seat while the taxi driver exits the backseat.

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Quotes

Tom Lawrence: You know, I can't make up my mind whether you're charmingly frank or if it's that Irish blarney again.

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Connections

Followed by The Falcon's Alibi (1946)

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Soundtracks

"Tropicana"
(uncredited)
Music by Aaron González

User Reviews

One of the best Falcon films

This is the tenth Falcon film. It is one of the most amusing and satisfactory of the series. A new director, Gordon Douglas, came into the series, and injected some much-needed fresh energy. But chiefly, this film is remarkable for the pairing of Tom Conway with a female sidekick, a cabbie named Billie, played to superb comic effect by Veda Ann Borg. The two have a wonderful magic together. The producers had stumbled on a formula here which could have generated several more films of the wise-cracking guy and gal type, similar to the Thin Man series. But they retained neither the girl nor the director in future films, which shows that they were asleep at the wheel by this time. It is true that Veda Ann Borg's character gets a bit annoying after a while, through over-persistence, but that could so easily have been fixed. She and Tom Conway 'clicked' because she was not in the category of wolf's prey, so that he could relate to her as a person rather than as a curved shape (not that she was lacking in that department either, but her personality obliterated her looks entirely). Jean Brooks is there again, in her fourth Falcon film. Her icy demeanour makes her once again a chilling suspect. She always added so much to these films, because she was so convincing as either a villainess or a potential one. This film is extremely remarkable for a detective film of the 1940s in that a very large proportion of the dialogue consists of direct quotations from William Shakespeare, most of it uttered by John Abbott, by origin an Englishman who knew how to say the lines properly (he had appeared in England in 'The Importance of Being Earnest' (1937) and 'Mrs. Miniver' (1942) and was well grounded in the Bard). There is also one witty exchange of Shakespearian lines between Tom Conway and John Abbott. There is a wonderful cameo by an obscure uncredited actor, Chester Clute, as the manager of an apartment building (called a 'hotel' in the IMDb character list, though it was not a hotel in the story). The shots around Los Angeles and the RKO sound stages and lot are also fascinating. This is a real winner for avid Falconers.