Devil's Cargo (1948) User Reviews

The Falcon tries to find a murderer

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 9 October 2021]

I found out something interesting. I looked up why the Falcon's name was changed from Lawrence to Waring to Watling. I never did find out why it changed from Waring to Watling (and you can hear they dubbed the name over every single time they said it).

However, I found out that there were two different Falcons by two different authors. The Sanders/Conway Falcon was one, and the ones with John Calvert is actually the other series.

At any rate, this is the usual low-budget poverty row film. A man named Delgado shows up while the Falcon is taking a bath and announces he's killed a man. He'll go to the police, but he gives the Falcon $500 and a key to hold for him.

Of course people want the key, which opens up a locker in a bowling alley. One of the reasons I like old films is that we see things that aren't around anymore - like public lockers that can hold bombs. In fact, this one did!

I guess I'm in the minority here, but I don't agree about John Calvert. I don't think he was bad, although I didn't like him in the final film. In this one he's more animated, and the film has a little humor.

Also, someone on this board was quite dismissive of his talent. Calvert was a magician who taught and performed magic until he died - at 102. He played the London Palladium at 100. We should all be so accomplished.

Different take on the Falcon character is worth seeing for its snappy dialog and unusual twists

[dbborroughs · 7/10 · 9 August 2006]

First of three post war Falcon films is very different than the Tom Conway/George Saunders series. Certainly the character is unrelated being named Michael Waring as opposed to Gay or Tom Lawrence. This is an extremely poverty stricken film that looks more like the shot on film TV series from a few years later. Still it manages to score points for being its own little engine of entertainment.

The plot has Waring, played by John Calvert as a wise talking, magic doing, detective given 500 dollars by a client to hold on to a key for him. He is to give the key to his attorney when he asks for it. The client it seems has just committed a well publicized murder which he thinks he won't be tried for. Not long after the client is taken into custody Waring begins to be tailed, some one wants the key. Someone also wants his client dead and he somehow murdered in his jail cell.

While not the Falcon most of us know, this is a good little mystery. The plot takes a few unexpected turns which coupled with Waring's magic and attitude makes this one to watch despite its cheapness. This is one to find and watch with a big bag of popcorn.

Amusing But Inconsequential Continuation Of A Series

[boblipton · 6/10 · 20 March 2019]

A man called 'Lucky' is murdered, proving that nicknames are often misleading. Paul Marion visits John Calvert, who's playing the Falcon in this flick, gives him $500 and a key to give to his lawyer if he's not found not guilty of murdering Lucky, before he turns himself in for killing him. Complications ensue.

It starts out looking like a 1930s movie, with performers like Rochelle Hudson, Tom Kennedy, Lyle Talbot, Theodore von Eltz and Roscoe Karns in the supporting cast. Calvert plays the Falcon with a pencil-thin mustache, a Ronald Colman imitation that comes and goes, and sleight of hand magic tricks. He entered the movies as a magician, doing hand doubles for actors like Gable, and here was his shot at a lead, albeit in an independent movie.

The script is a pretty good one, but Calvert demonstrates that it takes more than a pencil-thin mustache to be a movie star. He made two more Falcon movies within a year, then a couple more supporting roles. By 1956, he was gone from the movies, back to being a stage magician.

If Calvert's career in the movies didn't last, Calvert himself did. He died in 2013 at the age of 102.

quirky first-of-three films with John Calvert as The Falcon

[django-1 · 28 August 2003]

This was the first of three films made by the small "Film Classics" company in 1948-49 starring actor-magician John Calvert as The Falcon, and it's very much unlike the latter two films. In this one, Calvert does magic tricks at various times throughout the movie (!!) AND his co-star is a dog named Brain Trust (!!!) who is listed as playing "himself." Calvert actually talks to the dog in some scenes. Perhaps the dog was a nod to the successful Thin Man films, but fortunately the dog routine was dropped in the latter two films, as were the magic tricks (which are a pleasant distraction,actually!). The film starts, and ends, with Calvert sitting in his bathtub! In the first scene, a man named Ramon Delgado comes to see The Falcon and confesses that he killed a man last night because the man was involved with his wife. Delgado feels that the killing was in self-defense and asks the Falcon to help him turn himself in to the police and see that his rights are respected. Of course, as this is a murder mystery, things are obviously not as simple as that, and the plot unfolds in a fascinating way. As in the other films in the series, the resolution is unexpected and quite exciting. This film was directed by John Link, a journeyman who mostly worked as an editor, and it also features some nice location shooting in 1948 L.A. A fine supporting cast of veterans--Roscoe Karns as the police lt., Rochelle Hudson as the seductive Mrs. Delgado, Theodore Van Eltz as a seedy attorney, Lyle Talbot as a mysterious "business man",

and comedian Tom Kennedy, who often played a dim-witted copy, as a dim-witted thug! Trivia note: supporting actor Michael Mark appears in small but significant roles in all three Falcon films... in this one, he's the man working at the Salvation Army. Calvert's smooth, laid-back, but witty approach to the Falcon role is a refreshing change-of-pace, and it's a shame they only made three of these films. This is by far the quirkiest of the three, the latter two being more straight-forward detective films minus dog routines and magic tricks. All three Calvert Falcon films are recommended to fans of low-budget 40s murder mysteries/detective films.

What happened to The Falcon?

[bensonmum2 · 4/10 · 18 July 2015]

The plot in Devil's Cargo (not sure why they went with that title - it has nothing to do with the movie) is easily the best thing the movie has going for it. There are a few nice twists and turns along the way. I'm not sure why I didn't see the end coming, but part of it really surprised me. Anyway, Ramon Delgado (Paul Marion) shows up one morning at Michael Watling (John Calvert) aka the Falcon's apartment to confess to a murder. He says he killed a man named Conroy who was cheating with his wife, Margo (Rochelle Hudson). Delgado claims he warned the man twice before shooting him during a struggle. He has a key he wants Watling to hold for him. He's convinced that once his story comes out, he'll be acquitted and he'll then come by to collect his key. But almost as soon as Delgado is in police custody, two things happen that rouse the Falcon's suspicion. First, there are a couple of hoods that desperately want that key. Second, Delgado is found poisoned to death in his cell. What's so important about the key and why did someone murder Delgado?

But once you get past the plot, there's very little here I liked. First, and most obviously, what happened to the Falcon? This isn't the suave character played by George Sanders and Tom Conway. Calvert's Falcon is the kind of guy who I wanted to punch in the face for acting like an idiot one minute and overly cocky and smug the next. And his ever present and unwanted magic tricks serve no purpose - well, no purpose other than to annoy me. Calvert's attempts at humor are almost as bad as the magic bits. Again, it's just annoying. With a plot I enjoyed, a different actor in the lead might have made this a much better movie. The rest of the acting is generally abysmal. I'm not exaggerating when I say I cringed a few times at the poor delivery of some of the lines. And I was really disappointed in the way Rochelle Hudson was used. She's barely in the movie. Finally, I couldn't help but notice at times how bad the music was and generally inappropriate for the action on screen.

As much as I enjoy the earlier Falcon movies, Devil's Cargo is a huge disappointment.

Copyright issues ?

[BruceCorneil · 7/10 · 22 August 2003]

The handsome and urbane John Calvert gives a tough yet breezy performance as Hollywood private eye Michael Waring - code named "The Falcon" . Although Calvert possessed a polished and charismatic screen presence and appeared in nearly thirty films for RKO and Columbia his first love remained the art of magic through which he became an international variety star.

This is a real bargain basement production and there's one particularly curious quirk that's worth listening for. Whenever any of the supporting cast refer to the last name of Calvert's character it's obvious that changes have been made in the post production process. Specifically, it seems that the name "Waring" has been cut out on each occasion and substituted with "Watling". The obvious question is .. why ? Possibly some kind of copyright issue ?

No devil, and no cargo either!

[JohnHowardReid · 5/10 · 4 September 2013]

The 16 picture "Falcon" series which commenced so promisingly with RKO's The Gay Falcon in 1941, starring George Sanders in the title role, is now on its last gasp. Admittedly, it's not a total waste of time. Aside from its curiosity value, this fourteenth entry does boast an interesting support cast including comedians Roscoe Karns and Tom Kennedy in straight roles as a police lieutenant and a gangster, respectively. In the title role, John Calvert, a professional magician in real life, does attempt a few tricks, but in at least one of them he is obviously helped out by some clumsy special effects work. Although second-billed, the lovely Rochelle Hudson, not seen in movies since 1942, has not much of a role here. Blink, two or three times, and you'll miss her. The movie was directed with a bit more punch than his usual half-steam by slow-paced John F. Link, Sr., a Monogram editor who handled the elongated editing for the poor Charlie Chan entry, Meeting at Midnight. (By "elongated editing", I mean editing that purposely allows scenes to run far too long and well past their interest value, in order to spin out an otherwise too-short film to support feature length of around 60 minutes). This was Link's first film as a director. He followed up with Call of the Forest in 1949, then returned very briefly to the editor's bench in 1952. Devil's Cargo (the screenplay has absolutely nothing to do with either devils or cargoes) is available on a very good Alpha DVD. Rated "5" for its curiosity value!

A well disguised whodunit

[greenbudgie · 6/10 · 18 January 2021]

This is the first of the three low budget Falcon mysteries after RKO had ditched the character. Here he comes in a different guise played by the career magician John Calvert. He has a cute dog called Brains Trust. The funniest Brains Trust moment is when the docile dog has been tied to a chair by an intruder to the Falcon's apartment.

Other bizarre moments include a skull ornament that chatters. Obviously the Falcon has learned magic skills to operate the skull to do this. I like the poster for this film that shows the skull wearing a magician's top hat. It's an attractive piece of film poster art that helped to attract my attention to this movie in the first place.

The mystery begins when a character named Delgado visits the Falcon for help to get him off on a crime of passion crime-alleviation charge with the police. He says he has killed a man for fooling with his wife. But is he being straight? The plot becomes more involved as suspicion passes from one character to another.

I reckon that this is a well disguised whodunit. Only a twist at the very end causes the real murderer to be revealed.

A middling tale

[robert-temple-1 · 5/10 · 9 December 2012]

This is the 14th Falcon film, and the first of three starring John Calvert as a detective based on Michael Arlen's character the Falcon. After these three, the Falcon films ended. In my review of the final one, I shall give a chronological list of all 16. The title of this film has no relevance to the film whatever, as there is no devil and no cargo. Nor is the film anything to do with ships and the sea, as 'cargo' might imply. (There was a silent film in 1925 called THE DEVIL'S CARGO, but it is apparently lost, no surviving person appears to have seen it, and it can have had no connection with this one.) This film is a pastiche, very badly acted, extremely low budget, and should not really have been called a Falcon film. The producers presumably paid something for the right to use the name, but there all resemblances end. John Calvert appears to have some admirers, and I would not wish to depress them too much, but let's put it like this: there are two kinds of charm, natural charm and practised charm. George Sanders and Tom Conway (real-life brothers) had the former and John Calvert makes an attempt at the latter. Those of us who like the real thing can only be annoyed. However, he does his best, and really tries, so let us be merciful and not turn it off. The film does have about a dozen instances of snappy dialogue, such as this exchange: Falcon: 'Are you going somewhere?' Dame: 'My maid let the canary out and I'm going looking for it.' Not the highest calibre gags, but some are amusing and witty. As for the mystery story, it has some excellent twists and shows creative planning. Undemanding viewers of old mystery movies will probably enjoy this one. The idea of the mysterious key to a locker containing a bomb which explodes and kills the inquisitive enquirer who opens it is a new angle. (Were there Taliban in 1948?) And it genuinely is difficult in this film to guess whodunit, since the man who confesses at the beginning of the film is not guilty of killing the stiff. Also, the means of delivering a fatal poison to a man in a jail cell is novel and ingenious. I must remember that the next time my psychopathic neighbour is arrested, or perhaps when a certain crooked accountant finally gets locked up. When one thinks about it, there are so many candidates! Just joking. It so quaint that one man when questioned by the police in this film is asked why he carried a revolver to meet the murdered man (but didn't use it), he says as casually and nonchalantly as can be: 'I always carry a revolver.' And he is not challenged further. That was then and this is now. Ah, those were the days when a bulge in a pocket really did not mean one was pleased to see Mae West. There is a pathetic attempt to liven this film up by giving John Calvert a dog called Brains Trust (the real dog who plays the dog had the same name, funny that). But John Calvert is no William Powell, as Lloyd Bentsen might have said, and Brains Trust only knows how to bark, pant, and shake hands. That's it. Well, two more to go.

This ISN'T the Falcon!

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 9 May 2011]

Gay and Tom Laurence (real life brothers George Sanders and Tom Conway) were the Falcon in the early 1940s. So why is a guy named 'Wattling' now appearing in some poverty row series where HE is called the Falcon as well?! In addition to not being the Falcon, this guy acts nothing like the suave and sophisticated Falcon of old. The new guy has a cute dog(!?) and talks incessantly--and he's just nothing like the originals.

As for the rest of the film, it's bizarre and nothing like the old Falcon plots either. Some knucklehead comes to Wattling and claims he murdered someone (so why didn't he just go to the cops first?!?!?). But, soon after, the admitted killer is himself murdered in prison--poisoned. So, Wattling appoints himself a some sort of avenging angel and spends the rest of the film trying to figure out who was behind all this--as well as to figure out what the man was REALLY planning before he died.

While the plot has some nice twists, the characters are just all wrong, the acting is terrible and I wouldn't even recommend this to Falcon freaks--as he's just a shadow of the originals at best. Dreadful on many levels.

Definitley Not Mundane

[mactecdev · 10/10 · 4 January 2022]

Sometimes it seems that the person that writes the descriptions of these old movies, does so from a place of not liking old movies to begin with. You have to look at them from a different perspective. They are more pantomime and play rather than the way movies are created today. If they aren't gritty film noir type flics meant for adult audiences then they have a more light approach to them even the murder mysteries. Think of them as a PG family murder mystery. Personally I liked the movie. Sadly I can't find the other two movies in the series. If someone knows where to find them post me a link thanks.

Only the name

[bkoganbing · 3/10 · 16 June 2019]

If you're thinking that there is another Falcon brother after Tom Conway and George Sanders before watching Devil's Cargo you'd be wrong. Actor/magician John Calvert goes by the Falcon, but he's not a Lawrence brother.

He's got a line of chatter that never gives out, a cute dog, and some magic tricks.

Calvert's services are retained by Paul Marton who says he killed a known gambler for fooling around with his wife Rochelle Hudson. Then Marton is killed in custody and a third man is killed in an explosion.

An interesting murder plot is revealed, but the production values are dreadful and Calvert just ain't up to either George Sanders or Tom Conway.

Here have a donut!

[kapelusznik18 · 5/10 · 11 January 2016]

***SPOILERS*** Film has the distinction of the one of the oldest living Hollywood actors John Calvert-who passed away on September 27, 2013 at the ripe old age of 102-in it as the famous detective Michael "The Falcon" Watling. It's "The Falcon" who together with his sidekick pooch "Brain-trust" are out to solve the murder of mob bookmaker Bruce "Lucky" Conroy whom the not so on the ball Ramon Delgardo, Paul Merion, confessed to murdering. Right form the start Delgardo'd confession smelled to high heaven in him claiming he did it, kill Conroy, because he was fooling around with his wife Margo, Rochelle Hudson,whom he caught in the act.

It soon turns out that high priced shyster Thomas Mallon,Theodore Von Eltz, jumps to Delgardo'd defense without asking a cent, very unusual for the ambulance chasing lawyer, in fees. things get even stranger when Delgardo is found dead in his jail cell just before he was to stand trail for the late "Luck", who wasn't so lucky, Conroy's murder trial. This has "The Falcon" check out Delgardo'd belongings at a local Salvation Army clothing store that, hidden in a shoe of his, names the person who murdered Conroy and the reason why. That had to do with a long string of losing bets he had booked with Conroy that he didn't have the money to pay back.

***SPOILERS*** "The Falcon" uses his wits as well as the assistance "Brain-trust" to figure out not only who murdered both "Lucky" Conroy as well as Delgardo and one of the hoods Naga, Tom Kennedy,who was blown to bits. That's when he jumped the gun and tried to get his hands on the $24,500.00 hidden in a safe deposit box that was meant for Delgardo's killer who actually murdered Conroy whom Delgardo was willing to take the rap for in case he tried to double-cross him. "The Falcon" also called the police to come to his rescue after suspecting that the person who was to call them was in fact working with Delgardo's killer and planning, like Delgardo, to set him up for the kill!

Decline of the Falcon

[joe_97478 · 4/10 · 6 August 2022]

They probably should have stopped making Falcon movies when George Sanders and Tom Conway had finished their runs with the franchise. Hard to watch the Falcon become a shell of his old self. Spending more time with his dog than the ladies, and driving a Studebaker. The script may be okay, but it has a low-budget B Movie feel to it.

The Magician-Detective and the Safe-Deposit Key

[profh-1 · 5/10 · 23 September 2023]

A man pays a detective $500 to hold a key for him, while admitting he just killed a rival for his wife's affections. After happily turning himself in to the cops, certain he won't be convicted, some goons come looking for the key-- and one of them gets blown to bits when he opens the locker it fits. And then, the confessed murderer winds up dead of poison while in jail. The detective is determined to find out what's going on, because he didn't like the way those thugs "annoyed" him. Uh huh.

Something very few movie fans seem aware of, is that in the late 1930s, there were two completely-different fictional characters in print, both nick-named "The Falcon"! The 1st was named "Michael Waring", created by Charles H. Huff (under the name "Drexel Drake"). Waring appeared in 3 novels between 1936-1938. The 2nd was "Gaylord Falcon", crreated by Michael Arlen, who appeared in a SINGLE novel in 1940. RKO decided to undercut "Saint" author Leslie Charteris by starting a "Falcon" series with George Sanders (as "Gaylord Lawrence"), and from various sources, I've read that Chartertis sued BOTH Arlen AND RKO separately, for plagiarism! This is why the 2nd of 2 "Saint" films made in England with Hugh Sinclair was delayed release in the US by 2 years-- apparently it took that long to find someone other than RKO to distribute it here.

Meanwhile, Sanders got bored, and starting with the 4th RKO film, his real-life brother Tom Conway took over playing Sanders' character's brother "Tom Lawrence", who kept making "Falcon" films until 1946.

But WHILE this was going on, The Blue Network was doing a FALCON radio show, featuring the "Michael Waring" character, which ran from 1943-1954! The radio show starred Barry Kroeger (1943), James Meighan (1945-47), Les Tremayne (1947-50), Les Damon (1950-53) and George Petrie (1953-54). Right in the middle of this, the "Falcon Pictures Corporation" (distributed by "Film Classics") did 3 movies featuring "Michael Waring" (mysterious dubbed as "Michael Watling"), all starring real-life stage magician John Calvert. Oh yeah, and in 1954, "Federal Telefilms" did a TV series, ADVENTURES OF THE FALCON, starring Charles McGraw as "Michael Waring", who switched professions from private eye to espionage agent!

So-- as insane and bizarre as it may seem-- "Michael Waring" is the original Falcon, "Gaylord & Tom Lawrence" are the RIP-OFF characters. What baffles me is how RKO got away with it for so long.

This is NOT a great film, but, having just re-watched it, it's not a bad little mystery, either. Calvert's attitude reminds me a bit of Louis Hayward's as "Simon Templar" (he's just too over-confident to believe), and the mystery angle is nicely done. I'd say, low-low budget aside, the main failing here is the directing and the acting-- and having seen too many movies not to realize this, I'd have to put the blame on the director. Too many people in this look like they're reading lines from cue cards during a first rehearsal.

A few familiar faces spice things up, including Rochelle Hudson (MEET BOSTON BLACKIE), Lyle Talbot (BATMAN AND ROBIN), and Michael Mark (FRANKENSTEIN). I also liked the relationship between the hero and "Lt. Hardy" (Roscoe Karns). It's genuinely refreshing to see a PI and a cop portrayed as friends. It's a shame that Hardy, the dog and the magic tricks didn't return in the 2 follow-ups.

BIG question: WHY was this called "DEVIL'S CARGO"? The working title, "THE UNWRITTEN LAW" was far more appropriate.

The print in OnesMediaFilms' FALCON box set isn't the greatest, but I've seen far worse. It's just nice to have the entire series-- or should that be two series combined-- all in one handy set.

If the devil made him do it, he obviously didn't have a staff of good writers.

[mark.waltz · 2/10 · 14 August 2023]

The Falcon returns with a new name and new actor, some witty lines and most regrettably, magic acts to pad this out to an hour. Now known as Michael Watling, John Calvert is obviously a completely different character who just happens to use the same nickname. He's covering the deaths of various men, one of whom died in prison, and dealing with the not so grieving widow (Rochelle Hudson).

One of the sweethearts of the 1930's, Hudson is now playing a hard as nails rich woman who is basically an aging femme fatale, and top suspect. Unlike the followup, "Appointment With Murder", this has a large set and better technical aspects, but the magical moments are unnecessary and purposely stretch this out. Without those, this could have been a three reel update of the "Crime Doesn't Pay" series, and is a huge disappointment.

Not an easy murder trail to follow

[clanciai · 9/10 · 27 April 2024]

This is great entertainment from beginning to end mainly because of its brilliant dialog that works like cross fire all through in a labyrinth of constant bewildering complications of a murder case, in which the murderer immediately confesses to the murder and then is poisoned to death in jail. His reason for the murder was jealousy over his wife, who was seeing a certain racketeer called Lucky Conroy - the film begins with his murder. More will follow. The detective called upon to resolve this mess of amassing murders is a magician who constantly plays wonderful tricks on everyone around which certainly amuse the audience, especially the trick with the duck, called out from nowhere. It's a delightful thriller reminding of the best days of William Powell, Myrna Loy and Asta, the 'Falcon's dog Braintrust would have matched Asta perfectly. In the end there is one murder too much and even by mistake, but it's a long way before you get there through all the intricacies of a goofed up criminal intrigue.

Not my Falcon

[utgard14 · 4/10 · 8 August 2017]

The Falcon returns...sort of. Not really. Two years after the RKO Falcon series ended, Poverty Row studio Film Classics began their own series. There's not much this has in common with the George Sanders/Tom Conway films. The Falcon, now played by John Calvert, has a new name: Michael Watling. Gone is the comic relief sidekick. Here the Falcon has a dog he talks to. Also gone are charm, wit, adventure, and everything else that worked in the previous series. This is just a generic detective tale, made on cheap sets with a forgettable lead backed up by a cast of actors who had seen better days. The RKO series was great. Even if the plots weren't always riveting, you could always rely on Sanders and Conway to deliver and the production values were usually very nice. This is just a big nothing burger. Sadly there are two more 'fake Falcon' films after this.