Friday, November 28, 2008

Movie review – Falcon #6 - “The Falcon in Danger” (1943) **1/2

A plane crash lands in Washington (cue some poor model work) – only it turns out no one is on board. Great beginning – Marie Celeste for planes. One of the cops ask if it’s gremlins, which will please fans of the 1984 film. Cut to the Falcon gambling at an illegal casino with his new fiancée, a Texan (Amelita Ward) – which at least is interesting and offers a bit of variety. The cops ask him to investigate, and he refuses, until a girl (Elaine Shepherd) asks help looking for her father. The girl is a stunner, much better looking for than his fiancée – her father has been kidnapped. It turns out there were kidnappers.

This is quite brisk and well done. Some more unusual characters than you often got in this film – not just the noisy fiancée but also the bitter daughter (a very good performance from Jean Brooks, who went on to feature in a number of movies in the series).

There are some pleasing surprises, like a scene in a factory full of female welders, and a scene where the Falcon is shot at the 35 minute mark (not seriously), and a finale involving a killer Doberman and where, if I’m not mistaken, the Falcon kills the baddie in cold blood. But we don’t see the baddie during this bit (the actor who plays him mustn’t have been available on the day or something). After that then the Falcon gets dumped for a change.

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