Falcon films ended with a damsel in distress asking for the Falcon’s help, but usually didn’t actually flow on to the next one. But at the end of The Falcon in Danger a woman told Falcon there had been a murder at her school – which is the plot of this one. Not that there’s too much continuity – this starts from scratch, with a girl (played by Amelita Ward, who plays the Falcon’s Texan fiancée in The Falcon in Danger) kissing the Falcon then asking him to help investigate a murder of one of the staff at a seminary. (Though the official line is that the person died of natural causes.)
There is a creepy element of all girls schools and this is alluded to in the shape of the psychic student (Rita Corday) and some mysterious staff who are clearly hiding something. Indeed, towards the end with the psychic freaking out and wind billowing through the trees and a woman about to kill herself by jumping off a cliff, with waves crashing below, it becomes very Val Lewton. Actually, if they’d gone along more this line, this would have been a classic. But they could never quite get the tone right.
The film is also comic, with laughs based on the Falcon running loose at an all-girl school, and a few songs performed by the girls.
Good performances – Jean Brooks, who plays the school teacher, was a good actor (like Ward and Corday she was in other Falcons).
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