CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

utgard14 After two entries in the Falcon series where the setting was distracting, they finally get one right. As you might have guessed from the title, the Falcon goes to Hollywood here. They make great use of the RKO backlot and all the behind-the-scenes movie stuff is fun. The supporting cast is full of familiar faces like Sheldon Leonard, Robert Clarke, Emory Parnell, Frank Jenks, Konstantin Shayne, and John Abbott. The obligatory pretty women include Veda Ann Borg, Barbara Hale, Rita Corday, and Jean Brooks. Those last three have appeared in this series before. Tom Conway is as charming as ever and has some great banter with Veda Ann Borg, who plays a cabby anxious to help the Falcon investigate. It's a very entertaining picture, with lots of comedy and a good mystery. And, as I mentioned, the Hollywood stuff is a plus.

jacobs-greenwood Tom Conway plays the Falcon, Tom Lawrence, who is on vacation in California and at the Hollywood Club track betting on the horses. He bumps into Inspector McBride (Emory Parnell) and Lieutenant Higgins (Frank Jenks), who ask him if he's seen Louie Buchanan (Sheldon Leonard). He hasn't, but shortly thereafter he does. He then meets an actress, Lili D'Allio (Rita Corday) who uses numerology to predict things. When Lili departs to make another bet, Peggy Callahan (Barbara Hale) sits next to him and asks that he pretends to knows her to dodge those same police. After they leave, Tom learns that Peggy used to be a "hoofer" in Buchanan's club back East. Lili returns to find that her purse is missing and the Falcon tries to find Peggy to retrieve it. After seeing her depart in an automobile, he hails a cab, driven by Billie (Veda Ann Borg), who is also a stunt driver that knows her way around the Hollywood studios, a good thing given that they follow Peggy to Sunset Studios. Billie has heard of the Falcon and is very excited to help him.After Tom bluffs his way past the gate guardsman, he hears a shot from Stage 5. Upon entering, he finds a man's body holding a ring. Hearing a sound, he exits the set and enters the wardrobe department, where he meets its head Roxanne Miles (Jean Brooks). He questions her, but is interrupted and departs, running into the guardsman and Billie. He tells them about the body, but when they follow him, he interrupts a film being made by jumping into a fight sequence. The film's director, Alec Hoffman (Konstantin Shayne), is furious and about that time, the film's producer Martin Dwyer (John Abbott) arrives. Dwyer, a successful Broadway producer, is frustrated that his first picture in Hollywood seems to be jinxed; it's running behind schedule. He is also an eccentric, superstitious and always quoting Shakespeare. When Tom explains about the body, he learns from his double's attire that it was Ted Miles, the lead actor who's also Roxanne's husband. Since the body is missing, no one believes Tom that a crime has happened and he is escorted out.While leaving, the Falcon runs into Peggy who pretends not to know him. Evidently, she is known on the set as Loraine Evans and has been forced on the director by an investor who wants her in the picture even though she's just learning. However, Tom does retrieve the purse, and runs into Lili. Apparently she has an appointment with Dwyer herself. After eluding the guardsman, Billie and Tom find their way into the prop room where they find the body. They exit to call Roxanne, informing her that there's been an accident involving her husband. She calls Alec and they go together to find the body, meeting Tom and Billie, who accuses them of the murder. But just then, the watchman arrives, and Billie and Tom escape once again.Billie drives Tom to Miles's apartment where the Falcon finds a picture of Peggy as well as a investment contract for the film signed by Dwyer. He sends Billie to make a duplicate key of the apartment and soon Peggy shows up. Apparently Miles helped Peggy get away from Louie to become an actress. Suddenly a shot is fired through the window. Tom suspects Louie, and that Peggy maneuvered him in front of the window. When Louie enters the window though, it appears Peggy is upset that he's following her. He wants her to return to his club. When the police arrive, Louie exits through the window, and Peggy sneaks out. When Billie arrives with the duplicate key, the police suspect the Falcon is guilty of the murder until Billie finds a bullet hole and Tom tells them about Louie.The police take Tom to Dwyer's office where Dwyer says that Miles was an investor in the picture but needed money to pay off a gambling debt back East. Dwyer didn't have the $50,000 so he gave him a sacred ring from India. The police feel reassured of their presumption that Louie's guilty, but take everyone to Stage 5 to question the others involved. They learn Lili had predicted the murder. They venture to the plaster making room where Tom discovers the murder weapon encased in a bust. He accuses Alec of hiding it there; he admits it and is taken away by the police. Dwyer is upset because they were scheduled for a full day of location shooting the next day.The next morning, Lawrence is called to the set by Roxanne who explains that Alec was held by the police over night, but is innocent, and that his work on the picture is actually quite good despite all the delays. When they hear that the day's shoot has been called off, they return to Dwyer's office just before the police arrive with the murder weapon and information that the gun was registered to Dwyer. But Dwyer produces a police report indicating that he had reported it stolen two weeks ago. About that time, they learn that Hoffman is out on bail and the location shoot is back on.The location shoot is at Lili's place, complete with swimming pool. It turns out that Lili bailed out the director Alec. During the filming of a scene, Peggy's character accidentally shoots Alec with a gun that was supposed to be just a prop with blanks. Shortly thereafter, Tom finds Louie at the house with Peggy and assumes he's captured the culprit. But Louie says he's trying to solve the mystery, knows who did it, and asks them to meet him at the Coliseum the next day. When they do, however, he shows up dying of poison, contained in the sacred ring he's now wearing.It's pretty obvious now who did it.

MartinHafer In this installment of the Falcon series, Tom Lawrence arrives in Hollywood for a vacation. Like practically every other Falcon vacation, this one is punctuated by a murder and the amateur detective is sucked into determining whodunnit.It's nice to see the backlot of RKO and seeing how films are made is a rare treat. Because of this you'd think that this would be a decent addition to the Falcon series--with an unusual and engaging plot. However, no matter how hard Tom Conway tries in this film, he's saddled with one of the most annoying and pushy supporting characters from any B-detective series. Early in the film, the Falcon catches a ride with a female cabbie (something not uncommon to find during the war years). While she is pretty and could have been a welcome addition, over time she is just annoying. Why she is allowed to follow the Falcon about and annoy everyone is beyond me--Conway should have just socked her! But because he doesn't, this film ends up being a below par addition to the series.

blanche-2 This is the tenth of the Falcon series, starring Tom Conway who took the role over from his brother, George Sanders. Both men are debonair and have similar speaking voices, but I've always found Sanders the smoother of the two and enjoyed his Falcon more.In this one, the Falcon goes on vacation in Hollywood and gets embroiled in a murder in a movie studio. Veda Ann Borg is the Falcon's self-assigned partner and is one of those stereotypical, wise-cracking '40s dames. She livens things up, though. Barbara Hale, who later became the Della Street of my youth, plays an actress.It's all pretty routine, with a mini-von Sternberg type director, a producer who keeps quoting Shakespeare and is superstitious, and a mysterious "Indian" character who may or may not be involved with a ruby ring found on the dead man. A pleasant enough way to pass the time.