VividSimon Simply Perfect

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

jacobs-greenwood By utilizing other talents from within RKO Studios, the Falcon series was given a Western locale similar to those found in so many B Westerns from the same time period, with a screenplay from Morton Grant (and Billy Jones) and cinematography by Harry Wild.Based on the character created by Michael Arlen and directed by William Clemens, it features Tom Conway as Tom Lawrence aka The Falcon, an amateur sleuth that helps the police solve crimes whether they like it or not; Cliff Clark repeats as Inspector Timothy Donovan, Edward Gargan is Detective Bates. Three ladies are on hand for the Falcon's pleasure (and ours), including a Lana Turner lookalike Carole Gallagher as Vanessa Drake, Barbara Hale (years before she assisted TV's Perry Mason) as Marion Colby, and series regular Joan Barclay as Mrs. Irwin. Lyle Talbot plays Tex Irwin, whose murder begins this B movie crime mystery comedy; Minor Watson plays his business partner-Marion's dad, rancher Dave Colby and Don Douglas plays Tex's attorney Steven Hayden. Lee Trent plays Tex's ranch hand Dusty; Perc Launders is Colby's hand Red.After Tex dies in a New York nightclub of a rattlesnake bite, the Falcon follows the rancher's fiancée Vanessa to Texas, where Inspector Donovan, Detective Bates, and Tex's attorney Steven Hayden catch up with them. But without extradition papers, the police's only choice is to accept Vanessa's hospitality at the ranch that Tex had signed over to her as a wedding present. After a runaway stagecoach incident, the gang meets Marion Colby, and later her father Dave, neighbors of the Irwins. A few more curious events cast suspicions upon the Colbys as suspects in Tex's murder, though most of them occurred after Mrs. Irwin's arrival and the return of the ranch's Indian servants. Attorney Hayden is no longer a suspect when he too is killed with rattlesnake venom, and the fact that Colby has a 16th century Spanish ring to deliver the poison doesn't bode well for the rancher, especially when the Falcon also discovers the Irwin ranch deed in his possession. But Colby says that Tex had second thoughts about giving Vanessa the ranch when he'd discovered that she was having an affair with someone else. Apparently only the Falcon was paying attention to how protective Dusty was being of Vanessa because while the police were taking Colby off to jail, he was accusing her of double homicide. When Inspector Donovan finally gets a clue, a shootout ensues between he and Dusty until the Falcon steps in and saves the day. The movie ends in the typical way, a beautiful woman pleading for the Falcon's help.

TheLittleSongbird The Falcon films, both with George Sanders and Tom Conway in the lead role, are on the most part very enjoyable. There are some very good ones like the first two Sanders Falcon films and 'The Falcon Strikes Back', though also a few disappointments like 'The Falcon in Danger'.While it is still very much watchable, 'The Falcon Out West' is one of the series' weaker outings. There is a lot to like still, the music is lively and haunting enough, and on the most part the production values are slick and atmospheric with particularly nicely done photography. William Clemens directs efficiently, and the story mostly is bright, breezy and diverting if a little short on suspense and surprises.Conway evidently enjoys himself in the lead, sharing all the qualities that Sanders brought in his outings. Barbara Hale brings zest and allure to her role, while Edward Gargan is handles the comedy relief amusingly and Cliff Clark is pleasingly more understated and serious.However, while the script has often been a strength in the Falcon films it's 'The Falcon Out West's' biggest faults. It does lack the crackling wit and playfulness of the best outings and instead feels lazy and tries to throw in too many western clichés that feel very ill-fitting. In fact, the setting and the story do feel too disconnected from one another and don't fit together, the Falcon feeling too out of place within such a rustic setting and the inclusion of the western genre clichés are clumsy and jarring rather than clever.Carole Gallagher is also very bland in an underwritten role, and sometimes the film feels rushed in trying to cram in a lot in the short (too short?) running time.Overall, watchable but a little disappointing and not one of the better Falcon films. 6/10 Bethany Cox

kidboots While George Saunders originally starred as the Falcon in the first few films, brother Tom Conway took over the series as the original Falcon's brother - and made it his own. Although not as famous as his brother, Conway was perfect as the Falcon - being witty, urbane and sophisticated.When a wealthy Texas rancher (Lyle Talbot) collapses on a dance floor and dies presumably from a snake bite - the Falcon takes a train ticket and follows the rancher's fiancée (Carole Gallagher) out west to the rancher's spread.Mysterious things start happening - the Falcon finds an Indian scalp on his door as a death warning, someone takes a shot at him when he is out riding and lots of other things. Then Hayden (Tex's lawyer) is killed in the same puzzling way. It is all solved in 65 minutes and the Falcon finds another "lady in distress".Barbara Hale is first introduced saving a runaway coach. She plays the independent daughter of Tex's partner (Minor Watson) who is soon to be a suspect.Barbara Hale was one of RKO's promising young starlets of the 40s. She eventually found lasting fame as Della Street in the TV series "Perry Mason".Joan Barclay, who played Tex's ex wife had a reasonable career, starting with a bit in "The Gaucho" (1927) and ending with "The Shanghai Cobra" (1945). Carole Gallagher had a short, lack lustre career.

robert-temple-1 This is the eighth of the Falcon series. At this point, the series gets a bit silly. Perhaps inspired by The Marx Brothers Go West (1940), this misguided attempt to combine a detective thriller with a stagecoach (still used by an eccentric) and men riding around with six-shooters on their hips (although it is 1944), seems a bizarre attempt to import an urban thriller into a Roy Rogers movie. The rocks and trees are the very same ones remembered from childhood, past which all the cowboys rode in all those black and white Westerns. There are even morose Indians, useful for a few gags, since when a white man says 'How' to one of them, the Indian answers: 'Very well, thank you.' There is a lot of humour, and some lively lines are spoken. The plot is sound, with some interesting twists like a ring containing rattlesnake venom with two sharp spikes, which can be jabbed into someone to simulate a rattlesnake bite. If some restraint had been shown (but none was, and all was thrown to the winds), this thriller-out-west could have worked, cowboys and all, with Tom Conway wryly observing the quaintness of Texas customs. However, all the good points of this Falcon thriller are drowned in a sea of Western silliness, like a gun floating in a bowl of mush. Falcon fans will want to watch it anyway, because they are forgiving souls.