The Falcon in Mexico ** (1944, Tom Conway, Mona Maris, Martha Vickers) – Classic Movie Review 3214

‘Horror-Mask Key Clue As Master-Killer Slays Four!’

Michael Arlen’s débonair detective The Falcon, aka suave amateur sleuth Tom Lawrence (Tom Conway), goes with an artist’s daughter called Barbara Wade (Martha Vickers) to Mexico to investigate the roots of a case of murder in the New York art world in the 1944 crime mystery The Falcon in Mexico, an interesting though merely par-for-the-course entry for the RKO Radio Pictures Falcon series, which began in 1941 with The Gay Falcon. It is the ninth of the 16 films in the Falcon series, 13 at RKO, then three more made by the low-budget Film Classics company featuring John Calvert as The Falcon.

In the original screenplay by George Worthing Yates and Gerald Geraghty, the Falcon helps a woman called Dolores Ybarra (Cecilia Callejo) to break into an art gallery late at night to recover a painting belonging to her. She was the model for the painting, though the artist has been dead since 1929, and they find the body of the gallery owner on the floor. The Falcon, sought by the American police for the murder, finds the artist’s daughter Barbara and they set off for Mexico.

Barbara introduces Tom to her dancer stepmother Raquel (Mona Maris) and her new husband Anton (Joseph Vitale), who warns Tom to quit Mexico.

The Falcon in Mexico (1944) with Tom Conway.

There is slack direction by William A Berke and only a moderate little mystery story this time. But the cast, the art world setting and the Mexico travelogue add allure, with many second unit sequences filmed in Mexico being featured, as well as scenes filmed in Brazil from Orson Welles’s aborted film It’s All True.

Mona Maris enjoys a good role as Raquel, and the actress appears in her second Falcon film after A Date with the Falcon (1942).

The Falcon in Mexico (1944) with Mona Maris.

Also in the cast are Bryant Washburn as Humphrey Wade, the Artist, Nestor Paiva as Manuel Romero, Fernando Alvarado as Pancho Romero, Joseph Vitale as Anton, Mary Currier as Paula Dudley, Emory Parnell as James Winthrop ‘Lucky Diamond’ Hughes, Pedro de Cordoba as Don Carlos Ybarra, George Lewis as Mexican detective, Julian Rivero as Mexican doctor, Juanita Alvarez as Singer, Ruth Alvarez as Singer, Alan Ward as Ajax policeman, Sherry Hall as Ajax policeman, Wheaton Chambers as Jarvis, Chester Carlisle as Grenville, Bert Moorhouse as Detective Marks, Frank Mayo as Inspector O’Shea, Frank O’Connor as Police officer, Greta Christensen as Isabel, Nina Campana as Duenna, Chiche Baru as Senorita, Lorraine Rivero as Headwaitress, Iris Bynam as Maid, Dorothy Olivero as Maid, Theodore Rand as Dance specialty, and Geneva Hall as Dance specialty.

Principal photography took place from mid-March to 4 April 1944 and it was released on 4 August 1944. It runs slightly longer than usual at 70 minutes.

The Falcon in Mexico is made and released by RKO Radio Pictures, is shot in black and white by Frank Redman, and is scored by Constantin Bakaleinikoff, Leigh Harline and Aaron Gonzales.

Screenwriter Gerald Geraghty is the brother of the film’s producer Maurice Geraghty.

Martha Vickers (born Martha Vitivker) was billed as Martha MacVicar. Her first film role was a small uncredited part in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) and she is memorable as Carmen Sternwood, the promiscuous, drug-addicted younger sister of Lauren Bacall’s character in The Big Sleep (1946).

The first George Sanders Falcon film is The Gay Falcon (1941), quickly followed by A Date with the Falcon (1942), The Falcon Takes Over (1942), based on Farewell, My Lovely, and finally The Falcon’s Brother (1942) with his brother Tom Conway. Conway then played the new Falcon in nine more films: The Falcon Strikes Back (1943), The Falcon in Danger (1943), The Falcon and the Co-eds (1943), The Falcon Out West (1944), The Falcon in Mexico (1944), The Falcon in Hollywood (1944), The Falcon in San Francisco (1945), The Falcon’s Alibi (1946) and The Falcon’s Adventure (1946).

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 3214

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