The Falcon Takes Over **** (1942, George Sanders, Lynn Bari, James Gleason, Allen Jenkins, Helen Gilbert, Edward Gargan, Ward Bond, Hans Conried, Turhan Bey) – Classic Movie Review 741

George Sanders stars in The Falcon Takes Over (1942).

George Sanders stars in 1942 in a highspot in Michael Arlen’s débonair detective Falcon series, unexpectedly based on Raymond Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely, and the first film of the great writer’s classic hardboiled crime thriller novel.

Director Irving Reis’s 65-minute B-movie The Falcon Takes Over, the third in the RKO Radio Pictures Falcon series about gentleman sleuth Gay Lawrence (George Sanders), uses the plot of Farewell, My Lovely, with the Falcon substituted for Chandler’s archetypal private eye Philip Marlowe and the setting of New York City replacing Marlowe’s Los Angeles patch.

Ward Bond co-stars as Moose Malloy.

Ward Bond co-stars as brutish, love-sick ex-wrestler Moose Malloy, who is out of jail and searching New York for his old girlfriend Velma, leaving a trail of mayhem and murders in his wake. Sanders’s character of Gay Lawrence, aka The Falcon, and Lynn Bari’s character of reporter Ann Riordan start up their own investigation to try to solve the mystery.

James Gleason plays Police Inspector Mike O’Hara, head of the homicide squad.

The police – James Gleason’s Inspector Mike O’Hara, head of the homicide squad, and Edward Gargan’s Detective Bates – are bumbling but not too far behind.

Lynn Root and Frank Fenton’s screenplay is exciting and witty, and moves at a dynamic pace to take in what is best about the whole, complex novel in just 65 minutes. There is good banter in the dialogue, and the comic relief is not too painful, and it is made to dovetail nicely with the dark and serious elements of the plot. It is real Chandler. There are a fair few murders and there is quite a bit of sudden violence, as well as the required air of menace, cynicism and decadence.

Mike Mazurki plays Moose Malloy in the 1944 classic remake Murder, My Sweet.

The sophisticated acting and Irving Reis’s tight direction do full justice to Chandler’s ingenious yarn about the big fella’s search for his lost love. Sanders gives the silkiest, suavest and smoothest of performances as a successful amateur sleuth rather than Chandler’s dogged detective, and the 6′ 1 ½” Bond is excellent as the bulky bruiser, a satisfyingly menacing presence, though he is overshadowed by the hulking 6′ 5″ Mike Mazurki in the 1944 classic remake Murder, My Sweet.

Hans Conried plays Quincey W Marriot.

Also memorable are Allen Jenkins as series regular Jonathan ‘Goldy’ Locke, basically the Falcon’s right hand man, Helen Gilbert as the femme fatale Diana Kenyon, known as Velma, Hans Conried as Quincey W Marriot and Turhan Bey as Jules Amthor.

Also in the cast are Warren Jackson as club manager Montgomery, Edward Gargan as assistant detective Bates, Anne Revere as Jessie Florian, George Cleveland as Jerry the servant, Harry Shannon as Detective Grimes, Charlie Hall as Swan Club waiter Louie, Mickey Simpson as Bartender and Selmer Jackson as Laird Burnett.

Jenkins and Cleveland (The Falcon’s helpers) and Gleason and Gargan (bickering police duo) have the comic relief to handle, and they are very skilled, much as comic relief is no relief at all in this material. Lynn Bari and Helen Gilbert bring a much tougher edge back to the film as the plucky cub reporter with an eye on The Falcon and the femme fatale. It is Helen Gilbert’s finest hour in the movies.

George Robinson’s noirish black and white cinematography is quite stylish, emphasising the eerie and the menacing, with odd angles and shadows that make both the actors and the scenery look tasty.

It is the second adaptation of a Marlowe story, after Time to Kill, released earlier in 1942, which also does not use Marlowe as the main character, changing him to Michael Shayne.

It was remade in 1944 as Murder, My Sweet and in 1975 as Farewell, My Lovely. Sanders starred in four Falcon films in 1941-42, The Gay Falcon (1941), A Date with the Falcon (1942), The Falcon Takes Over (1942) and finally The Falcon’s Brother (1942) when his real-life brother, Tom Conway, took over the series, playing his brother, Tom Lawrence.

Sanders committed suicide in 1972, leaving this note: ‘Dear World, I am leaving because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool. Good luck.’

The Falcon Takes Over is directed by Irving Reis, runs 65 minutes, is made and released by RKO Radio Pictures, is written by Lynn Root and Frank Fenton, based on Raymond Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely, is shot in black and white George Robinson, is produced by Howard Benedict, is scored by Constantin Bakaleinikoff.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 741

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