By Glenn Erickson
The Falcon in Hollywood
Brief Synopsis
A society sleuth tours the movie capital, where he uncovers an actor's murder.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Gordon Douglas
Director
Tom Conway
Tom Lawrence, also known as "The Falcon"
Barbara Hale
Peggy Callahan
Veda Ann Borg
Billie
John Abbott
Martin Dwyer
Sheldon Leonard
Louie Buchanan
Film Details
Genre
Suspense/Mystery
Crime
Release Date
Jan
1944
Premiere Information
New York opening: 8 Dec 1944
Production Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on a character created by Michael Arlen.
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 6m
Sound
Mono (RCA Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
6,052ft
Synopsis
Tom Lawrence, the debonair sleuth known as "The Falcon," is vacationing in Los Angeles and meets Inspector McBride at the Hollywood Race Track. McBride asks Tom if he has seen casino owner Louie Buchanan, whom Tom helped imprison. After disavowing knowledge of Louie's whereabouts, Tom returns to his seat and finds Louie standing in the row behind his. Tom is seated next to actress Lili D'Allio, and when she leaves to make a bet, Peggy Callahan, Louie's girl friend, takes her spot. Peggy leaves when Lili returns and accidentally takes Lili's purse. In pursuit of Peggy, who is acting at the Sunset Studio, and the purse, Tom hails a cab driven by Billie, a woman stunt driver. They follow Peggy to the studio, where Tom hears a gun shot ring out in a deserted sound stage.
On the darkened set, Tom finds a corpse, but by the time the police arrive, the body is missing. After finding Peggy and Lili's purse, Billie and Tom resume their search for the missing body, which they find in the prop room. Billie identifies the deceased as leading man Ted Miles, who was married to Roxanna, the studio's costume designer. Tom summons Roxanna to the prop room, and she arrives with director Alec Hoffman. Confronted by her husband's dead body, Roxanna announces that she detested Ted and plans to marry Hoffman. Despite Tom's protests that he is on vacation and does not want to become involved in a murder investigation, Billie drives him to Ted's apartment where they find a photo of Peggy and a contract assigning Ted a twenty-five percent interest in Hoffman's next picture. McBride then arrives at the apartment and takes Tom and Billie back to the studio. At the studio, McBride questions Martin Dwyer, the Shakespeare-quoting producer in charge of Hoffman's film. Dwyer informs them that Ted demanded his investment in the picture back so that he could pay a gambling debt. As collateral, the producer gave him a ruby ring, which is now missing from Ted's possessions.
McBride next questions Hoffman, who contends that he was at the studio's miniatures department at the time of Ted's death. Tom visits that department, where he finds the murder weapon hidden in a plaster head. Dwyer cancels the picture when Hoffman is arrested for murder, but when McBride discovers that the murder weapon was registered to Dwyer, the producer insists that he had reported the gun stolen. With Hoffman's guilt now in doubt, Lili arranges for his release on bail and the picture resumes shooting on location at her pool. As the cameras record a scene in which Peggy fires a prop gun, the gun goes off and wounds Hoffman. While McBride questions the crew about the shooting, Tom finds Peggy and Louie in conference, and Louie promises to deliver the killer the next day.
The following day, Peggy drives Tom to meet Louie at the Los Angeles Coliseum, where Peggy informs Tom that Louie was also an investor in the picture. After Billie arrives in her cab, Louie stumbles from the stands and collapses, poisoned. Tom finds the ruby ring on Louie's finger, and when McBride arrives, he explains that the poison was fused in the ring, which injected it into the wearer's blood stream. When Tom concludes that Dwyer murdered Ted and Louie because he oversold his interest in the film, McBride arrests them all and drives them to Dwyer's office, where McBride confronts the producer with Tom's accusation. In response, Dwyer pulls a gun and escapes, but Billie and Tom chase him to a sound stage. There Tom wounds the producer in a shootout, thus apprehending the killer and solving the case.
Director
Gordon Douglas
Director
Cast
Tom Conway
Tom Lawrence, also known as "The Falcon"
Barbara Hale
Peggy Callahan
Veda Ann Borg
Billie
John Abbott
Martin Dwyer
Sheldon Leonard
Louie Buchanan
Konstantin Shayne
Alec Hoffman
Emory Parnell
Inspector McBride
Frank Jenks
Lieutenant Higgins
Jean Brooks
Roxanna
Rita Corday
Lili D'Allio
Walter Soderling
Editor Johnson
Useff Ali
Nagari
Robert Clarke
Perc Saunders
Carl Kent
Art director
Gwen Crawford
Secretary
Patti Brill
Secretary
Bryant Washburn
Actor's agent
Sammy Blum
Actor's agent
Greta Christensen
Girl
Margie Stewart
Girl
Virginia Belmont
Girl
Nancy Marlow
Mail clerk
Chris Drake
Assistant cameraman
Jimmy Jordan
Operator
George De Normand
Truck driver
Perc Launders
Zoller
Jacques Lory
Musician
Chili Williams
Beautiful blonde
Chester Clute
Hotel manager
Wheaton Chambers
Bert Moorhouse
Tom Burton
Crew
C. Bakaleinikoff
Music Director
Fred Bentley
2nd Camera
James Casey
Assistant Director
L. O. Croxton
Art Director
Albert S. D'agostino
Art Director
Lynn Dunn
Special Effects
Gerald Geraghty
Screenwriter
Maurice Geraghty
Producer
Terry Kellum
Re-Recording
Gene Milford
Editing
Nicholas Musuraca
Director of Photography
Michael Ohrenbach
Set Decoration
Theodore Rand
Dances staged by
Renie
Gowns
Sid Rogell
Executive Producer
Francis M. Sarver
Recording
Darrell Silvera
Set Decoration
Leslie Urbach
Dialogue Director
Vernon L. Walker
Special Effects
Film Details
Genre
Suspense/Mystery
Crime
Release Date
Jan
1944
Premiere Information
New York opening: 8 Dec 1944
Production Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on a character created by Michael Arlen.
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 6m
Sound
Mono (RCA Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
6,052ft
Articles
The Falcon in Hollywood -
Tom Conway returned for the tenth time as the crime-solver Tom Lawrence in The Falcon in Hollywood (1944). The advertising promised an inside look at the workings of a film studio, and filming on the RKO lot without special sets saved wartime dollars. Once again Tom (aka The Falcon) interrupts his vacation to investigate a crime - when he retrieves a lost purse at 'Sunset Studios' a rash of murders breaks out. Veteran Falcon scribe Michael Geraghty makes sure that the mystery makes full use of the studio grounds, with important clues turning up in a plaster model, a special effects miniature, a reel of film, and a jewel from the eye of a fancy statue. Pretty girls are also involved in every step of the whodunit, namely Barbara Hale as a starlet, Jean Brooks as a costumer, and Veda Ann Borg as a cabdriver who also works as a stuntwoman. John Abbott is a pretentious producer who likes to spout Shakespeare quotations, and perennial gangster Sheldon Leonard is a casino manager who thinks his movie investment is being stolen. Director Gordon Douglas also moves the action around town, to Leonard's racetrack, the empty Coliseum and a fancy swimming pool. But it all boils down to a crooked movie deal by a filmmaker who wants to pocket his investors' dollars - rather like Mel Brooks' later comedy The Producers (1967). The final showdown on a movie set is a riff on the classic The Phantom of the Opera (1925), aided by the expressive lighting of RKO's ace cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca. Suave Tom Conway would play The Falcon three more times before retiring from the role in 1946. Capable director Gordon Douglas would continue to labor in the 'B' movie trenches for a few more years, before becoming an 'A' list director in the 1950s.
By Glenn Erickson
By Glenn Erickson
The Falcon in Hollywood -
Tom Conway returned for the tenth time as the crime-solver Tom Lawrence in The Falcon in Hollywood (1944). The advertising promised an inside look at the workings of a film studio, and filming on the RKO lot without special sets saved wartime dollars. Once again Tom (aka The Falcon) interrupts his vacation to investigate a crime - when he retrieves a lost purse at 'Sunset Studios' a rash of murders breaks out. Veteran Falcon scribe Michael Geraghty makes sure that the mystery makes full use of the studio grounds, with important clues turning up in a plaster model, a special effects miniature, a reel of film, and a jewel from the eye of a fancy statue. Pretty girls are also involved in every step of the whodunit, namely Barbara Hale as a starlet, Jean Brooks as a costumer, and Veda Ann Borg as a cabdriver who also works as a stuntwoman. John Abbott is a pretentious producer who likes to spout Shakespeare quotations, and perennial gangster Sheldon Leonard is a casino manager who thinks his movie investment is being stolen. Director Gordon Douglas also moves the action around town, to Leonard's racetrack, the empty Coliseum and a fancy swimming pool. But it all boils down to a crooked movie deal by a filmmaker who wants to pocket his investors' dollars - rather like Mel Brooks' later comedy The Producers (1967). The final showdown on a movie set is a riff on the classic The Phantom of the Opera (1925), aided by the expressive lighting of RKO's ace cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca. Suave Tom Conway would play The Falcon three more times before retiring from the role in 1946. Capable director Gordon Douglas would continue to labor in the 'B' movie trenches for a few more years, before becoming an 'A' list director in the 1950s.
By Glenn Erickson
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Although the Variety review credits Tom Burton with the role of "Perc Saunders," Robert Clarke appears in that role. The Variety review notes that the RKO studios doubled for the fictional film studio in this picture. For additional information about the series, consult the Series Index and for The Gay Falcon.
