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Reviews
The Falcon in San Francisco (1945)
One of the best of the Falcon movies!
This film, the eleventh in the sixteen film Falcon detective series, stars Tom Conway as the Falcon once again, with a wonderful supporting cast headed by the beautiful Rita Corday, the comical Edward Brophy, the adorable Sharyn Moffett, and femme fatale Fay Helm. Tie the cast with a winning storyline, and you've got a great Falcon film, and in my opinion, one of the best!
The plot revolves around a silk-smuggling ring in San Francisco that the Falcon learns about because of a little girl, (played by Sharyn Moffett) after her nurse was murdered on the same train they were on. After the killing, the Falcon and Goldie Locke decide to escort the girl back to her home, but after another murder occurs, he becomes enticed to the case and begins to solve the mystery.
Tom Conway is great as the Falcon, as usual, with his calm and suave demeanor, and Sharyn Moffett, I must say, is one of the best child actresses of the day. If you checked out some of her other films, such as "Child of Divorce" and "Banjo," I'm sure you'd agree with me. She's as cute as a button, too :)
Rita Corday is in this one too, and it's her FIFTH entry out of six in the Falcon series at RKO, but this was the first one in which she received billing after Conway. In the other Falcon movies she appeared in, such as "The Falcon and the Co-Ed's" and "The Falcon in Hollywood" she has pretty small parts and lower billing than some of the others, but she really shines in this role playing Sharyn Moffett's older sister, Joan. She's incredibly beautiful, too, and I'm not sure how many other people agree with this, but I LOVE her Swiss accent. Both of her parents were Swiss and she studied in places like Paris and Shanghai before coming to Hollywood with her mother in the early 1940's and signing a contract with RKO. So, that explains the accent, which in my opinion, is just wonderful. I can't explain why I'm so attracted to it, but I just am :)
As for the rest of the cast, they play their roles well, especially Fay Helm, as the bad girl who's involved in the silk smuggling, and the climax is one of the best in the series (a boat explosion).
All in all, a WONDERFUL entry to the Falcon film series, and it was great to see Rita Corday once again :)
Nocturne (1946)
Great Noir starring George Raft and Lynn Bari
I've always loved RKO film noirs, films such as "Out of the Past" and "Crossfire." But this one was really something. I can't quite explain why I feel so differently about this film than the other noir films I'd seen from RKO, but it's definitely one of my favorites.
The plot itself is pretty simple: the murder of a music composer that's made to look like suicide. George Raft plays an ambitious detective who will risk anything, including his job, to prove that this composer's death was homicide.
Raft is great here as the detective Joe Warner; he's supported greatly by Hollywood veterans such as Lynn Bari and Mable Paige, and lesser known stars such as Virginia Huston and the ever-gorgeous Myrna Dell.
Myrna Dell really stood out in my opinion as the wisecracking housemaid who worked for the murder victim. She has many witty and amusing lines in the film, and although her part is small and she doesn't get much screen time (no longer than five or ten minutes) she certainly plays her part well and makes a great impact.
All in all, great film. I would highly recommend. 10/10.
Follow Me Quietly (1949)
A great RKO "B" thriller and unique, too!
I don't know where to start with this one... it's simply a low-budget masterpiece. Such an unusual plot for back in the day, with some great actors, such as William Lundigan as a detective eager to find a serial killer who's strangling around the city of New York, Dorothy Patrick as a beautiful blonde magazine reporter who wants nothing more than a story from this detective about the killings, and a great supporting cast follows.
I pretty much told you the story already: a serial killer nicknamed "The Judge" goes around strangling people on rainy nights. A detective, desperate for a new lead in this complicated case, designs a dummy to fit the killer's description, and a magazine reporter wants the story on it. Their romance is a subplot, and a good one, too, contrary to popular opinion.
I consider this a film noir, because of the rainy night and city aspects of the film, but then I consider this a basic crime film, because there is no femme fatale, and the climax happens during the day. So, I guess I'm mixed on the genre, but still the same, it's an exciting movie with an equally exciting chase at the end.
William Lundigan is great as the detective who obsesses over finding this mysterious strangler, and Dorothy Patrick is absolutely stunning and completely capable of playing the amusing, witty, and at one point sneaky blonde reporter for a crime magazine. Together, they search the city for clues that will hopefully lead them to this elusive killer, and the result is dangerous.
Dorothy Patrick's part could've been bigger, as she wasn't apart of the final climax, something that, prior to watching the film, would've been the case. I thought she was going to be the strangler's next victim for working with the detective on the case, and Lundigan would have to save her from him before it's too late. But, she is in some good parts, such as going to the crime scene of the ninth strangling victim with Lundigan and she does end up being a crucial part of the investigation after the magazine she works for was found at the latest crime scene and she must give Lundigan information about it to keep the investigation going. So, overall, her part size was medium, and could've been a bit bigger, but even with her medium-sized role, she made a big impression, as did Lundigan with his larger role.
Overall, a great movie, especially for a time length of only one hour.
The Devil Thumbs a Ride (1947)
A top-notch crime thriller with much excitement!
When I first heard about this film, I knew I had to see it. I love Lawrence Tierney and his bad-guy persona on screen (and supposedly off screen as well) and when he's in a movie, you know it's gotta be good. So, after searching for a DVD copy, I finally found one and after the movie was done the first time, I was mesmerized. Such a short film, yet so effective with it's suspense, numerous plot twists and most of all, the brilliant camerawork, providing for us multiple closeups of Tierney and even one of Nan Leslie, an RKO starlet of the late 1940's who was mostly cast in Tim Holt westerns. All of those aspects make this low-budget thriller seem like a top-notch film noir with all the trimmings.
The film's storyline is rather simple: about a killer who hitches a ride from a traveling salesman on his way home from a convention. Along the way, they pick up two other women looking for a ride to L.A., played by Nan Leslie and Betty Lawford. Then, as the ride gets more and more dangerous, Tierney is able to manipulate his way into staying at a rather remote beach house along the shore, and as the night progresses, everybody starts to figure out who he really is... causing Tierney to want to kill to keep from talking.
So, it sounds like a routine RKO "B" picture at first, but when you watch it, you find that it's a lot more than that. It's laced up with a couple of minor shootouts, a car chase, and murder, so just from those plot points alone this film is already a film noir.
Lawrence Tierney is great as the lead, as usual, and Ted North's character is more standard than the rest, but adequately played in my opinion. We find out Nan Leslie's character has ambitions to become a Hollywood movie star, and Betty Lawford is an ordinary fun-time gal, whom, we find out later on in the film, is smarter than we thought. All in all, the cast is great, with some other great supporting players such as Andrew Tombes, Harry Shannon, and Glenn Vernon, but Betty Lawford really does almost steal the entire picture, and after looking into her a little bit I was surprised to find out she didn't have much of a film career, as it seemed she preferred stage work. This was her last film appearance before tragically dying in 1960. She was also the cousin of more popular actor and playboy Peter Lawford, who, as many of you probably know, was in a lot of films at MGM, a big step-up from the little RKO studios. But, personally, I like RKO films better, because even Eddie Muller considers the studio as "The House Of Noir" and I'm inclined to agree because they did produce one of the best film noirs of all time, 1947's Out of the Past starring Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer. This one, too, plus all the other film noirs released by RKO in the late 40's (Crossfire, Race Street, They Live By Night, The Woman on Pier 13) prove that RKO really was the "House Of Noir."
10/10.
Seven Keys to Baldpate (1947)
A very entertaining crime thriller starring Jacqueline White!
This 1947 screen version is the third or fourth screen adaptation I believe of the novel by the same name, and although I haven't seen any of the other versions, I want to very much after seeing this one, starring Phillip Terry, Jacqueline White, and Eduardo Ciannelli.
The film is about an author, played by Terry, who makes a bet with an innkeeper that he can write an entire novel in 24 hours in the isolation and remoteness of Baldpate Inn, a place closed in the wintertime. Determined to win the bet, he goes to Baldpate, but not before being warned by a beautiful woman about the place and the dangers it possesses. This woman, in reality, is the innkeeper's secretary, who was sent by the innkeeper to try and scare Terry off from following through with the bet and leaving the inn before he's supposed to. But, when this Secretary begins to realize that she and Terry really ARE both in danger, things get good as she and Terry desperately attempt to get out of the inn, but with no success. Will they be able to escape? Or will the strange men lurking around the place see to it that they go nowhere for a very, very long time?
A common complaint about this film is the fact that it loses momentum and suspense after the first thirty minutes. Although everybody is entitled to their own opinion, I tend to disagree with that statement. In my opinion, the entire film is fast-paced and suspenseful enough to keep you at the edge of your seat for the entire sixty-four minutes it runs for.
One highlight about the film, however, is Jacqueline White. She was in another RKO film noir that year, one that would become a classic, Crossfire. Her performance in that film really attracted my attention and I decided to look further into her career and what it was like. It seems that she signed a contract with MGM in the early 1940's and was wasted in mostly uncredited parts, with the exception of her leading female role in the Laurel and Hardy comedy Air Raid Wardens. Eventually, in 1947, her contract was bought out by RKO, and she found more success there, starring in films such as this one and Crossfire, with some other hidden gems such as Mystery in Mexico and one that I'm sure everybody knows about... The Narrow Margin. After 1952, however, she focused on her family, and raising her two little children that were to be followed by three more. In this film, I find Jacqueline's performance to be pretty good for a standard role with no major surprises (except when we find out that she's the innkeeper's secretary) or depth. Since Jacqueline hasn't been brought up as much in other reviews, I thought it'd be nice to point her out and the contribution she made to this film, and the entire industry. Of course, she never reached star status, but she did have some good roles in some even better "B" pictures at RKO in the late 1940's, and I think her talent shouldn't pass by without being mentioned. She's still alive today at the ripe age of 96, living in Houston, Texas with her family.
Along with White, Phillip Terry, another RKO star in the 1940's, was the leading man. I'd known him from previous films he was in, such as Beat The Band and Born To Kill, both released in the same year as this one, 1947. I like him as an actor, and I think his performance was fine in this one, contrary to popular opinion. I think he handles the comedy aspects of it well and the other things, too.
Eduardo Ciannelli was obviously the perfect choice for this role. He really sends chills down your spine and the minute you see his face pop up on the screen for the first time, you know something is going to go down.
Margaret Lindsay was the second female lead, and makes a pretty good femme fatale. This was during the latter years of her career, after she'd been a successful star at Warner Bros. in the 1930's.
So, all in all, a great film, and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes mystery, suspense, and just a quick little movie to enjoy on a rainy or snowy night when there isn't anything else to do :)