The Falcon in Hollywood (1944)

The Falcon in Hollywood (1944)

The tenth film in the Falcon series

Tom Conway plays the Falcon Tom Lawrence who is on vacation in California and at the Hollywood Club track betting on the horses. He bumps into the local police Inspector McBride (Emory Parnell) and Lieutenant Higgins (Frank Jenks) who ask him if he’s seen Louie Buchanan (Sheldon Leonard). He hasn’t but shortly thereafter he does. He then meets an actress Lili D’Allio (Rita Corday) who uses numerology to predict things (e.g. which horse will win). When Lili departs to make another bet Peggy Callahan (Barbara Hale from TV’s Perry Mason) sits next to him and asks that he pretends to knows her just in time to dodge those same police. After the police depart Tom learns that Peggy used to be a "hoofer" in Buchanan’s club back East before she leaves. Lili returns to find that her purse is missing and the Falcon chivalrous as always goes to try & find Peggy to retrieve it. He sees her departing in an automobile and hails a cab driven by Billie (Veda Ann Borg serving as his comic sidekick throughout this film in lieu of a male "Goldie"). Billie is also a stunt driver who knows her way around the Hollywood studios which is a good thing given the fact that they follow Peggy to Sunset Studios. Billie has heard of the Falcon and is very excited (& excitable;-) to help him.

After Tom bluffs his way past the gate guardsman he hears a shot come from inside Stage 5. When he enters he finds a body of a man holding a ring. Hearing a sound he exits the set and enters the wardrobe department where he meets its head Roxanne Miles (Jean Brooks). He briefly questions her to find out if she had just left Stage 5 but is interrupted and departs running into the guardsman with Billie in tow. He tells them about the body but when they follow him onto Stage 5 he interrupts a film being made by jumping into a fight sequence. The film’s director Alec Hoffman (Konstantin Shayne) is naturally furious and about that time the film’s producer Martin Dwyer (John Abbott) arrives to see what’s going on. Dwyer who was a successful producer for many years on Broadway is frustrated that his first picture in Hollywood seems to be jinxed; it’s running 5 days behind schedule. He is also an eccentric superstitious and always quoting Shakespeare. When Tom explains about the body he learns from his double’s attire that it was Ted Miles the lead actor who also happens to be Roxanne’s husband. But since the body (and Miles) is missing no one believes Tom that a crime has happened and he is escorted out by the guardsman.

As the Falcon is being escorted out he runs into Peggy who pretends not to know him. Evidently she is known on the set as Loraine Evans and has been forced on the director by an investor in the picture who wants her in it even though she’s just learning. However Tom does retrieve the purse and coincidentally runs into Lili on the way out of Stage 5. She explains that she’s got an appointment with Dwyer herself. After eluding the guardsman once again Billie and Tom find their way into the prop room (we see Buchanan’s in there too) where they find the body again. They exit the prop room to call Roxanne informing her that there’s been an accident involving her husband. She calls Alec and they go together to find the body meeting Tom and Billie who accuses them of the murder. But just then the watchman arrives and Billie and Tom escape once again.

Billie drives Tom straight to Miles apartment and once inside the Falcon finds a picture of Peggy as well as a investment contract for 25% of the film (Magic Melody) signed by Dwyer. He sends Billie out to make a duplicate key of the apartment and a short time later Peggy shows up. We learn that Miles is the one who’s helped Peggy get away from Louie to become an actress when a shot is fired through the window. Tom suspects that Louie fired the shot and that Peggy maneuvered him in front of the window. When Louie enters the window though it appears Peggy is upset that he is following her. He wants her to return to working in his club. About this time the police show up Louie exits unseen back through the window and Peggy also sneaks out. When Billie arrives with the duplicate key the police suspect the Falcon is guilty of the murder until Billie finds a bullet hole and Tom tells them about Louie.

The police take Tom to Dwyer’s office where Dwyer says that Miles was an investor in the picture but needed money from him earlier that day to pay off a gambling debt he’d built up back East. Dwyer didn’t have the $50000 so he gave him a sacred ring from India. The police feel reassured that they presumption of Louie’s guilt was justified but take everyone in the room to Stage 5 in order to question all the others involved. They learn that Lili had predicted the murder. They adjourn to the miniature department and then the plaster making room where Tom discovers the murder weapon encased in a bust. He accuses Alec of hiding it there which he admits before being taken away by the police. Dwyer is upset because they were scheduled for a full day of location shooting the next day.

The next morning Lawrence is called to the set by Roxanne who explains that Alec was held by the police over night but is innocent and that his work on the picture is actually quite good despite all the delays. When they hear that the day’s shoot has been called off they return to Dwyer’s office just before the police arrive with the murder weapon and information that the gun was registered to Dwyer. But Dwyer produces a police report indicating that he had reported it stolen two weeks ago. About that time they learn that Hoffman is out on bail and the location shoot is back on.

The location shoot is at Lili’s place complete with swimming pool. It turns out that Lili bailed out the director Alec. During the filming of a scene Peggy’s character accidentally shoots Alec with a gun that was supposed to be just a prop with blanks. Shortly thereafter Tom finds Louie at the house with Peggy and assumes he’s captured the culprit. But Louie says he’s trying to solve the mystery knows who did it and asks them to meet him at the Los Angeles Coliseum the next day. When they do however he shows up dying of poison contained in the sacred ring he’s now wearing. It’s pretty obvious now who did it but without revealing the motive or the final fifth of the film I have to say that this is one of the weaker efforts in the series I’d come to enjoy. There are just way too many holes in the plot and not enough humor to make even the short 66 minutes tolerable.

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