Tonight I watched the sixth and final Falcon movie from the two disc collection I purchased around Christmastime (and so that you won't worry, I can tell you that - just like with the recently viewed Tarzan collection - there is more than one volume available. Therefore more Falcon and Tarzan movies are in your future, and mine too. Now you can rest easy). But yeah, as far as this collection goes, we pounded all six Falcon movies in a matter of three weeks. This evening's entry was "The Falcon In Mexico" (1944).
He is down in old Mexico because while in New York, The Falcon caught a young woman trying to steal a valuable painting from an art gallery. The painting was a portrait of herself, painted by her late father, who died fifteen years earlier in 1929. But Conway, who is the Falcon with a capital F, is such an astute detective that he notices something right away about the lady that doesn't add up.
"Why do you look the same at this moment as you do in the portrait"?, he asks her. After all, if her father died in 1929, at least fifteen years had passed since the picture was painted. Yet she seems not to have aged even a day. Furthermore, why is she stealing the painting?
Conway will have to travel to Mexico to find out, not only because the woman escapes the New York museum without answering his questions, but also because the accuracy of the film's title must be fulfilled. :)
"Goldie" Locke, The Falcon's goofy assistant, is not in this picture, but the series' standard comic relief and buddy hijinx are provided by a taxi driver named Manuel, who accosts Conway as soon as he steps off the plane, and offers - in Senor Wences -style mangled English - to show Conway the sights, and the ropes, in Mexico. He won't take no for an answer and seems to have an answer to the mystery behind the fleeing woman and the stolen painting. Though he presents himself as a dunce, somehow he drives the Falcon straight to a gallery owned by a woman who was in love with the deceased artist. By these early actions, he becomes the de facto sidekick of the movie, in place of the usual mook Goldie.
A rule of thumb in these types of films is that if you have a handsome, suave guy as the star, you must also have a pudgy, funny guy to pair him with. And so you have it here: the Taxi Driver will guide Falcon around town, he will speak pidgin English and do his whole "si, Senor" thing.....but you have a feeling that he has something else up his sleeve.
Once he takes the Falcon to the gallery in Mexico, it becomes clear that something fishy is going on regarding the death of the famous artist, as in maybe he isn't really dead, like Elvis Presley.
Once things get to this point, the plot becomes very convoluted and very Spanish, very melodramatic (while retaining the charm of a Falcon film). But you know what I mean. In Old Mexico, as in Spain, the female protagonists are fiery, the males are either macho and humorless or very kind and accommodating (like a restaurant owner).
I mean, think of dancing The Tango. It's a very serious dance, right? Romantic to be sure, but serious and fiery.
So to be The Falcon, and to go down to Mexico to solve a convoluted crime, you have to have writers who will surround you with the appropriate atmosphere. They have done so here. The proceedings are sufficiently fiery and serious, and even the daffy taxi sidekick might........(wait! stop!)
Don't reveal any more of the mystery, Ad. (Okay, sorry)
"The Falcon In Mexico" is one of the best of the six films we've seen, with great atmosphere and dark plotting, away from home in a foreign land. There are a few makeout scenes, not as many as in other Falcons, but enough to keep you from worrying.
Two Thumbs Up, then, is the verdict for "The Falcon In Mexico". We have thoroughly enjoyed this series, and we'll be ordering Volume One of the "Falcon" set, which has another seven films from the beginning of the franchise. The first three star George Sanders, but then the next four star his brother Tom Conway, which I was happy to discover because Conway is The Falcon, just like Johnny Weissmuller is Tarzan. /////
I had a nice hike at Aliso this eve. Tomorrow is my last day off.
Elizabeth, I hope you are hanging in there with the polar vortex. Those temperatures seem so extreme to me that I wonder how anyone can stay warm even inside their houses. I know how tough you guys are in the Midwest, but I will be thinking about you nonetheless.
See you in the morn. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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