The Falcon and the Co-Eds (1943)

I love this movie so much

Must See Movie...

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

This was the second of four Falcon features produced by Maurice Geraghty in which his brother Gerald was a contributing writer; he assisted Ardel Wray with adapting her story based on the Michael Arlen character. In this B crime mystery drama, directed by William Clemens, Tom Conway plays Tom Lawrence, aka The Falcon, and actress Isabel Jewell (among others) joins series regulars Jean Brooks, Rita Corday, and Amelita Ward whereas George Givot joins Cliff Clark and Edward Gargan, among the other actors. Ian Wolfe also appears uncredited as an undertaker; Leonard Maltin's guide also credits Dorothy Malone among the uncredited co-eds.Jane Harris (Ward) calls the police to ask Detective Bates (Gargan) for the Falcon's phone number because she wants him to investigate the murder of a professor at her all girls Bluecliff college. Bates responds but is then asked by Inspector Timothy Donovan (Clark) what department he's in, to which the detective responds "homicide". But as usual, the Falcon will lead the investigation and the police will fade into the background (in this one, more so than in others in the series).Once on campus, the Falcon goes by Tom Lawrence, insurance investigator, to keep the as-yet-unknown suspects from knowing that he's looking into the professor's death as if it weren't accidental, as the death certificate had been signed by the college's psychology professor Dr. Graelich (Givot). The doctor tells Lawrence that the cause of death was actually suicide and that he was trying to cover it up to prevent a scandal at the request of the school's headmaster Miss Keyes (Barbara Brown). But Bates too is soon found dead by fencing sword, a death foreseen by a mysterious and psychic student named Marguerita Serena (Corday), which adds school play producer Vicky Gaines (Brooks) to the list of suspects. Another curious ever- present person is the music teacher, Mary Phoebus (Jewell).Comic relief is provided by the three Ughs, Miss Bates's precocious nieces who must stay on campus, played by Nita Hunter aka Juanita Alvarez, Ruth Álvarez, and Nancy McCollum.

Tom Conway is The Falcon in "The Falcon and the Co-eds," a 1943 addition to the serial that also featured several recognizable actresses who appeared in B movies - Rita Corday, Isabel Jewell and Jean Brooks. Dorothy Malone is a co-ed and is uncredited.After a young woman appeals to Tom Lawrence (The Falcon) for help at her school, Bluecliff, where one suspicious death has taken place and a psychic student has predicted another one, she steals Tom's car to get him out to the school. Once there, he meets an interesting group of people, some of whom have secrets and others who act suspiciously. As foretold, another murder takes place, and it's up to The Falcon to sort things out. He usually does so before the police.This is a pretty good mystery with some obvious stealing from the film "Rebecca," particularly the monologue about the sea that came right out of Danvers' mouth - and for the same purpose as here. There is also an overabundance of establishing shots of the sea and its high waves. However, it's still an enjoyable film. Tom Lawrence is without an annoying fiancée, instead being followed around by three young women, the Ughs, who help him out as well as sing. Frankly, I prefer them.Conway isn't as smooth and debonair as his brother, George Sanders, but like his brother he has a beautiful speaking voice, is an attractive man, and flirts like crazy. His Falcon is more straightforward, and he's very likable. This is a very good series that always gives the viewer a relaxing hour-plus of watching.

This is the seventh of the Falcon films, and apart from a single line of dialogue by Tom Conway: 'I think more clearly with a tall glass in my hand', there is no witty dialogue at all. The film is very amusing, but no longer because of wisecracks, instead the humour has become entirely situational. The film is what could be called a 'comedy thriller'. The Falcon series has now changed completely, and the last vestiges of true film noir atmosphere have vanished from it like the mist. The setting is a girls' college, and like all films of that time, all the students are several years older than the parts they play. (Watch out for an uncredited early appearance as a co-ed by Dorothy Malone, later a B star.) The only really cute kids in the film play the three daughters of a faculty member: they sing brilliantly and have all the charm and sense of fun of the children that they are. Everybody else is much too old, including Tom Conway in this situation. However, the film is genuinely fun and the plot is an intriguing thriller tale with unusual twists. There are some good scenes on the edges of cliffs, hints of hypnotic suggestion, psychological undertones, a girl who foresees the future and may or may not be insane, all 'jolly good stuff' and a superior B movie. A good time was indeed had by all, even by Jean Brooks, who specialises in looking grim and dangerous while at the same time holding out the occasional reluctant smile as both a threat and an inducement to those who either suspect her or are attracted by her. Her work as a B movie villainess or alluring suspect has never been sufficiently appreciated.

The Falcon is my favorite B-movie detective series, largely because of the presence of the charismatic, suave and self-deprecating Tom Conway (who took over the role from his real-life brother, George Sanders). Conway was as cool as Bogart, but in place of Bogie's cynicism, Conway possessed a wonderful mix of wry sagaciousness, skepticism, self-awareness and chivalry. The Falcon And The Co-Eds is arguably the best of the series, with an exceptionally clever mystery plot, a very talented cast and some incomparable interplay between Conway and the various title Co-Eds. Once seen, the "3 Ughs" are never-to-be-forgotten. I've seen The Falcon And The Co-Eds a half-dozen times, and it has always given me genuine pleasure.