Did the butler do it? No, the butler can't be the murderer because he's killed in reel 2. 1945's The Falcon in San Francisco, RKO's eleventh outing for the Falcon series, is certainly complicated in the plot department, as several critics said they found the story difficult to follow. Writer Robert E. Kent's tangled scenario begins with a murder in the club car of a train, and soon moves to smuggling intrigues on the docks. The detective hero and playboy Tom Lawrence, aka The Falcon (Tom Conway) must deal with a family hiding dark secrets, while juggling two beautiful women with ulterior motives (Fay Helm and Rita Corday). A sinister butler is indeed found dead in the second reel, and Tom is arrested for kidnapping a small child (Sharyn Moffett). One critic noted that The Falcon ended the previous film handcuffed to a blonde, and wanted to know how that was resolved. But Lawrence is actually less of a skirt-chaser in this installment. Perhaps RKO was running out of starlets to play glamorous walk-ons, as beauties like Rita Corday and Jean Brooks returned in more than one Falcon feature, playing different roles. After being written out for several movies The Falcon's sidekick Goldie returns, played by the amusing Edward Brophy. Goldie's comic obsession this time is with the idea of getting married, because he's heard of the additional income tax deduction. The director of The Falcon in San Francisco is Joseph H. Lewis, who would soon earn critical accolades with moody thrillers like My Name is Julia Ross. Perhaps Lewis' ease with action explains why this episode in The Falcon series is more violent than usual - the climax is a big shoot-out, followed by an exploding cargo ship.

By Glenn Erickson