The Falcon
The Falcon arrived on screen hot on the heels of The Saint, and due to the many similarities was accused of being a clone or a rip-off. And while his film persona had striking similarities, the Falcon’s origin story is quite different.
The Falcon is actually the nickname for two different fictional detectives. The first was an alias for Michael Waring, a freelance investigator and troubleshooter, who debuted in Drexel Drake’s 1936 novel, The Falcon's Prey. The second was Gay Stanhope Falcon who first appeared in Michael Arlen's short story "Gay Falcon" (aka "A Man Called Falcon") in a 1940 issue of Town & Country magazine. He was a freelance adventurer and troubleshooter who makes his living by "keeping his mouth shut and engaging in dangerous enterprises."
It was Arlen's Falcon who was the first brought to the screen by RKO in 1941’s The Gay Falcon with the character being transformed into a suave English gentleman detective with a weakness for beautiful women. Though Gay Falcon was the character's original name the character was renamed Gay Laurence for the film. Thus "The Falcon" becoming his alias or nickname, similar to The Saint.
RKO’s intention was for The Gay Falcon and the subsequent Falcon series to replace The Saint, going so far as to move George Sanders straight from playing The Saint to the Falcon role. In a 1942 Chicago Daily Tribune article Sanders suggests he’d escaped The Saint series because he was tired of playing the same role over and over – though its hard to believe he saw the Falcon series as a new direction.
When it came to replicating what they saw as The Saint’s winning formula RKO went further, casting Sanders’ Saint love interest (Wendy Barrie) in a similar role. And the Falcon, again like The Saint, was accompanied by a wisecracking sidekick. The similarities were so extensive that ‘Saint’ author Leslie Charteris sued RKO accusing them of seeking to avoid paying him for the film rights.
In later film outings The Falcon had a variety of "real names," but was always known by his nickname, though its origin was never explained.
While the third film in the series, The Falcon Takes Over was based on Raymond Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely, the films were struggling to retain George Sanders’ interest and by the fourth film he’d had enough. This time in a 1943 issue of Picturegoer he was quoted as saying “I feel it’s about time I had something really adult and intelligent to do in pictures.” His final appearance as the Falcon was in the aptly titled The Falcon's Brother where he appeared alongside his real life brother Tom Conway.
In the film Sanders’ character was injured for most of the film, finally dying at the end, with Conway’s character Tom Lawrence emerging as the new Falcon. Like a chameleon he assumed the Falcon’s persona of sophistication and flirtation. Conway was far happier in the role, telling Hollywood magazine that he found the Falcon a refreshing role after the darker characters he had been playing .
As strange as the premise seems, it made sense as it was used to induce Sanders to make one more Falcon picture before killing him off for good, handing the reins to his brother and allowing the series to continue. To RKO’s delight Conway caught on right away and seamlessly carried the series forward – selling more tickets than brother George had managed. Conway starred in nine more Falcon films for an ecstatic RKO who after settling out of court with Charteris had a low cost, low risk pipeline of films that turned an easy profit.
The appeal of the films was assisted by up and coming actresses Barbara Hale (The Falcon in Hollywood and Falcon out West) and Jane Greer (The Falcon’s Alibi) as well as the dark style of talented directors Edward Dmytryk (Murder My Sweet, The Caine Mutiny) and Joseph H. Lewis (Gun Crazy, The Big Combo).
Like other B mystery film series, the films were often set in well known locations and would end with a teaser… a previously unseen but desperate woman would approach the Falcon and indicate the location of his next movie.
After Conway’s departure The Falcon was revived for three more films, this time featuring the earlier "Michael Waring" character that was created by Drexel Drake. Actor-magician John Calvert played "The New Falcon" in three low-budget features produced by Film Classics in which This Falcon was…. you guessed it - a magician named Michael Waring who found time to solve crimes.
The character went on to appear on television with former boxer and film noir regular Charles McGraw playing the Falcon for 39-episodes of the Adventures of the Falcon in 1954 and 1955.
The Falcon radio series ran for 70 episodes from 1943 until1954. Like the films, it featured plots that included danger, romance and comedy in equal parts. Each show began with a telephone ringing and The Falcon answering the phone. He spoke with a mysterious woman, he would describe an urgent criminal situation he had to deal with and this would lead to a tale of adventure involving incompetent police who couldn’t solve the mystery without him.
And… there was a comic book Falcon (Samuel Thomas "Sam" Wilson), a superhero who appeared in Marvel Comics, but who was unrelated to the Falcon from the other two book, screen and radio Falcons. This character was created by Stan Lee and Gene Colan for a September 1969 edition of the Captain America comic, and was the first Black American superhero to hit the mainstream. He made an onscreen appearance in the 2014 film Falcon Rising which I had been blissfully unaware of and still have no intention of watching.
While the other two Falcons will likely not make a comeback, who knows what will happen in the never-ending dung heap which is the Marvel Universe.
If you’re a fan of the Falcon, from whichever iteration, tell us all about it in the comments section.