The Falcon (and The Saint) on DVD

[batman]

Not British, but I know this film series is a favourite with several Britmovie members .... for the first time ever on 'official' DVD, I proudly present from Odeon Entertainment .....



The Falcon's Brother - real life brothers Tom Conway and George Sanders team up to fight the Nazis (release 1/11/10)







The Falcon Takes Over - a re-working of Raymond Chandler's Farewell My Lovely with 'The Falcon' (George Sanders) instead of 'Philip Marlowe', it also features Ward Bond as 'Moose Malloy' (release 1/11/10)







.... and as a nice bonus, a rare 'official' outing for George's version of 'The Saint' (release 11/10/10)

[wadsy]

Great stuff! Cheers bats.

[Bernardo]

BBC2 had a session of showing all the Falcon films during a Summer a couple of years ago. I need to see which ones I have but this sort of information, like the Renown announcement, is so useful for the collection.

[Gerald Lovell]

That's good news! Plus The Saint's Double Trouble also features Bela Lugosi in a "straight" role.

[Mr Pastry Time]

name='Gerald Lovell' timestamp='1285946457' post='479076']

That's good news! Plus The Saint's Double Trouble also features Bela Lugosi in a "straight" role.

Quite right.. Its one I have been chewing at the bit to get my hands on for many years along with other Lugosi fans I know of. Mines on order..

[orpheum]

RKO decided to start up The Falcon as Geortge Sanders wanted out of The Saint series.As it was a good franchise just retred the same character and situations just using another name.Another example of this is when Peter Lorre as Mr Moto followed on the coattails of Charlie Chan played by Warner Oland both made at Fox.

[batman]

name='orpheum' timestamp='1286011555' post='479282']

RKO decided to start up The Falcon as Geortge Sanders wanted out of The Saint series.As it was a good franchise just retred the same character and situations just using another name.Another example of this is when Peter Lorre as Mr Moto followed on the coattails of Charlie Chan played by Warner Oland both made at Fox.

Mr Moto didn't replace Charlie Chan at Fox. Fox carried on making Charlie Chan films with Sydney Toler for 5 years after Oland's death. The two film series ran concurrently for a year or so until Fox ditched them both, Mr Moto biting the dust in 1939 and the Fox Charlie Chan series in 1942. Toler later revived the character at Monogram.

[orpheum]

name='batman' timestamp='1286018718' post='479340']

Mr Moto didn't replace Charlie Chan at Fox. Fox carried on making Charlie Chan films with Sydney Toler for 5 years after Oland's death. The two film series ran concurrently for a year or so until Fox ditched them both, Mr Moto biting the dust in 1939 and the Fox Charlie Chan series in 1942. Toler later revived the character at Monogram.

ah so

[will.15]

Japaneses Motto was a popular series, but was a casualty of WWII, as they were on the wrong side. Fox seems to have made a conscious decision to dump all their B series in the early forties. Michael Shayne also was cancelled that year and the Cisco Kid expired a year earlier. I suspect the decision had something to do with the war and not because the Chans and the others were no longer popular.

[batman]

name='will.15' timestamp='1286020346' post='479349']

Michael Shayne also was cancelled that year ...

Michael Shayne is the best of the detective bunch IMHO, closely followed by The Falcon and Sherlock Holmes (Rathbone).

[Gerald Lovell]

name='Mr Pastry Time' timestamp='1285949846' post='479082']

Quite right.. Its one I have been chewing at the bit to get my hands on for many years along with other Lugosi fans I know of. Mines on order..

You shou;d've let me know you were after this! I've had a copy since 1983 when BBC2 showed all the original Saint films (bar The Saint's Girl Friday). Bela puffs many a cigar in this one.

[batman]

name='Gerald Lovell' timestamp='1286033267' post='479401']

BBC2 showed all the original Saint films (bar The Saint's Girl Friday).

Now there's a film that needs a proper release .... all the bootleg versions I've seen are very 'washed out'. It's interesting to compare Louis Hayward's performance in this to his almost psychotic portrayal of our hero in The Saint in New York nearly 20 years earlier .... in the second film he is more like Sir Rog's incarnation.

[didi-5]

Have The Saint in New York but have never seen The Saint's Good Friday: it would be great to see it get a proper release.



Good news about The Falcon and the other Saint film

[waldo_lydecker]

Wow! Didn't Tom Conway take over from Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes on US radio? I must get this DVD, it looks fascinating.

[Gerald Lovell]

name='waldo_lydecker' timestamp='1286055156' post='479464']

Wow! Didn't Tom Conway take over from Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes on US radio? I must get this DVD, it looks fascinating.

Tom Conway was certainly the "take over man". As well as taking over from his brother George Sanders in the Falcon film series, and Rathbone in the Holmes radio series, he took over from Vincent Price in the Saint radio series.

[Gerald Lovell]

name='batman' timestamp='1286041234' post='479418']

Now there's a film that needs a proper release .... all the bootleg versions I've seen are very 'washed out'. It's interesting to compare Louis Hayward's performance in this to his almost psychotic portrayal of our hero in The Saint in New York nearly 20 years earlier .... in the second film he is more like Sir Rog's incarnation.

My copy's not too bad: I recorded it offair from Grampian TV in 1986. Great cast - as well as Hayward, there's Naomi Chance, Sydney Tafler and Harold Lang, with Charles Victor as a great Inspector Teal and, of course, Diana Dors. William Russell is in it too under his real name of Russell Enoch and the uncredited cast includes Russell Napier, Sam Kydd, Ians Wilson and Fleming and Erik Chitty. A Hammer Film for RKO, the location filming is quite extensive.

[batman]

name='waldo_lydecker' timestamp='1286055156' post='479464']

I must get this DVD, it looks fascinating.

The Falcon series is great fun and Tom Conway is perfect in the role, even better than brother George IMHO.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxB-jZ5PNnU

[Gerald Lovell]

name='batman' timestamp='1286055747' post='479470']

The Falcon series is great fun and Tom Conway is perfect in the role, even better than brother George IMHO.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxB-jZ5PNnU

The Falcon in Mexico is one of my favourites in the series. Trivia: the music at the end of the trailer, used as the main title for the film, is "Negrita No Me Dejes" by Aaron Gonzáles, no less.

[waldo_lydecker]

name='Gerald Lovell' timestamp='1286055388' post='479466']

Tom Conway was certainly the "take over man". As well as taking over from his brother George Sanders in the Falcon film series, and Rathbone in the Holmes radio series, he took over from Vincent Price in the Saint radio series.

I didn't know that, thanks!

[will.15]

Most of the major studios that made B movies had pretty good production values. The big exception was Warner Brothers. There are still people who repeat the nonsense Casablanca was intended to be a B. If you ever saw a WB B, there is no way you would claim that. The confusion is people don't understand an A doesn't mean it was a top budget film, just that it wasn't produced to be a second feature. Except the running time is shorter, there is not much difference between an RKO Falcon and Murder My Sweet, a lower class A, in terms of production values.