The Falcon's Brother

Birds Of A Feather

The Falcon's Brother
USA 1942
Directed by Stanley Logan
RKO/Warner Archive
DVD Region 1

Warning: Big spoilers!

Even though I remembered almost nothing about The Falcon's Brother (it turns out), this one made a bit of an impression of me when I first saw it on television on BBC 2 in my early teens, back in the early 1980s. Apparently it made a big impression on the box office figures too, ensuring the series of Falcon movies, based on the character by Michael Arlen, would continue to run for a while. I’ve been trying to find a trailer online for this movie to see if the audiences had any inkling of what was going to hit them in this one but I couldn’t find anything. However, I’m pretty sure that they probably didn’t see this one coming when it came out the gate running.

So the film starts off with George Sanders in his, by now, established role as Gay Lawrence, aka The Falcon. But that’s almost the only thing which has stuck from the previous three films. Everything is different. For starters, he has a new sidekick in this one. Filling in for the previous guy, we have Don Barclay as Lefty, a very short guy but basically he’s the same character in tone and dialogue as Goldy from the previous films. He also has the legendary Keye Luke as his housekeeper, who does a nice bit where, if anyone calls who he thinks The Falcon doesn’t want to talk to, he switches into ‘velly solly’ pigeon English before, once the phone is hung up, switching back to fluent English American. There’s even a nice, oblique reference in the script to his ‘number one son’ status in the Charlie Chan films.

Second big change is, The Falcon has no fiance in this one. Wendy Barrie is nowhere in sight and is not mentioned. There’s absolutely no girlfriend in this at all although, somehow, the fashion reporter in this, played by Jane Randolph, is still serving as the person who is jealous of the main character’s flirtations with the opposite sex. Except, well, after 20 mins or so, The Falcon is not the main protagonist of the movie.

Thirdly, although Edward Gargan is still in place as the Chief Inspector’s sidekick, the inspector is a different character and actor... Cliff Clark as Inspector Donovan. That being said, he serves exactly the same purpose as the previous Inspector from the first three movies and the two characters even have the same pattern of dialogue exchanges, where Clark will give an order, Gargan will question it and then Clark will remind him he’s the Inspector.

Fourthly, the film is no longer under the musical helm of Paul Sawtell like the previous three but, instead, it’s Roy Webb on scoring duties (who had provided music for some of The Saint movies and also, of course, Cat People... in which Tom Conway has a role... more from Conway in a minute).

And this film covers a lot of bases for what is the 1942 equivalent of a ‘pass the torch’ movie at just a few minutes over an hour long. The film starts off with George Sanders meeting his brother on a ship which has just arrived in town. Except, when he arrives the police are already investigating the apparent suicide of his brother. Spoiler warning... it’s a) not a suicide and b) not actually The Falcon’s brother Tom Lawrence, although Gay Lawrence does nothing to contradict the notion of the police that the corpse is his relation.

Then, a little later while investigating the incident himself, he becomes embroiled in more murder and, just when he meets his brother, played by George Sander’s real life brother Tom Conway, he gets run over by a car and effectively rendered unconscious for most of the rest of the film. Sanders is excellent in this and spends the first 20 minutes or so chasing after women while attempting to solve the crime in the most comical manner possible. However, once unconscious it’s up to his brother Tom (the name of his real brother and, of course, the name of his character’s brother) to pick up where he left off and solve the plot.

This is 1942 and there are a few reminders of the recent US intervention into the Second World War. There’s a comical ‘fake black out’ scene during the start, as Lefty tries to help Gay escape from being discovered by the police and then, when Tom Lawrence continues the investigation with Lefty himself, the whole thing becomes about a fashion photographer who is using the covers of a fashion magazine to send coded messages to nazi agents in the US, with the prime example being the discovery of a cover which ties into the attack on Pearl Harbour.

Okay, so this is where The Falcon's Brother picks up some bizarre synergy (as if the lead character’s brother being played by the actor’s real brother wasn’t enough). Gay Lawrence finally regains consciousness and joins in with the mystery about ten minutes before the end of the movie. While Tom is tied up by the nazi’s, he manages to ring the bell in the church tower from which a sniper is waiting to kill a very important political figure. Gay, alerted by the bell, figures out the warning and rushes to throw the VIP out of the path of the bullet... only to be killed by the sniper’s shot in his stead. So, yeah, the main hero of The Falcon movies was shot dead just before the end of the film because, frankly, George Sanders had already got tired of the role so he got his brother involved instead. Conway is good in this but, understandably, isn’t as polished as a lead in this one, sharing screen time with his brother.

Now, you might think that this would be the end of The Falcon series but, due to a scene at the end where the nazis warn Tom Lawrence to get out of town or the same thing which happened to his brother will happen to him... Lawrence decides to stay and become the new version of... you guessed it, The Falcon. And quite successfully too, as it turns out, because he would play that role for the final nine films in the series. Which I’ll hopefully get to very soon. If you keep reading, I’ll keep watching.

The Sky Dragon

Cabin Clue

The Sky Dragon
USA 1949 Directed by Lesley Selander
Monogram (via Warner Archive) DVD Region 1 

I don’t think it was deliberate but, for one reason or another, The Sky Dragon was the last of the 47 Charlie Chan talkies made between 1929 and 1947. This brought to an end what had been a ‘mostly’ profitable series of films, albeit via a law of diminishing returns as the series went through cheaper studios and shrinking budgets as it wore on. Original number one son Lee Chan, as played by Keye Luke, is back as the only one of the Chan offspring present, playing opposite Roland Winters in his last go at the honourable Hawaiian detective. Luke had returned a few films previously and, while he was once the juvenile comic relief, putting him back in here in that spirit maybe made a bit less sense because he and his on screen father Winters, were both the same age.

Also back, of course, is the later series regular Mantan Moreland, continuing his wisecracking, perpetually fearful chauffer routine as Birmingham Brown although, it has to be said, the only decent scenes he gets in this are opposite Lousie Franklin, who plays the maid of one of the murder suspects in this film.

There’s also, much to my delight, the inclusion of actress Noel Neil in the proceedings. Noel Neill was, as you no doubt know... the original Lois Lane, first starring in that role opposite the very first cinematic Superman Kirk Alyn in the theatrical serials Superman (1948) and Superman Vs Atom Man (1950). This was one of a few movies she made in between those two serials. Of course, she also went on to reprise her role as Lois Lane opposite George Reeves in the 1950s TV show The Adventures of Superman from the second series onwards (Phyllis Coates left the role after her first season). She later turned up in a “blink and you’ll miss it” cameo as Lois Lane’s mother in one of the extended cuts of the 1978 motion picture Superman The Movie (again opposite Kirk Alyn, playing Lois' dad) and later performed as an old, dying woman ripped off by Kevin Spacey’s Lex Luthor in the opening of the 2006 movie Superman Returns. I think she also got some ‘Super’ TV cameos under her belt as well (before her death last year at the age of 95).

Alas, Noel is wasted in this movie as she doesn’t have much to do except provide a friendly female face and provide Charlie Chan with helpful information to clear her fiance of the murder charge when the occasion arises but... it was nice to see her here again, for sure.

This film starts off in an airplane as a man is murdered for the half a million dollars he is carrying while the rest of the crew and passengers are drugged, unconscious. These passengers include Charlie Chan and his number one son who then set about the rest of the movie trying to find the identity of the killer and, as usual, try to find the truth of the matter while the police jump at every opportunity to convict an innocent person of the crime. The police never really came off that well in these films, to be fair.

This is not the best of the Chan films I’ve seen, in all honesty, but it is pretty fast moving for it’s ‘just over an hour’ B-movie running time. The trail of the mystery is kept lively by a bunch of murders, incidents, tussles with possible suspects and Lee Chan pulling a wedding director from a fire after his garage has been set ablaze... with him in it... in an effort to destroy some camera negatives which will reveal the all too obvious, to this viewer at any rate, identity of someone in the film.

However, while the pacing is quite tight, I can’t say I was really all that impressed with the film and nothing much really stood out other than the occasional, expected, Charlie Chan aphorism which are peppered throughout the short running time with, it seemed to me, just a little less joy than they have been in some of the previous films. I liked the idea of the murder and theft taking place on the plane but would have really loved it if the entire movie had taken place in that plane with Charlie solving the crime before the plane lands and it would have given the perpetually cash strapped Monogram Pictures a cheaper budget, too, I would suspect... having to shoot on only one set. However, after the first quarter of an hour the action moves out of the plane and I suppose it’s easier to keep the pacing up when your characters can go from incident to incident as the story progresses. Monogram had been going since 1924 but released their last movies in 1952, so things must have been really tight by this point.

It would have been nice to see the series continue on after The Sky Dragon, although there was still a little life in the character after these films had come to an end. For me, those early days of Warner Oland playing Charlie opposite Keye Luke as a much more youthful “number one son” are still my favourites... but I honestly don’t mind Sydney Toler and Roland Winter’s takes on the character and I will probably be rewatching these movies over and over until I die (which hopefully won’t be very soon). Take this movie for what it is, a mildly entertaining entry into a great series of classic Hollywood detective yarns. And...  just by way of a heads up... although it’s the last in that series of Charlie Chan films, I’m not planning on making this my last review of a Charlie Chan movie. Watch this space.

The Feathered Serpent

Chan Clan Phooey

The Feathered Serpent
USA 1948 Directed by William Beaudine
Monogram/Warner Bros DVD Region 1

So here we have The Feathered Serpent, the penultimate of the six films where Roland Winters played Charlie Chan and, although it’s not an especially entertaining edition of the exploits of the world’s most famous Chinese American detective, it is one which is quite unique in the history of the series. It’s the only one of the original run of films which spanned nearly two decades and various companies to feature two of Charlie Chan’s sons in the same film, together. Namely Number Two son, played by Victor Sen Yung and, after a very long absence, Keye Luke as Number One Son.

Now Keye Luke was an artist who used to paint posters for various movies until he shot to fame in the original US run of Charlie Chan films opposite Warner Oland, my favourite Chan man, in the title role. I always remember him from watching the Charlie Chan films as a kid where he used to run in on a scene, usually thinking he’d solved the mystery and yelling something along the lines of “Gee, pop!” When Oland died unexpectedly, Luke had already shot some scenes for the next movie and these were transplanted, with new scenes added, when the Charlie Chan film was hastily rewritten and turned into one of the Mr. Moto films with Peter Lorre. The 1938 film Mr. Moto’s Gamble, to be precise, which I reviewed here. After the films were recast with Sydney Toler, Luke declined to continue in the series and so number two and three sons replaced him, on and off, for the majority of the Toler films. But, one decade later, Keye Luke was back in the series, opposite Roland Winters... regardless of the fact that he was slightly older than the man playing his father at this time (many years later, Luke would go on to voice Chan himself in the Charlie Chan cartoon show).

Now, with Mantan Moreland continuing in his role as the Chan family chauffer Birmingham Brown, you might think, with the three of them, that there are now way too many sidekicks for a Chan film to comfortably handle and, to tell the truth, you’d be right. How many 'on screen dummies' do you need to explain things to under the banner of audience exposition? I might be a little harsh on the idea, actually, because the writing on this one isn’t that great, even though it’s a remake of a former 1937 Western, The Riders of the Whistling Skull.

Roland Winters seems a little too laid back in this one, it seems to me and... I have to wonder what he thought of Keye Luke returning to the role. It’s a bit of a puzzler because I’m presuming they really went to town ageing Winters on this one in some subtle way because, as I indicated above, Keye Luke who is seen playing his offspring is, actually, five months his senior. Something only Hollywood could be bold and stupid enough to get away with.

This one isn’t so much a mystery story, since the villain behind the plot of this tale of a doomed archeological expedition reveals himself fairly early on in the proceedings. The set up is such that, with Chan and his team on vacation in Mexico, they find themselves suddenly embroiled in a plot when the man they rescue from the roadside turns out to be one of two missing scientists that another expedition are trying so hard to find. That means it’s up to Chan to help them find the scientist in question and also find the hidden Aztec lair full of buried treasure. So, yeah, the usual stuff but the execution of it here leaves a lot to be desired, I think.

There’s lots to groan about in this one, too. When the lights go out in a house at night and the first murder is committed under cover of darkness, it only takes the lighting of one single candle to suddenly plunge the set back into a fully lit shot set up. Oh dear.... still, Monogram were not known for being particularly brilliant film studios, that’s for sure. These Monogram films had a much smaller budget than the 20th Century Fox produced movies and, although some of the Monogram Chan films are excellent, the lack of production value really shows on this one.

Another groaner is when Chan and his sons, with Birmingham Brown tagging along, decide to join the expedition, Number One and Two sons immediately dress up in safari suits, along with obligatory pith helmets... this looks really silly. Actually, one of the great problems with this is the apparent lack of chemistry between Keye Luke and Victor Sen Yung. This would be Yung’s final Charlie Chan film... although he’d started back when Sydney Toler first took over from Warner Oland, with Benson Fong also playing number three son in the films where Yung wasn’t available. Now, I’m not sure if this lack of dynamic interaction between the two is a personality thing or whether it’s because they have just been given some terrible lines to work with here. What I do know for sure is that, once again, Mantan Moreland’s portrayal as comic relief Birmingham Brown is fantastic and he somehow manages to get the best lines, again, in this one. For example, when he wants to get out of a scary situation he says to one of them... “There’s somebody I’d like to see outside.” When he’s asked who, he answers “Me!”. Similarly, in another moment when he’s at a disagreement about staying where the trouble is, he reminds his boss... “Oh Mr. Chan, we’re on vacation. Why don’t we vacate?”

So yeah, Moreland and his quick fire dialogue really helps hold the movie together, for me, but ultimately, this one does fall kinda flat. There’s a nice mixture of moving camera and also static edits in and out of compositions but, at the end of the day, there’s just not enough going on here and it’s just not well written. Even the comedy moment which you can see coming a mile off, with Moreland sitting on a rock and accidentally activating the entrance to the hidden temple, is not milked the way it might once have been and it’s just a genuinely dull affair, for most of the short running time. The Feathered Serpent is not a Chan film I’d recommend anybody start on but, if you are a die hard fan of the series, the fact that he has two sons sharing the screen with him is certainly interesting. If you want to get excited about Charlie Chan, however, go back to the Warner Oland movies first, would be my advice.

Mr. Moto’s Gamble

Memento Moto

Mr. Moto’s

Gamble

1938 USA

Directed by

James Tinling

20th Century Fox

Region 1

Well that was an interesting little movie experience.

Courtesy of the numerically challenged 20th Century Fox, I cracked open the second of their two Mr. Moto boxed editions and began by watching this one, the third entry in the series. Yes, that’s right maths fans. Due to the what-the-fudge-are-you-smoking nature of the people who put together and marketed the two Mr. Moto Collections, Box 1 contains movies 1, 2, 4 and 5 (but not in that order, just to confuse you even more) and Box 2 contains 3, 6, 7 and 8 (again, not in that order). Fans of sequential numbering systems and chronological continuity had best avoid Fox box sets unless they want to wade into the research first, methinks.

Anyway... Mr. Moto’s Gamble, the third in the Japanese detective’s film series as played by Peter Lorre... is certainly the oddest of the Moto films I’ve seen so far and, I suspect, certainly the most “out of kilter” one I’ll see. Why? Well because it’s a Charlie Chan movie, that’s why! No really! It’s quite literally a Charlie Chan movie... here’s the story behind the movie as I understand it.

Warner Oland’s Chan Movies were making big money but Oland was drinking more and going through a messy divorce with his wife. He walked off set a couple of times on his new film Charlie Chan at the Ringside due to disputes with the studio over the condition of the working environment and only the best part of 3 days were in the can before the plug was pulled.

When it became clear that Oland wasn’t going to come back easily, Fox retooled it to be the third in their new Mr. Moto series. And by retool I do mean literally cross out a couple of names on the script and hand it back to everybody to carry on filming... there’s nothing like subtlety when rewriting a script - and this was nothing like subtlety. Filming resumed, the film was released to critical acclaim and good box office, Oland was wooed back to Fox and signed for three more Chan pictures but before starting work on them he went to spend time with his mother in Sweden and promptly died from Bronchial Pneumonia... enter Sidney Toler!

So what does that mean for Mr. Moto’s Gamble, as Charlie Chan at the Ringside quickly became?

Well, it meant quite a lot actually in terms of the tone of the film and, also, a character crossover from the Chan series. In the Moto films which came before and after this, and as I’ve noted in my reviews, Moto is nothing like the Charlie Chan character. He doesn’t do things according to the law, quite often killing a suspect to further the investigation of the truth in the most ruthless manner while “getting away with it” and often getting into quite physical Judo fights with any opponents stupid enough to take him on...

But not in this one. This one, while he does retain quite a bit of the mannerisms and character of the Moto we have known from before (Peter Lorre is too great an actor to let that kind of stuff slip) he is more Chan like in his detachment from the physical action... something Oland’s Chan usually left to Keye Luke, playing Lee Chan (Number One Son). A couple of Judo sequences have been hastily injected into this one but you can tell that these weren’t part of the original set up and they kind of hang about on the fringes of the movie and could easily be spliced in independently of the main narrative.

Another Chan characteristic is the amazing aphorisms that the Chan actors always delivered. Like I said, they just crossed out the Chan name in the script and wrote in Moto’s because on any number of occasions, Peter Lorre delivers, in his own style, a number of those little sayings that make Chan fans smile.

Thirdly, but by no means lastly, we have Keye Luke. Here we have a crossover movie created by the rewrite, because in this movie Keye Luke is in it and, yes, he is playing Charlie’s Number One Son Lee Chan... Moto promises to write to Lee’s illustrious father to cover for him coming to Moto’s detective lessons.

So yeah, the film plays out like a standard Charlie Chan film but this is a Chan film from the Oland era... and as such it is top notch.

There’s some great stuff shoehorned into this tale of murder at the boxing ring, including one of the most creative newspaper montages I’ve yet seen in one of these old black and whites. Instead of spinning or dissolving or wiping, in one sequence the newspaper front pages are cut into four horizontal strips. Four rectangles which are rotated to bring up the next newspaper edition on the next rectangular strip-face. Brilliant and creative stuff from when it was cheaper to do stuff in-camera.

Also, there are some amazing faces turning up in this one. It wasn’t long after I’d recognised that the thug/heavy standing in the background and occasionally saying a few words was a pre-fame Lon Chaney Jr, that I realised another major player in this movie was John Hamilton... who a decade or two later would be filling the shoes of Perry White opposite George Reeve’s in the hit TV show The Adventures of Superman. And then, if that wasn’t enough, you’ve got Ward Bond and Chan regular character actor Howard Huber playing this movies frustrated police inspector! Brilliant stuff. And then.... and then I recognised that John Hamilton’s employee was played by... oh, heck I don’t even know his name. But he was the financial clerk in the Bailey’s Buildings and Loan in It’s A Wonderful Life. What a great cast!

Mr. Moto’s Gamble is a great film, if not a great deal like a regular Mr. Moto film. Definitely one to watch if you’re a fan of either the Chan or Moto series though. It’s definitely entertaining in that way that only a pre-1940s, cynical but funny detective movie can be. Check this one out if you only ever want to watch one of them. Looking forward to watching the sixth in the series sometime next week!

Rack to the Future?

Phantom of Chinatown 1940 US

Directed by Phil Rosen

VCI Entertainment DVD Region 1

Wow. This one is really interesting!

Phantom of Chinatown is the last of the six Mr. Wong films and it is also the only one to feature Charlie Chan’s "Number One Son" Keye Luke in the role of Mr. Wong, taking over from Boris Karloff... and all I can say is... Blimey. I’ve always liked Keye Luke but he really brings something to the role whereas Karloff, also a brilliant actor, always looked as though he was just drifting in the general direction of his next paycheck in the previous films.

Now, as I said above, this one is an interesting Mr. Wong film, for many reasons... my first being that all the continuity flies straight out of the window because... well, get this...

Keye Luke is playing a much younger, obviously, version of the James Wong character... in fact he’s mostly referred to as Jimmy, presumably to catch that “hip” Lee Chan vibe. However, although stalwart Grant Withers continues to play his regular series character Captain Street, it soon becomes apparent that he and Mr. Wong have never met before (and it’s set in the same timeline so don’t go where you’re thinking). Which is just bizarre! If you’re looking to “reboot” the franchise, to put it in modern terms, then why the heck would you retain actors in a character role but give them no memory of previous adventures? How bizarre. It’s like rebooting the James Bond franchise and then having M played by the same actress who... oh, wait a minute... probably best to get off that subject then ;-)

Ok... so once the “out with the old and in with the new” effect has been collectively acclimatised to, we have a real humdinger of a movie... it’s admittedly not a fast paced affair (at least not for the first half of the movie) but it certainly has a good, well written (for the time) script... and while it ditches the screwball angle (Street’s wise cracking, thorn in his side, newspaper gal has been ditched again), it certainly has a more intelligent variety of dialogue than the previous movies and it’s also well performed dialogue at that... Luke and Withers have a remarkable chemistry and I’m really disappointed that this series didn’t continue after this entry.

Two amazing shots struck me when I watched it, both more or less at the same point in the movie. The second, and slightly lesser amazing shot because it’s purely me appreciating an aesthetic solution is when Mr. Wong is knocked unconscious. The old visual shorthand of shadows on the wall is being employed and Mr. Wong walks on with his shadow on the brick wall behind him... however, he then bends down and the shadow is still there... it then clumps him on the head since it’s REALLY the shadow of his attacker... this was a nice effect and took me by surprise.

But the OTHER amazing thing really had me bouncing up and down in my chair... it’s just before that last shot happens... indeed it might even have been part of the same shot. The brick wall in question is the wall of a house... a window is visible to the right of the screen, Captain Street can be seen from us inside the house in deep focus and then Wong walks on, left of shot. At which point the focus of the camera is deliberately shifted to blur out Captain Street and focus on Wong... and there you have it... the first example of “rack focusing” I have ever seen in a movie this early. It’s 1940 people! According to the source of all knowledge... oh, alright then, wikipedia... director Richard Rush claims that he and cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs invented the “rack focusing” shot in 1968. Now this is interesting (isn’t it?) because I don’t ever remember seeing a rack focus shot in any film earlier than the late 60s until I watched this Mr. Wong film this morning. Who do I report this to? Does anybody care about this? Credit where credit’s due... the cinematographer on this Wong movie was one Fred Jackman Jr and I reckon him or the director may well have invented the rack focusing technique all those years ago... just didn’t make a fuss about it and carried on as normal. I may well be wrong on this one and if you know of any earlier films in which this was the case then PLEASE let me know about it. Think I might be onto something here.

Anyway... despite its reputation as being the least watchable Mr. Wong film (in the small audience this film series has) I have to say that I found it to be the most interesting one of the series. Such a pity that Monogram didn’t carry on with the character after this but... hey... what an ending to the series. My favourite one!