Wednesday, September 18, 2013

The Falcon and the Coeds (1943)

The Falcon series of detective/adventure movies are a real treasure. George Sanders began the series in a natural progression from his "The Saint" movies. Tom Conway, his real-life brother, took over in the role eventually. Conway stars in this movie.

A young lady at a girls' school (Amelita Ward) phones Conway to meet her. A professor at the school has been killed. She also called the police, and they show up at Conway's apartment just in time to see the girl drive off. Conway gets a cab, and on the way they pass Rita Corday, who everyone says is psychic. He father was a famous composer who committed suicide. When he arrives at the school, George Givot is lecturing. (Givot was the voice of Tony in Lady and the Tramp.) Conway poses as another professor, and is asked to lecture, which he does in a bunch of meaningless babble. Later he explains to the school headmistress that he is a detective sent to investigate the death of Professor Jameson, which had been predicted by Corday. In the slain professor's room, they find Isabel Jewell hiding.

Conway goes to a rehearsal of the school play to talk to the Ward, where he meets the instructor, Jean Brooks. At the rehearsal, Brooks rebukes Corday because she does not want to fence in the scene, fearing harm. Conway follows Brooks to town, where she goes to the undertaker, whom Conway discovers that the professor died of an overdose of codeine. Conway drives Brooks to a steep cliff that overlooked the ocean. She tells him that Jameson loved her, and committed suicide because of it, but Conway still is dubious. Givot, who signed the death certificate, said that it was not listed as suicide to avoid scandal. Inspector Cliff Clark and his assistant, Edward Gargan, are on hand investigating. Conway tells them it is murder, and he will give them the killer if they will be patient.

Outside the performance that night, Corday finds the body of the headmistress. Brooks finds a fencing sword in the bushes. (As always, Clark does a really good job as the gruff Inspector.) Conway goes to the professor's cottage where he finds Corday listening to a recording of her father playing one of his compositions. She thinks her father was insane, and fears it for herself. Conway discovers that Brooks met Givot on a summer cruise and fell in love with him. Then Clark finds that the headmistress' will left everything to Brooks. He suspects her and Givot, but Conway says otherwise. It surfaces that Jewell had married Givot in order for him to enter the country, and could not stand seeing him with Brooks. Corday had seen Jewell kill the headmistress, and so she tries to make her think she is insane, and commit suicide like her father supposedly did. But the Falcon arrives in time and all ends well.



Amelita Ward
Ward

Tom Conway
Conway

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