A Date with the Falcon

Scientist Waldo Sampson has discovered how to manufacture cheap synthetic diamonds that are nearly identical to the real thing. When Sampson disappears, Police Inspector Mike O'Hara turns to Gay Lawrence (aka "the Falcon") for help. Lawrence is about to fly off with his long-suffering fiancee Helen and turns down O'Hara. Jewel thief Rita Mara is part of the gang who abducted Sampson for his formula. She tries to recruit the Falcon, and when he declines he is taken at gunpoint. He escapes, tracks Waldo Sampson to a hotel and breaks into his room where he finds Waldo's twin brother Herman dead. The police arrive and assume that it is Waldo. To find Waldo, the Falcon allows himself to be abducted again, this time with his sidekick, Jonathan "Goldy" Locke, following. He is taken to a warehouse where Rita's accomplice Max is holding Waldo Sampson. Max and his henchman Dutch go to meet Meyer, a buyer for the formula, leaving Rita and henchman Needles with Waldo and the Falcon. Having been alerted by Goldy, the police arrive, and the Falcon slips away with Rita. She now believes Max plans to double-cross her, and that the Falcon has thrown in with her. Rita and the Falcon interrupt the meeting between Max and Meyer. Rita shoots Max, Dutch escapes, the Falcon phones the police, Meyer knocks out the Falcon. Rita and Meyer discover that Max doesn't have the formula so they go after Dutch. O'Hara arrives and arrests the Falcon for the murder of Max. At headquarters, Detective Bates brings in Rita, Dutch, Needles and Meyer, and the Falcon is exonerated. O'Hara is about to remove his handcuffs, but Helen wants them left on. She leads him away and they finally catch their plane. ==Cast==

• George Sanders as Gay Lawrence, The Falcon • Wendy Barrie as Helen Reed • Allen Jenkins as Jonathan "Goldy" Locke • James Gleason as Detective Inspector O’Hara • Mona Maris as Rita Mara • Edward Gargan as Detective Bates (uncredited) • Alec Craig as Waldo Sampson / Herman Sampson (uncredited) • Hans Conreid as Hotel clerk (uncredited) • Victor Kilian as Max Carlson (uncredited) • Frank Moran as Dutch (uncredited) • Earle Ross as Adolph Meyer (uncredited) • Paul Newlan as Policeman at Federal Hotel (uncredited) • Russ Clark as Needles (uncredited) • Eddie Dunn as Grimes (uncredited) • Frank Martinelli as Louie (uncredited) • Jack Carr as Taxi driver (uncredited) • Eddie Borden as Taxi driver (uncredited) • Roxanne Barkley as Jill (uncredited) • Eddie Arden as Bellhop (uncredited) ==Production==

It was called The Gay Falcon Steps In. Filming started 1 August 1941. In A Date with the Falcon, the Falcon is engaged to Helen Reed, but leading lady Wendy Barrie would never appear in future sequels. RKO had been trading on the British actress's notoriety as the girlfriend of gangster Bugsy Siegel, but did not have a continuing role for her in mind. A Date with the Falcon would be the first of many sequels that featured other actresses in leading roles. The series also became a breeding ground for other talented studio contractees including director Edward Dmytryk and actors Barbara Hale and Jane Greer. The Falcon series has been characterised as part of a new genre—film noir. ==Reception==

In his review of A Date with the Falcon, Bosley Crowther wrote in The New York Times that a pattern existed in the Falcon series:"... the pattern. Mr. Sanders, an idle man of the world, is just about to be married—this time to Wendy Barrie—when a mystifying crisis arises—this time the disappearance of a scientist. Obviously Mr. Sanders doesn't care to enter the case; he never does—or never did, perhaps we should say. But duty and the lure of adventure inevitably drag him in. And so, for fifty or sixty minutes, he is off on a serio-comic chase, sleuthing a gang of murderous smugglers, while his girl and the police act bored and dense." ==References==