I've seen two of these this week, both from the same era and both assuming that some evil person can have hypnotic control over an innocent. Most of these are not worthy of comment, but in this case, the innocent is someone special.She is the daughter of a famous pianist, someone with passion so intense, it leaves the body and creates an empty husk unable to cope with the world. I know who the pattern for this is. This is a pianist that settles my soul with his abandon. I actually had the opportunity to spend time with his daughter, and she is nothing like the lovely fiction here portrayed.She is cursed with the soul of her father without his talent. A passion not allowed to disperse, someone who cooks. This is the woman that many of us may fall in love with. Because of this gift, she is suspected of being psychic, strange, vacantly alluring and (because of the era) hypnotically suggestible. There is a play within this that is the cause of a murder and which involves this girl. It is clumsily done, but the idea is so sweet that if you are susceptible, you could believe it.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

Falcon and the Co-eds, The (1944) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Standard film has The Falcon (Tom Conway) investigating the murder of a teacher at an all girl's school. This series has been what you'd call "B-movies" but every once in a while a B movie will try and be something it's not and that's the problem here. This film tries very hard to be smarter than it actually is and the screenplay goes in about twenty different directions but none of them are very interesting. The film gets off to a slugish start and never really recovers, although there are a few good moments including three little girls who try and help The Falcon. The supporting cast is mostly forgettable and even Conway isn't his energetic self, which is never good for the lead in one of these types of films. As with the previous film, there's no sidekick this time out so the film struggles to get any laughs.

Tom Conway is The Falcon in "The Falcon and the Co-eds," a 1943 addition to the serial that also featured several recognizable actresses who appeared in B movies - Rita Corday, Isabel Jewell and Jean Brooks. Dorothy Malone is a co-ed and is uncredited.After a young woman appeals to Tom Lawrence (The Falcon) for help at her school, Bluecliff, where one suspicious death has taken place and a psychic student has predicted another one, she steals Tom's car to get him out to the school. Once there, he meets an interesting group of people, some of whom have secrets and others who act suspiciously. As foretold, another murder takes place, and it's up to The Falcon to sort things out. He usually does so before the police.This is a pretty good mystery with some obvious stealing from the film "Rebecca," particularly the monologue about the sea that came right out of Danvers' mouth - and for the same purpose as here. There is also an overabundance of establishing shots of the sea and its high waves. However, it's still an enjoyable film. Tom Lawrence is without an annoying fiancée, instead being followed around by three young women, the Ughs, who help him out as well as sing. Frankly, I prefer them.Conway isn't as smooth and debonair as his brother, George Sanders, but like his brother he has a beautiful speaking voice, is an attractive man, and flirts like crazy. His Falcon is more straightforward, and he's very likable. This is a very good series that always gives the viewer a relaxing hour-plus of watching.

This is the seventh of the Falcon films, and apart from a single line of dialogue by Tom Conway: 'I think more clearly with a tall glass in my hand', there is no witty dialogue at all. The film is very amusing, but no longer because of wisecracks, instead the humour has become entirely situational. The film is what could be called a 'comedy thriller'. The Falcon series has now changed completely, and the last vestiges of true film noir atmosphere have vanished from it like the mist. The setting is a girls' college, and like all films of that time, all the students are several years older than the parts they play. (Watch out for an uncredited early appearance as a co-ed by Dorothy Malone, later a B star.) The only really cute kids in the film play the three daughters of a faculty member: they sing brilliantly and have all the charm and sense of fun of the children that they are. Everybody else is much too old, including Tom Conway in this situation. However, the film is genuinely fun and the plot is an intriguing thriller tale with unusual twists. There are some good scenes on the edges of cliffs, hints of hypnotic suggestion, psychological undertones, a girl who foresees the future and may or may not be insane, all 'jolly good stuff' and a superior B movie. A good time was indeed had by all, even by Jean Brooks, who specialises in looking grim and dangerous while at the same time holding out the occasional reluctant smile as both a threat and an inducement to those who either suspect her or are attracted by her. Her work as a B movie villainess or alluring suspect has never been sufficiently appreciated.