George Sanders hands the reigns of the Falcon over to his brother Tom Conway in this fourth entry in the RKO series. This one has Tom Lawrence (Conway) stepping in for his brother who's been temporarily put of commission. Tom investigates and eventually uncovers a Nazi assassination plot. In a dark turn, Gay Lawrence (Sanders) is killed off in the end to make way for his brother to take over as the Falcon.For most of the movie, George Sanders is sidelined. But when he is on screen, at the beginning and near the end, he's enjoyable as usual. It's too bad because the little we see him with his brother shows a lot of promise. Wish we could have gotten at least one full movie of the two teaming up and bantering. I imagine it was a big deal at the time to kill off a series' star instead of just replacing him with little or no explanation. So kudos to RKO for going ahead with it. For his part, Tom Conway is a perfect replacement for Sanders. I wouldn't say he's as good but he's as good as anyone can be filling such big shoes.Some other changes in this one aren't so great. Gone are two superb character actors, Allen Jenkins and James Gleason. Jenkins played Gay's sidekick Goldie in the previous films and Gleason played Inspector O'Hara. Here we get new sidekick Lefty, played by Don Barclay, and new copper Inspector Donovan, played by Cliff Clark. The latter would stick with the series while the former would make his sole appearance here. Which is for the best, as Lefty is the Curly Joe to Goldie's Curly. This marks the first of two Falcon appearances for Jane Randolph as a feisty reporter. Keye Luke is also fun as Tom Lawrence's...ugh..."houseboy." I promise he's treated with some respect.This is a nice start to the Conway Falcon series, which would go much longer than the brief Sanders run. We could debate all day about who is the better Falcon but, for me, Conway is simply following his brother's template. He did that for most of his career, I think, but he did it well so I can't complain. If you've enjoyed the series up to this point, I doubt you won't like this one or the films that follow with the new direction.

George Sanders leaves the series and his brother in real life as well as the series, Tom Conway takes over the series as the international man of mystery known as the Falcon.At first it doesn't look like anyone's taking over anything as Sanders identifies a body that he says is his brother Tom. But that's just to give him investigating room to find out what his brother Tom has himself involved in.We meet Conway soon enough and he's hot on the trail of some Nazi agents who are operating out of a fashion magazine. Like Communists later on, those Nazis get involved everywhere. They've even got spies in the police department, heaven forfend. What these Nazis got cooked up is an assassination plot for a Latin American minister. Remember all Latin American countries with the exception of Argentina had declared war on the Axis powers. Hitler boasted he could take South America with a telephone call. This movie shows that he was doing a bit more than chatting on Ma Bell's lines.As is well known to fans of the series Sanders dies foiling the plot and Conway takes over the series with the same elegant touch that Sanders brought to the role. Other than that The Falcon's Brother is an average entry in the series.

This is the fourth of the Falcon films, in which both George Sanders and his real life brother Tom Conway appear. It was the occasion for the handover of the role. Sanders and Conway have many scenes together, and vie to out-do each other in suaveness and urbanity, and it is a tie. Then Sanders is knocked unconscious and spends much of the film in bed, which he doubtless found restful. At the end, Sanders sacrifices his life in the struggle against Nazism (it is after all 1942 and the plot deals with German agents) and presto, Tom Conway is and for the remaining series of films will be the Falcon. This film has a higher budget than the preceding ones (there is even a ship), the plot is complicated, it is all more solid and convincing. In fact, it is a very entertaining tale. Keye Luke has now become the falcon's butler, adding his own charm and wit to the team, and doing amusing impersonations of pidgin English (he was Chinese) when he wants to put off 'dames' who phone too often. The falcon's sidekick is now played by Don Barclay, which like the addition of Keye Luke is a great improvement. This film was edited by Mark Robson, later to be a famous director, and the improved editing shows. However, because the screenwriters have changed, all the great gags and one-liners have disappeared, there is no more crackling dialogue, and the Falcon series is no longer a laugh a minute.

This is the most Famous Falcon Film, the one where one brother gets fed up with the title role so the other brother steps in and continues the series for another 4 years. George Sanders was nearly always good in these kind of roles but personally I always preferred Tom Conway, maybe he just looked more comfortable in B pictures. I also preferred as sidekick Allen Jenkins as Goldie to Don Barclay as Lefty. The film quality isn't very good at this distance, sometimes it's so jumpy and grainy the continuity and the acting resemble Monogram more than RKO - are all extant copies from '50's TV dupes?Basically Gay Lawrence is after the people who murdered someone supposed to be his brother Tom, for a while both are on the case before Gay becomes hors de combat. Tom has to do the detective work himself for most of the film. The patter between the Inspector played by Cliff Clark and flatfoot Ed Gargan is repetitive but entertaining - "I'm boss. You don't mind do you?", James Gleason was also good in the role previously. Jane Randolph as the nosey reporter who doesn't seem to do much reporting is decorative but apparently unappealing to the Falcon: the solving of the crimes are everything. Not so vice versa - the Falcon would continue as a lady-killer of seismic proportions!All in all a most enjoyable 1940's murder mystery B film, but nothing really extraordinary in a most enjoyable series of 13 up to 1946.