The Falcon movies are generally really entertaining rip-offs of other films - one is even a remake of a Chandler movie, others channel The Thin Man ...this one clearly owes much to Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940), but is none the worse for that. Oddly, for a production company famous (or infamous) for their cheap standards , this film has some really excellent settings, including the atmospheric , almost gothic girls' school and the climactic scenes on the cliffs. George Sanders' brother,Tom Conway , is always convincing and charming as the debonair investigator (very much in The Saint mould , the first story published in 1928 and the first film in 1938) who every woman falls in love with. There are some very 1940s attitudes to young girls here - including a spanking - and some may find these inappropriate...but they are a reflection of a very patriarchal time. Even so, there are some strong women in the film and they come across very effectively. There are some great themes here: obsession, madness, guilt, greed and (of course) dark secrets, and the Falcon wraps up the mystery very nicely. The film is great fun and thoroughly recommended - and seriously overlooked.
Review of The Falcon and the Co-eds
