The Gay Falcon

George Sanders is Gay Laurence aka The Falcon, whose hobbies are women and solving crimes. Unfortunately, his high society fiancée Elinor Benford (Anne Hunter aka Nina Vale) is tired of these antics, so she’s given him three months to make it in his new, more respectable, chosen profession as a broker. Allen Jenkins plays the Falcon’s wisecracking sidekick, Jonathan G. ‘Goldie’ Locke. However, a beautiful girl named Helen Reed (Wendy Barrie), who’s also a big fan of the Falcon’s (she’s read about his exploits), comes to Gay with a new case. Helen is a personal secretary for Maxine Wood (Gladys Cooper), who hosts society parties attended by wealthy persons, but some of the ladies have been robbed of their jewelry. Since Gay had been asked by Elinor to attend the next such party, he goes with her, but Helen quickly descends upon them and his fiancée learns that he is still looking at other women and working on mysteries. Elinor decides to dance with Manuel Retana (Turhan Bey). Meanwhile, Helen introduces Gay to Mrs. Vera Gardner (Lucile Gleason), who slips him her diamond ring while they’re dancing. He doesn’t fully understand why she’s done this until later.

Goldie couldn’t afford the $100 ticket to attend the party, so he decides to crash it by climbing the fire escape. A shot rings out and Goldie witnesses a man, later identified as Noel Weber (Damian O’Flynn), leaving the apartment where a dead Mrs. Gardner is discovered. Two police detectives at the party, Bates (Edward Brophy, who would later play the Falcon’s sidekick) and Grimes (Eddie Dunn), arrest Goldie for her murder. Gay goes to the police station to convince Inspector Mike Waldeck (Arthur Shields) to release Goldie, if for no other reason than to force the criminals to try to eliminate him as a witness. The Inspector, who’s evidently gotten a lot of free help from Gay in the past, claims the idea as his own and allows Goldie to leave, with a couple of men to follow him, as soon as he gives a description of the man he’d seen to a sketch artist (Hans Conried, uncredited). Goldie then perfectly describes Inspector Waldeck! Of course, Helen (now unofficially part of “the team”) is able to quickly lose the police tail by driving fast and turning down an alleyway to hide. But later, while Helen introduces Gay to Maxine, Goldie is “snatched” by Noel, who wants the diamond but is then shot through his apartment’s window by an unknown person. Goldie is again arrested by the police for being in the same room as a dead body. —Classicfilmguide.com