El halcón galante

This 60-minute programmer shows just how efficient and entertaining Hollywood's little films could be during its so-called Golden Age. It's the first of the Falcon series, at a time when amateur sleuths (Boston Blackie, The Saint, et al.) were popular movie fare. Here, the great George Sanders plays Gay Lawrence aka "the Falcon", and an imposing presence he is both physically and intellectually. No wonder the ladies line up. So what's going on at old lady Gardner's swanky parties where expensive jewels seem to disappear as part of the festivities. And guess who is intrigued enough to get on the case. Then too, he's got help from an array of lively supporting players.

I love these 40's films where the women's styles are fancy and eye-catching, like the hats that sometimes resemble alien life forms and the dresses that hike up when they sit. No wonder Lawrence is often distracted. He's got two lovelies, Vale and Barrie, giving him the eye, and maybe more if he'd just slow down a bit. The plot doesn't really matter, convoluted as it is. Instead there's enough character color, snappy dialog, and lively pacing to more than compensate. However, put the writers ahead 60-years to our time. What would they think of having macho Sanders utter their innocent line, "Just call me Gay". Sometimes, I guess, changes over time are not always for the better.