How sad is this?

As Good As It Gets

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

After two entries in the Falcon series where the setting was distracting, they finally get one right. As you might have guessed from the title, the Falcon goes to Hollywood here. They make great use of the RKO backlot and all the behind-the-scenes movie stuff is fun. The supporting cast is full of familiar faces like Sheldon Leonard, Robert Clarke, Emory Parnell, Frank Jenks, Konstantin Shayne, and John Abbott. The obligatory pretty women include Veda Ann Borg, Barbara Hale, Rita Corday, and Jean Brooks. Those last three have appeared in this series before. Tom Conway is as charming as ever and has some great banter with Veda Ann Borg, who plays a cabby anxious to help the Falcon investigate. It's a very entertaining picture, with lots of comedy and a good mystery. And, as I mentioned, the Hollywood stuff is a plus.

The Falcon films, both with George Sanders and Tom Conway in the lead role, are on the most part very enjoyable. There are some very good ones like the first two Sanders Falcon films and 'The Falcon Strikes Back', though also a few disappointments like 'The Falcon in Danger' and 'The Falcon in Mexico'.On the most part, 'The Falcon in Hollywood' is very entertaining and one of Conway's better overall Falcon films. Certainly a big improvement over the previous two Falcon films 'Out West' and 'Mexico', both lesser efforts. Not everything works, Cliff Clark and Edward Gargan are missed and while Emory Powell and Frank Jenks are serviceable enough their characters don't have as much impact and their comedy not as interesting.As a result of having so many people bumped off, it is not hard to figure out very quickly who the perpetrator is, who admittedly I suspected early on. The ending is a little rushed too to a lesser extent, and the start of the film is a tad routine and pedestrian.However, a lot also does work. The music is lively and haunting enough, and on the most part the production values are slick and atmospheric with particularly nicely done photography. A new director is on board here and there is a very obvious and much-needed energy injected. Further advantages are a very playful script with dialogue that crackles with wit and a mostly absorbing story that is never less than bright, breezy and fun with some suspense and great twists and turns.Conway gives one of his best performances of the series, performing with suavity and a lot of witty energy. Barbara Hale and Rita Corday are alluring and charming, while brassy and sassy Veda Ann Borg really does liven things up.In conclusion, very entertaining if flawed and one of the better Conway Falcon films and amongst the top half of the series overall as well. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Tom Conway was one of those natural actors, like Bob Mitchum or Dean Martin, who could stroll through the most low-budget and sometimes unworthy movies without losing his aplomb. Of Conway's Falcon movies this is certainly one of the better ones, but its claim to fame is not another smooth performance from its star but rather the twist at the end. If you don't want to hear it, read no further. I repeat: Stop reading this review. Okay, for the rest of you, let me just say this: Mel Brooks must have seen "The Falcon in Hollywood" before he wrote "The Producers." The big difference is that the Falcon (and the viewer) don't tumble to the shady accountancy until the end, which explains why the investors were killed off.

This is the tenth of the Falcon series, starring Tom Conway who took the role over from his brother, George Sanders. Both men are debonair and have similar speaking voices, but I've always found Sanders the smoother of the two and enjoyed his Falcon more.In this one, the Falcon goes on vacation in Hollywood and gets embroiled in a murder in a movie studio. Veda Ann Borg is the Falcon's self-assigned partner and is one of those stereotypical, wise-cracking '40s dames. She livens things up, though. Barbara Hale, who later became the Della Street of my youth, plays an actress.It's all pretty routine, with a mini-von Sternberg type director, a producer who keeps quoting Shakespeare and is superstitious, and a mysterious "Indian" character who may or may not be involved with a ruby ring found on the dead man. A pleasant enough way to pass the time.