Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

jacobs-greenwood The twelfth film in the Falcon seriesAlthough Rita Corday portrays a character named Joan, like she did in the previous Falcon film, this time her last name is Meredith (not Marshall), in her sixth (and final) appearance in the series. Vincent Barnett plays Goldie. A couple of known actors also appear: Jane Greer and Elisha Cook Jr., as well as several actors that appeared in earlier Falcon films, Esther Howard, Jason Robards Sr., and Emory Parnell.The film begins at a racetrack, where the Falcon (Tom Conway) and Goldie meet a rich woman, Gloria Peabody (Ms. Howard, who played a different Mrs. Peabody in the previous Falcon film) and her entourage including Joan (Ms. Corday), her personal assistant, and Harvey Beaumont (Robards Sr.). They are being closely monitored by Metcalf (Mr. Parnell), an insurance man who (in lieu of the police, in this film) serves as the comic foil for the Falcon and his sidekick. Metcalf, who recently paid Mrs. Peabody a large settlement for some jewels which were stolen, suspects Joan had something to do with it. At Joan's urging, the Falcon and Goldie join the group, which is celebrating Mrs. Peabody's 37th (ha!) birthday party, when it moves to her hotel.Ms. Greer's character, Lola Carpenter, is introduced as a singer at the hotel, where there is also a radio station on the penthouse level. The station's late night disc jockey, Nick (Cook Jr.), is secretly married to Lola. We (though none of the characters in the film) see Nick returning to the station through the fire escape shortly after a man is murdered in Mrs. Peabody's suite, where it turns out her pearls were stolen. The police inspector (Al Bridge, a familiar character actor), with input from Metcalf, suspects the Falcon until Joan vouches for him. The Falcon and Goldie are later shot at (for no apparent reason, other than it kind of helps the plot later) from the fire escape outside their hotel room window.The next day while relaxing by the pool with Lola, the Falcon discovers that the 11 carat ring she's wearing, which she believes is fake, is actually real. Shortly thereafter, while lunching with Mrs. Peabody et al, the Falcon arranges for Goldie to cause a smudge fire in Beaumont's hotel room to witness, surreptitiously, that he has the pearls hidden in a false book in his room. The Falcon decides to take the pearls to "smoke out" the fence, whom he presumes (correctly) is the nightclub operator. After denying he is the fence, the nightclub operator has the Falcon tailed. But the Falcon suspects this, and mails the pearls to himself to avoid losing them.The mailed pearls arrive about the same time the police inspector visits the Falcon's hotel room. However, when they go to question Beaumont about them, it's discovered that he's been killed. So, naturally, the Falcon is arrested. After showing the police inspector how clever he is, especially in comparison to his accuser Metcalf, the Falcon is given 24 hours to solve the crimes or face the charges himself.The Falcon discovers the connection between Lola and the disc jockey, as well as another secret relationship. Another person is murdered, and the Falcon is again a suspect. But, of course, he escapes and arrives just in time to save the day.The film ends with an unnecessary twist, and no lead in to the next (and last) film in the series.

TheLittleSongbird The Falcon RKO film series is mostly very enjoyable, with both George Sanders and his brother Tom Conway who took over from him being great in the title role.Admittedly, some are better than others. For examples there are some particularly fun entries such as 'The Gay Falcon', 'A Date with the Falcon', 'The Falcon Strikes Back', 'The Falcon and the Co-eds', 'The Falcon in Hollywood' and 'The Falcon in San Francisco', while others while still very much watchable disappoint a little such 'The Falcon's Brother', 'The Falcon in Danger', 'The Falcon Out West' and 'The Falcon in Mexico'.On the most part, while not fitting among either extreme of whether among the best or weakest Falcon films, 'The Falcon's Alibi' is solid fun and works well. The culprit is pretty obvious early on, almost from when they are first introduced, and the ending is a little hasty and abrupt (not an uncommon problem in this series). While most of the supporting cast are great, there are a few that don't quite make an impression.Jean Brooks is wasted due to being given so little to do, and while Al Bridge and Edmund Cobb do alright, they are in types of roles filled more effectively in the Falcon series by Cliff Clark and Edward Gargan as well as James Gleason. Vince Barnett was only serviceable as Goldie, personally thought that Edward Brophy had more enthusiasm and that Allen Jenkins was more of a scene-stealer, Barnett was an admirable stooge but his material is a little bland in places and he occasionally overdid it (by all means not a bad performance).However, a lot also does work. The music is lively and haunting, the songs are particularly great and the use of them ingenious, and on the most part the production values are slick and atmospheric with particularly nicely done photography. The film is directed with liveliness and tautness, while the script is playful and much of the story is absorbing and goes at a bright and breezy pace with the odd bit of dark suspense.Conway is dapper, suave, charismatic and amusingly cutting here, he always thrived in the title role and 'The Falcon's Alibi' sees him give one of his most confident performances in the role. Rita Corday is low-key and charming, while Emory Parnell is amusing (though his screen time is short) and Esther Howard and Jason Robards Snr are solid. The two best supporting performances are a sizzling Jane Greer and a sinister Elisha Cook Jnr.All in all, solid fun if not among the best or weakest of a mostly enjoyable series of films. 7/10 Bethany Cox

robert-temple-1 This is the twelfth Falcon film. It has exciting appearances in it of Jane Greer, aged 22 but looking and behaving 32, and Elisha Cook, Junior. This is apparently the only film in which Jane Greer plays a singer, and she sings very well. Her song is absolutely extraordinary in that the lyrics feature planned silences and hesitating phrases which drop out of the rhythm, and frankly I have never heard a song pull off such tricks successfully, and the film is worth seeing for the song, not because the melody is any good, but because the song is musically unique as far as I know and would repay close study and analysis by any serious song writer. Elisha Cook gets to do more acting than usual in this film, and he is even scarier than usual, and completely convincing, as always. Jane Greer did not become a noted noir player until the following year, and was still obscure at this stage. Jean Brooks is in this one, but gets very little screen time and her presence is frankly wasted. I guess because she was part of the team, they were inventing a pretext for her to have a fee. We get to see her in a revealing gown with exposed back, which menacing ice maidens don't normally show, but that's about all. Rita Corday is in this one too, and she gets a big part and shines. Vince Barnett is much less annoying as Goldie the sidekick than the atrocious Edward Brophy in the preceding film, though he still gets on one's nerves. The film was well directed by Ray McCarey, who died only two years later at the age of only 44. Believe it or not, I actually knew the man who wrote the story for this film, whose name was Manny Seff. He was a very delightful and amusing guy, a great conversationalist, story teller, and joke cracker, who was getting old when I was very young, and it adds dimension to an old movie when you can say: 'There's Manny Seff's name as the writer!' He is exactly the kind of fellow I had always imagined writing these stories, and there suddenly his name appeared on the screen to prove it. I can't say it was a total surprise, it just seemed so appropriate. Judging from what I know of him, and guess about the others, these people must all have had a lot of fun making these films, which is probably one reason why they are so entertaining.

Spondonman The 12th and penultimate RKO Falcon film was a hardboiled affair, with the two wildly different main strands converging to a rather sudden conclusion. Some nice noirish moments, atmospheric photography and natural acting by all go to make it an enjoyable ride.Tom Conway playing Tom Lawrence aka the Falcon and Goldie (played for the only time by Vince Barnett) get called upon to protect a "lady's" pearl necklace, alas to no avail – it's already gone. An insurance scam is uncovered with Emory Parnell in his 3rd Falcon as a slapstick insurance detective. The other thread has manic Barbary Towers hotel dj Elisha Cook Jr. (the one man Radio KGR) with his own problems, not the least keeping hold of his wife, gorgeous Jane Greer. His was the watertight alibi of the picture, not a new idea then and borrowed shortly afterwards to greater effect by Claude Rains in The Unsuspected. It was Rita Corday's 6th and final Falcon film, this time pretty low-key - all those name changes surely didn't help her future career? Favourite bits: listening to Greer's pleasant singing voice; the "smudge" fire routine in the hotel bedroom ably performed by Goldie; Cook's record library - you could get all those tons of shellac onto a single mp3 player now! Needless to relate, Tom solves everything, albeit a couple of murders too late, but woe betide you if you miss that last minute – they closed this one down fast!Nothing here for the serious, nice entertainment for us fans.