Turhan Bey

The Falcon Takes Over

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George Sanders and Lynn Bari in an open top car

The Falcon Takes Over could be the answer to a Trivial Pursuit question. First appearance of a Raymond Chandler story on screen? – this is it, a version of his Farewell, My Lovely, which would get a bigger-budget workthrough two years later as Murder, My Sweet, with Dick Powell in the lead. Here, it’s 1942, we’re in B movie territory and it’s George Sanders as the detective on the case of a missing person. Big bruiser Moose Malloy (Ward Bond) would very much like to know where his showgirl girlfriend has disappeared to, and so presses Gay Lawrence aka The Falcon (Sanders) to find her. Chandler’s loads up the plot – a jade necklace, … Read more

The Amazing Mr. X

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Turhan Bey as Mr X

The only really normal person in The Amazing Mr. X, Richard Carlson’s Martin Abbott, is presented as a complete dope. It’s that sort of film – exotics, psychotics, psychics, camp conmen and vamps circle each other while boring old Martin sits stupidly at the centre. The two real reasons to watch are Cathy O’Donnell, again effortlessly sexy as she was in They Live by Night. She plays the concerned sister trying to get her widowed sibling Christine (Lynn Bari) to marry again. To… you guessed it… chump and dullard Martin. Christine is understandably hesitant. Martin clearly a mistake. But Christine is also reluctant to let go of the hope that husband Paul (Donald Curtis) … Read more