Review of The Falcon Takes Over (1942) by Mike M — 22 May 2011

The innards of the Chandler novel... reordered to showcase Sanders' way with a withering quip - not quite as refined here as in the actor's later vehicles, but still entertaining enough. Script and direction are quite perfunctory - tediously written interrogation sequences fall a long way short of providing the interpersonal chemistry of the great studio stars, and we're never given enough to convince us the journalist love interest might also be a crackshot with a pistol - but there are regular flashes of the genre's pleasures, as though it were intended as a sampler of noir themes and language for audiences put off by the flourishes of a Lang or Nick Ray.