I finally watched "The Falcon Takes Over" the other night.
This adaptation (the 1st?) of Farewell My Lovely sicks very
close to the plot, but the setting is closer to The Thin
Man's madcap world than Marlowe's. Gay Lawrence, the Falcon,
is a bon vivant man about town who seems more interested in
flirting and drinking than in tracking Moose Malloy or
solving any of the crimes in the movie. There are plenty of
laughs from the various other characters, several of whom
were probably regulars in the series of movies (this is the
first I've seen) -- the Falcon's driver "Goldy" Locke,
Inspector O'Hara. I found it interesting that the plot of a
hardboiled classic could be adhered to so closely, but come
off as not hardboiled at all. It reinforced that hardboiled
is not a matter of plot alone, or even predominantly.
On a side note, are other Falcon movies as amusing?
Mark
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