Devil's Cargo (1948)

What happened to The Falcon?, 18 July 2015

The plot in Devil's Cargo (not sure why they went with that title - it has nothing to do with the movie) is easily the best thing the movie has going for it. There are a few nice twists and turns along the way. I'm not sure why I didn't see the end coming, but part of it really surprised me. Anyway, Ramon Delgado (Paul Marion) shows up one morning at Michael Watling (John Calvert) aka the Falcon's apartment to confess to a murder. He says he killed a man named Conroy who was cheating with his wife, Margo (Rochelle Hudson). Delgado claims he warned the man twice before shooting him during a struggle. He has a key he wants Watling to hold for him. He's convinced that once his story comes out, he'll be acquitted and he'll then come by to collect his key. But almost as soon as Delgado is in police custody, two things happen that rouse the Falcon's suspicion. First, there are a couple of hoods that desperately want that key. Second, Delgado is found poisoned to death in his cell. What's so important about the key and why did someone murder Delgado?

But once you get past the plot, there's very little here I liked. First, and most obviously, what happened to the Falcon? This isn't the suave character played by George Sanders and Tom Conway. Calvert's Falcon is the kind of guy who I wanted to punch in the face for acting like an idiot one minute and overly cocky and smug the next. And his ever present and unwanted magic tricks serve no purpose - well, no purpose other than to annoy me. Calvert's attempts at humor are almost as bad as the magic bits. Again, it's just annoying. With a plot I enjoyed, a different actor in the lead might have made this a much better movie. The rest of the acting is generally abysmal. I'm not exaggerating when I say I cringed a few times at the poor delivery of some of the lines. And I was really disappointed in the way Rochelle Hudson was used. She's barely in the movie. Finally, I couldn't help but notice at times how bad the music was and generally inappropriate for the action on screen.

As much as I enjoy the earlier Falcon movies, Devil's Cargo is a huge disappointment.

4/10