IT’S GOOD TO BE GAY

Spread sunshine all over the place and put on a happy face.

It’s probably impossible to run out of beautiful promo posters for old movies. This was made for The Gay Falcon, which hit cinemas today in 1941. The lead character, a nationally famous sleuth, is named Gay Laurence, so that’s the front part of the title. Nothing to do with either gay or happy. The back part derives from the source material, in which author Michael Arlen gave his creation the name Gay Falcon. Why RKO Radio Pictures changed it for its adaptation we can’t say, especially since the name lives on in the film as a moniker, but okay, Gay Laurence it is.

The Gay Falcon was the first of sixteen movies in a series, built along similar lines as the Thin Man films—mystery, murder, and humor, with a dapper lead. In this case it was Russian born George Sanders, who’d had major success in Rebecca, The House of Seven Gables, and the Saint series. He’s ensnared in the mystery of a shooting that’s somehow related to a jewel theft. With his panache never coming under duress, he solves it in sixty-six highly competent minutes.

Sanders isn’t the only positive element. The movie benefits greatly from Wendy Barrie’s charming performance as Sanders’ flirtation-turned-girl Friday, and the actual solution to the mystery is pretty clever. On the negative side there’s a questionable Asian character played by Willie Fung, but as always it was either act the role as written or get the hell off the studio lot. Fung is blameless. For that and other reasons The Gay Falcon isn’t quite as good as The Thin Man, but it’s enjoyable. No wonder there were fifteen sequels.

Russia, New York City, RKO Radio Pictures, The Gay Falcon, Rebecca, The House of Seven Gables, The Saint, George Sanders, Wendy Barrie, Allen Jenkins, Ann Hunter, Gladys Cooper, Turhan Bey, Michael Arlen, poster art, cinema, movie review

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

February 17

1933—Blaine Act Passes

The Blaine Act, a congressional bill sponsored by Wisconsin senator John J. Blaine, is passed by the U.S. Senate and officially repeals the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, aka the Volstead Act, aka Prohibition. The repeal is formally adopted as the 21st Amendment to the Constitution on December 5, 1933.

February 17

1947—Voice of America Begins Broadcasting into U.S.S.R.

The state radio channel known as Voice of America and controlled by the U.S. State Department, begins broadcasting into the Soviet Union in Russian with the intent of countering Soviet radio programming directed against American leaders and policies. The Soviet Union responds by initiating electronic jamming of VOA broadcasts.

February 16

1937—Carothers Patents Nylon

Wallace H. Carothers, an American chemist, inventor and the leader of organic chemistry at DuPont Corporation, receives a patent for a silk substitute fabric called nylon. Carothers was a depressive who for years carried a cyanide capsule on a watch chain in case he wanted to commit suicide, but his genius helped produce other polymers such as neoprene and polyester. He eventually did take cyanideâ€”not in pill form, but dissolved in lemon juiceâ€”resulting in his death in late 1937.

February 15

1933—Franklin Roosevelt Survives Assassination Attempt

In Miami, Florida, Giuseppe Zangara attempts to shoot President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, but is restrained by a crowd and, in the course of firing five wild shots, hits five people, including Chicago, Illinois Mayor Anton J. Cermak, who dies of his wounds three weeks later. Zangara is quickly tried and sentenced to eighty years in jail for attempted murder, but is later convicted of murder when Cermak dies. Zangara is sentenced to death and executed in Florida’s electric chair.

February 14

1929—Seven Men Shot Dead in Chicago

Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone’s South Side gang, are machine gunned to death in Chicago, Illinois, in an event that would become known as the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Because two of the shooters were dressed as police officers, it was initially thought that police might have been responsible, but an investigation soon proved the killings were gang related. The slaughter exceeded anything yet seen in the United States at that time.