One of my favorite movie detectives is Gay Lawrence, aka the Falcon, a gentleman-sleuth and adventurer who was featured in a series of RKO films during the 1940s. The character was first played by George Sanders, who brought his usual urbanity to the role.

The Falcon typically intervened on behalf of some attractive young damsel in distress, and an amusing aspect of the series is that at the end of each episode, just after the Falcon solves the crime, the female lead of the next installment of the series comes on the scene and asks him for his help.

The films have that fizzy, cheerful attitude we often find in classical Hollywood mystery films, but they range widely in locations and story elements, with the high-society sleuth traveling around the country to help attractive females get out of trouble, usually with the police providing much more of a hindrance than a help

The settings range from high society to the criminal underworld, but the Falcon typically remains unruffled and outsmarts the villains while staying a couple of steps ahead of the police. It’s all great fun.

Interestingly, after a couple of years in the role, Sanders decided to leave, as he was becoming popular in "A" budget pictures. The studio cleverly replaced him with his brother, Tom Conway, who did an excellent job in the role and in fact appeared in several more Falcon films than Sanders did.

They really don’t make them like this any more, as the saying goes, and I greatly wish they would. 

Fotunately, we can still see the originals. Turner Classic Movies is showing several Falcon films Monday beginning at 6 a.m. EST. They’re well worth watching. Here’s the schedule for tomorrow’s TCM Falcon festival: