The Falcon Strikes Back 1943

Amateur sleuth Tom Lawrence, Tom Conway known as The Falcon, is approached by Mia Bruger Rita Corday to help locate her missing brother. Tom heads to a cocktail bar, where a sudden assailant knocks him unconscious. When he comes to, he finds himself behind the wheel of his own car on a lonely country road. A motorcycle patrol officer stops him and arrests him, because Police Inspector Timothy Donovan Cliff Clark has issued an all-points bulletin for the Falcon in connection with the murder of a bank official and the theft of $250,000 in war bonds. The Falcon does possess an alibi with his fiancée, Marcia Brooks Jane Randolph, and his loyal helper, Goldie Locke Cliff Edwards, but Donovan remains dubious and Tom makes a daring escape.

Back at the bar, it has transformed into the headquarters of a women’s knitting society led by Geraldine Lipton Wynne Gibson. With the trio’s sleuthing momentum, they set their sights on Lipton’s resort hotel, where a web of suspicious individuals awaits: hotel manager Gwynne Gregory Harriet Nelson, former criminal Rickey Davis [Erford Gage], a nurse tending to the invalid Bruno Steffen [André Charlot], and Mia herself, whose alibi begins to fray as the plot thickens.

When Tom approaches Mia, she pretends she doesn’t know him and dives into the pool, but the moment she hits the water she’s felled by a gunshot. Tom pursues the killer and runs into Smiley Dugan [Edgar Kennedy], a puppeteer who warns Donovan that the Falcon is on the premises. A cigarette case becomes a vital clue, and Tom calls for help from his houseboy Jerry [Richard Loo], asking him to pose as the Chinese Trade Commissioner with an interest in buying war bonds. Meanwhile, Bruno Steffen confides in Jerry about plans to buy bonds from Geraldine Lipton, prompting Tom to play his cards and accuse Lipton of being the Duchess, though Donovan—armed with a murder warrant—arrests Tom, Marcia, Goldie, and Jerry, complicating the case further.

Tom finds a way to slip free and returns to the hotel, where he confronts Lipton, who is being blackmailed by Rickey into selling the war bonds. When Rickey is killed, Gwynne Gregory’s confession reveals that she was involved because Rickey is her husband. Trapped in an elevator with Gwynne, Tom realizes the killer remains in the hotel. He seizes a chance to dash to Lipton’s room, where the puppeteer menaces the owner. In the ensuing struggle, Dugan falls to his death, and Donovan—now convinced of Tom’s innocence—arrives to arrest Mrs. Lipton for the theft of the war bonds.