Who was the most romantic actor during the Golden Age of Hollywood? For me, it was Paul Henreid. He was tall-6’3”-handsome, with a gorgeous Austrian accent and a nobility and intelligence that could sweep women off their feet. Like that iconic scene in NOW, VOYAGER (‘42) where he lights two cigarettes at once giving one to Bette Davis; or when he utters the words “if I were free, there would be only one thing I’d want to do – prove you’re not immune to happiness. Would you want me to prove it, Charlotte? Tell me you would. Then I’ll go. Why, darling, you are crying.”

And this exchange with Rick (Humphrey Bogart) in his most famous role as the noble resistance leader Victor Laszlo in the Oscar-winning classic CASABLANCA (‘42):

Rick: “Don’t you sometimes wonder if it’s worth all this? I mean what you’re fighting for.”

Victor: “You might as well question why we breathe. If we stop breathing, we’ll die. If we stop fighting our enemies, the world will die.”

But Henreid was so much more than those two roles. He was dashing and sexy as a pirate in the 1945 Technicolor swashbuckling adventure THE SPANISH MAIN, he gave a complex and haunting performance as the mentally troubled composer Robert Schumann in SONG OF LOVE (‘47) and proved he could be a wonderfully vile film noir bad guy in HOLLOW TRIUMPH (‘48).

He also survived the blacklist, directed numerous episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, as well as the delicious thriller DEAD RINGER (‘64) with Davis. Even before he came to Hollywood, Henreid made his U.S film debut in the terrific romantic war drama JOAN OF PARIS (‘42); he had been a star on the Vienna stage as a member of the legendary Max Reinhardt’s theater company and also appeared in films. He was offered a movie contract with UFA in Berlin with the caveat that he join the National Socialist Actors Guild of Germany. Henreid turned down the offer.

Henreid went to England where he earned good reviews on the London stage as Prince Albert in 1937 in Victoria Regina. Though he played a sympathetic German in GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS (‘39), he was typecast generally in Nazi roles such as in Carol Reed’s classic NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH (‘40). He even played an odious German consul in his first Broadway show Elmer Rice’s Flight to the West in 1940. Then came Hollywood. And a name change from Von Hernreid to Henreid.

He was 84 when he died in 1992.

I recently chatted via e-mail with his daughter Monika Henreid, an actress/writer/director who is currently working on a documentary about her father.

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Murder mysteries + suave sleuths + a splash of sardonic humor = the perfect formula for many a B-movie series of the 1930s and 1940s. RKO got in the action with the popular Saint series and Falcon movies, which shared conspicuously comparable premises, similar characters and even the same lead actor for a time: George Sanders.

RKO produced 13 Falcon films from 1941-1946 based on a character created by Michael Arlen in his 1940 Town & Country story “The Gay Falcon.” In RKO’s adaptation, the debonair and enigmatic amateur adventurer/detective Gay Lawrence (Sanders), and later Tom Lawrence (Tom Conway), frequently found themselves recruited by a beautiful woman to take on a case in whatever locale they happened to be in – a college campus, the Wild West, Mexico or even Hollywood. Murder, of course, would follow posthaste.

Alongside the titular character, the Falcon films benefited in the comedy arena from an array of character actors (Allen Jenkins, Edward Brophy), in the intrigue department from actresses on the rise (Barbara Hale, Jane Greer) and by the darkly stylistic ambiance infused from future famous directors (Edward Dmytryk, Joseph H. Lewis). In honor of TCM’s daylong salute to these fun flicks, here’s some captivating behind-the-scenes facts about the Falcon – all three characters! (More on that below.)

The Falcon: The Saint 2.0?

In 1939, Sanders kicked off his sophisticated sleuth stint in the popular Saint series. Based on author Leslie Charteris’ character Simon Templar, the Saint’s run came to an end at RKO in 1941. A 1942 Chicago Daily Tribune article reported that Sanders finally “wriggled” out of his Saint commitment because he disliked playing the same role over and over – only to hop, well, into the exact same situation in the Falcon series that same year, 1941. Sanders was as nonchalant in altering dispositions between the two franchises as his Falcon was imperturbable in his crime solving. Indeed, as observed in William H. Young and Nancy K. Young’s book World War II and the Postwar Years in America, “only the most dedicated fan could distinguish Sanders’ Saint from Sanders’ Falcon.”

The likeness was not lost on Charteris. Per Ron Backer’s book Mystery Movie Series of 1940s Hollywood, many theories abound for RKO’s abandonment of the Saint series, including Charteris’ financial demands. But in the end, the studio hit the mystery movie sweet spot with Arlen’s Falcon, and they paid much less for it. As a result, Charteris filed a $100,000 lawsuit against RKO citing infringement and unfair competition, arguing that “in the public’s mind ‘Falcon’ is really the ‘Saint.’” (I mean, having such comparable characters played by the same actor was a ballsy move!) Few details are available on the case, though Charteris alleged that he negotiated a sizable settlement with RKO.

Brotherly Bonds

Beloved serial heroes were frequently replaced by another actor with no explanation. The Falcon series transitioned leads too, but not in the exact same role – and the handing of the baton was unusually explicit. After three Falcon films, Sanders wanted out of the B-movie detective cycle (again). “I feel it’s about time I had something really adult and intelligent to do in pictures,” a 1943 Picturegoer article quoted him as saying; he even requested that some of his starring roles be downsized, such as his fourth and final Falcon movie, THE FALCON’S BROTHER (’42).

In this aptly titled picture, Sanders co-starred alongside his real-life sibling, Tom Conway, who portrayed his brother onscreen. With Sanders’ character injured for most of the runtime and dying in the film’s final moments, Conway slyly emerged as the new Falcon. “Quite a stunt is being essayed by R.K.O.” in having Conway take over, The Los Angeles Times reported. Though technically portraying Gay Lawrence’s brother, Conway assumed the Falcon’s persona – sophistication, flirtation and all. As opposed to his brother, Conway welcomed the series’ regularity, referring to the Falcon as a “breather” from the darker characters he usually embodied in a 1943 interview with Hollywood magazine.

The Third Falcon

While some sources tally 13 Falcon films, others record a total of 16, with the final three movies starring actor/magician John Calvert from 1948-1949. Not only do these “Falcon”-less titles boast a different star, but the character is based on a completely different Falcon series by Drexel Drake, starting with his 1936 novel The Falcon’s Prey, which pre-dated Arlen’s story. This Falcon is a magician named Michael Waring who has a pooch for an assistant!

Drake’s Falcon hit the airwaves in his own radio series in 1943, right in the midst of the Sanders-Conway film franchise. To make matters even more confusing, the producers of the radio show purported that their Falcon was indeed the same hero who appeared in the movies – except it wasn’t, because the characters were created by two different people. Now, how’s that for a mystery?!