Talk:The Falcon (fictional detective)

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Problems[edit]

This short article is confusing for two reasons:

(1) It has been copied verbatim from the external link given at the bottom.

(2) The line "FYI The Falcon was played by Sanders' brother Tom Conway not by George Sanders" is absolutely misleading.

Who can help? <KF> 08:14, Apr 11, 2005 (UTC)

Not me, but I'll stick a cleanup notice in to grab attention to it.--DooMDrat 09:30, Apr 17, 2005 (UTC)

A great more needs to be said[edit]

As the article the external link at the bottom of this article leads to indicates—and a further one linked to there elaborates upon—the different name used in the second film series and on radio and TV (Michael Waring) comes from a different source. These are three novels and one short story by "Drexel Drake" (pen name of Charles H. Huff), all of which predate Michael Arlen's one short story of Gay Stanhope Falcon (Drake's three novels in 1936, '37' & '38, the latter year also seeing the publication of his short story, while Arlen's story, as our article admits, came out in 1940). Note also that the IMDb indicates that RKO, responsible for the Sanders/Conway/"Lawrence" series, had nothing to do with the three late '40s films starring John Calvert as Waring. All of this should be reflected in the article, if those ext. link articles are Wiki-acceptable sources. I'll see what else I can find, but help from others with access to sizable libraries would be appreciated. --Tbrittreid (talk) 21:04, 18 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It's hard to say whether the Thrilling Detective site would be considered a reliable source; it seems to be, even though it seems to be a kind of blog, because it seems as if there is some editorial discretion exercised. But I'd be looking for confirmation of these assertions from other sources; possibly Hubin would be useful, and I'll check when I can. It's certain that IMDB is not considered a reliable source, though. Accounting4Taste:talk 22:09, 18 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I am well aware that the IMDb is not considered a reliable source under Wikipedia rules and apologize for not making clear that I cited that particular piece of their information merely for discussion purposes here. I do that because everything that goes up there is vetted and approved by administration; I myself have had great (and IMHO inexplicable) difficulty in getting some documented and not open to debate facts posted there. As for those articles' claim of two different literary sleuth/adventurers called "Falcon," do you have a better explanation for the two completely different names? If Thrilling Detective qualifies as an unacceptable blog, then a huge number of other sites used as sources here do as well, and a huge number of citations are invalid. --Tbrittreid (talk) 21:31, 19 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

some cleanup[edit]

cleanup - article was fairly poorly written - more of an opinionated essay than factual entry - grammatical errors as well - note the misplaced period mid-sentence: "In later outings, in various media. the character had a variety of "real names..."

outright bias/opinion: "portrayed variously by Edward Brophy, Allen Jenkins (who also played the same role in the first three Sanders films), Don Barclay, Cliff Edwards, and arguably best of all, Vince Barnett."

not-so-great phrasing: "One well-known gimmick in the Falcon series was tacking an epilogue onto one movie to act as a sort of teaser to the next. This little "preview" often had little to do with the actual upcoming film, but was meant to keep interest alive."

also deleted unwarranted TV section and more opinion-type statements ("...the character was more of a spy than a detective.") — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.183.142.97 (talk) 01:40, 11 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]