The Gay Falcon is a 1941 American mystery thriller film directed by Irving Reis and starring George Sanders, Wendy Barrie and Allen Jenkins.

Intended to replace the earlier The Saint detective series, the first film took its title from the lead character, Gay Laurence.

When Elinor asks him to attend a party given by Maxine Wood (Gladys Cooper) to mingle with potential clients, he refuses.

It seems that Wood's soirées have been plagued by jewel thefts, and she is particularly worried about the diamond of her guest, Vera Gardner (Lucile Gleason).

At the party, Elinor becomes annoyed when she realises why Gay changed his mind about attending and retaliates by dancing with Manuel Retana (Turhan Bey).

Vera Gardner then insists on dancing with Gay; she hands him her diamond secretly, much to his puzzlement, then leaves the room.

Gay persuades Inspector Mike Waldeck (Arthur Shields) to release Goldie so he can flush out the real murderer.

Meanwhile, Gay calls Elinor to warn her to stay away from the killer, but she believes he is lying out of jealousy and tells Retana so.

The Gay Falcon was intended by RKO Radio Pictures to introduce a replacement for The Saint series, after RKO decided to sever ties with Leslie Charteris, the creator of the Saint who disapproved of the way the studio had been adapting his stories, especially with how George Sanders was playing the title character.

In March 1941, the studio bought the rights to Michael Arlen's story "The Gay Falcon", saying they intended Sanders and Wendy Barrie to star.

[7] They assigned Lynn Root and Frank Fenton to work on the script, resulting in Charteris suing RKO on the grounds that "the Falcon was the Saint in disguise.