THE CLAY PIGEON (1949)

 

This American film will not be included on anyone's top ten film-noir list, but there is little to fault here. Though never a dull moment, there are occasional clichés and implausibilities as the film wraps. Anchoring this B-movie is Bill Williams' rather bland vocal performance and delivery. Barbara Hale holds her own, however. The real-life husband and wife were in their third year of marriage when RKO Radio Pictures released this film. It is a tidy sixty-three minutes of suspense, competently directed by Richard Fleischer with a screenplay and story by Carl Foreman based on a true story. The cinematography of Robert De Grasse should be noted, specifically his positive-negative effects during one flashback.

An intriguing opening scene has a former World War II prisoner-of-war patient, Williams, awakening from a coma at a naval hospital. He overhears the doctor and nurse mention his court-martial for treason, and he shoots straight up in bed—face in the camera. He is accused of informing on fellow inmates in a Japanese prison camp. His amnesia makes for a foggy past and a perfect candidate for deception—hence the film's title. Not convinced of his guilt, he escapes from the hospital and contacts two people he hopes will help him recapture the truth.

Williams' first stop is the widow of one of his POW buddies, whom he greatly admired. Hale knows who he is, and the newspaper headlines fuel her dislike of him. There is an intense physical struggle between the two that is well-played and believable. Though somewhat implausibly—after confessing to being a nice guy—he gags and threatens her at gunpoint, while he calls his best friend, Richard Quine, another ex-POW. I will just say he is pretty irate to get the call, as if he has something else planned. Overhearing Williams's sincere conversation, Hale starts to change her opinion. Her gag order is lifted. Expect the obligatory roadblock out of town with Williams—not yet sure she can be trusted—pointing a gun and saying something silly like, “Don't try anything.” This is never believable. Those flashbacks help clarify his past for him and the audience. Williams needs to be eliminated before he recovers his memory. Leave this to thugs Richard Loo and Robert Bray.

Note: Williams and Hale hide out in a trailer park while he fully recovers from another blackout caused by the initial hit on the head during the Japanese prison camp. The scene is filmed at the Paradise Cove location where Jim Rockford will eventually park his trailer for the popular comedy detective series, The Rockford Files.