Barbara Hale Week 1/4

Note: Welcome to the first of four reviews to celebrate Barbara Hale Week. Best known for her role as Della Street in the TV series Perry Mason, she began her career in the 1940s. She received positive reviews for her roles in movies like The Boy with Green Hair (1948) and The Window (1949). Her ability to portray different characters with depth and authenticity contributed to her reputation as a skilled actress in both dramas and comedies.

The Clay Pigeon
1949 / 1:03
Tagline: “Where Danger Lives”
[internet archive]

In this thriller, Barbara Hale and Bill Williams have excellent chemistry. No big surprise, considering in 1949 that they were in Year 3 of their married life, which was to extend 43 more years to his death in 1992. This picture is one of the watchable half-dozen film noirs that Richard Fleischer directed for RKO

Williams’ character is James Fletcher. He wakes up from unconsciousness totally unaware why hospital staffers are giving him the stink-eye. He overhears that he is to be court-martialed by the US Navy for treason. When he was a seaman first class and imprisoned in a Japanese POW camp in the Philippines, he is alleged to have ratted on his friends for stealing food. He is blamed for the torture killing of his best friend Mark Gregory at the hands of brutal Japanese captors.

Fletcher escapes from the Navy Hospital to clear himself. He catches up with Mark Gregory's widow Martha played by Barbara Hale. In a common post-war trope, Fletcher has PTSD and amnesia related to his service. Since we don’t know if Fletcher is guilty or innocent, for a short time it is hard to sympathize with him for terrorizing Mrs. Gregory.

On the run in SoCal, however, Mrs. Gregory comes around to his side when two thugs try to kill them by running them off the road. In another noir trope "hostile universe bedeviling the innocent,” neither Fletcher nor Mrs. Gregory know the reason bad guys want to kill them. The tension is boosted due to his intermittent neurological symptoms like dizziness, aphasia, and fainting. The cloudy flashbacks are effective.

Barbara Hale is earnest and believable. Bill Williams was an athlete – a champion swimmer, in fact – so he looks in control when he’s running through LA’s Chinatown. 

The writers are to be commended on two points, one small and one big. The name of the villain – Tokiyama - could be a real Japanese family name, which is an unexpected change from names that writers just made up because they sound Japanesey. Kimuri. Fuumiro. Marya Marco plays with quiet dignity a war widow. Her husband was in the 442nd Infantry Regiment. Fletcher acknowledges that it was “quite an outfit.” Indeed, the "Go For Broke" battalion was a highly decorated U.S. Army regiment comprised primarily of Nisei (second-generation Japanese American) volunteers. While they fought in Europe, many soldiers in the 442nd had family members who were incarcerated in camps like Manzanar for the duration.

After his well-known portrayal of Kit Carson on TV, Bill Williams often played the obnoxious heavy. On the classic Perry Mason TV series, in TCOT Crippled Cougar he was that rare bird, the accused that the movie-goer could not like. He played the cold unrepentant perp in TCOT Murderous Mermaid. He was the victim that had it coming in both TCOT Bluffing Blast and TCOT 12th Wildcat.