ThrillerCrime

The Clay Pigeon

- A man awakens from a coma to discover he's accused of treason.

Jim Fletcher, waking up from a coma, finds he is to be given a court martial for treason and charged with informing on fellow inmates in a Japanese prison camp during WWII. Escaping from the hospital he tries to clear himself by enlisting the aid of Martha Gregory, widow of a service buddy he was accused of informing on. Helped also by Ted Niles, a surviving fellow prisoner, he gets closer to finding the answers he needs, and becomes ensnared in a grandiose scheme involving his Japanese ex-prison guard, $10,000,000 of US currency forged by the Japanese and a burgeoning crime network poised to wreak havoc throughout southern California.

Release Date : 1949-03-03

Language :English

Adult : false

Status : Released

Production Company : RKO Radio Pictures

Production Country : United States of America

Alternative Titles :

Cast

Character Name : Jim Fletcher

Original Name : Bill Williams

Gender : Male

Character Name : Martha Gregory

Original Name : Barbara Hale

Gender : Female

Character Name : Ted Niles

Original Name : Richard Quine

Gender : Male

Character Name : Ken Tokoyama

Original Name : Richard Loo

Gender : Male

Character Name : Prentice

Original Name : Frank Fenton

Gender : Male

Character Name : Navy Hospital Doctor

Original Name : Frank Wilcox

Gender : Male

Character Name : Helen Minoto

Original Name : Marya Marco

Gender : Female

Character Name : Gunsel Blake

Original Name : Robert Bray

Gender : Male

Character Name : Miss Harwick

Original Name : Martha Hyer

Gender : Female

Character Name : Blind Veteran

Original Name : Harold Landon

Gender : Male

Character Name : John Wheeler

Original Name : James Craven

Gender : Male

Character Name : Naval Intelligence Agent Clark

Original Name : Grandon Rhodes

Gender : Male

Character Name : Nurse (uncredited)

Original Name : Ann Doran

Gender : Female

Reviews

John Chard

@John Chard

2024-05-16

Lean mean amnesia machine. *** This review contains a spoiler *** The Clay Pigeon is directed by Richard Fleischer and written by Carl Foreman. It stars Bill Williams, Barbara Hale, Richard Quine and Richard Loo. Music is by Paul Sawtell and cinematography by Robert De Grasse. Jim Fletcher (Williams) is a survivor of a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp who awakes from a coma with amnesia, and a charge of treason against him! Escaping hospital he aims to recover his memory and hopefully clear his name. The secret may be with another ex-POW inmate and the wife of the man who was killed on account of his supposed treason. Stripped down to the bare essentials by Fleischer, The Clay Pigeon is a one hour TV episode in essence. Dealing in that old noir favourite, that of amnesia, the director doesn't hang around to build any sort of supporting characters. This is firmly a two character piece as Williams and Hale (real life husband and wife) run through a narrative that has her initially hostile towards him, only to then unsurprisingly warm to him as events conveniently fall into place to prove his innocence. There's a willingness to balance out the anti Japanese slant that initially hangs over the story, and a twist in the tale, whilst hardly a surprise, earns writer Carl Foreman some grace to forgive the poor contrivances elsewhere. The night time sequences are nicely noirish, without really adding any sort of psychological dimension to the atmospherics, and the cast are adequate as per the quality of production. All told it's an enjoyable enough B-level noir out of RKO, even if it's hardly essential viewing. 6/10