CLAY PIGEON

There's nothing really exceptional about THE CLAY PIGEON (1949. Produced as a B picture at RKO, CLAY is a tight, efficient little film noir (running time 63 minutes), that doesn't waste a single frame.

Jim Fletcher (Bill Williams), is an amnesiac sailor who wakes up in a San Diego Naval hospital accused of the brutal murder of one of his fellow prisoners in a Japanese POW camp. He can't remember if he killed the man, his best friend, or not, so he busts out of the hospital and goes to the man's widow, Martha Gregory (Barbara Hale) for help. Antagonistic at first, the two gradually develop a sense of mutual trust as they investigate her husband's death and try to figure out what Tokoyama (Richard Loo), a Japanese prison camp guard dubbed "The Weasel" is doing on the streets of Los Angeles.

Of course Fletcher is innocent and the real identity of his buddy's killer will come as absolutely no surprise to anyone. In the process of discovering the killer, Jim and Martha uncover a counterfeit money racket and meet a sympathetic Japanese-American war widow. The action climaxes aboard a train where the bad guys are planning to hurl Jim into the path of an oncoming express.

One interesting note: the part of Jim Fletcher was originally set to be played by Lawrence Tierney but Bill Williams was eventually cast in the role. In real life, Williams and co-star Barbara Hale were husband and wife.

Scripted by Carl Foreman, CLAY PIGEON is a routine little thriller that served as a perfect showcase for director Richard Fleischer's talents. Fleischer made a series of B noirs at RKO including DESIGN FOR DEATH (1947), BODYGUARD (1948), TRAPPED (1949), and FOLLOW ME QUIETLY (1949). After CLAY, Fleischer directed ARMORED CAR ROBBERY (1950), HIS KIND OF WOMAN (1951) and his noir masterpiece, THE NARROW MARGIN (1952). He made one other noir in the 1950s, VIOLENT SATURDAY (1955) but by that time, Fleischer had made the transition to A pictures, beginning with 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA for producer Walt Disney in 1954. Other Fleischer films include THE VIKINGS (1958), BARABBAS (1961), FANTASTIC VOYAGE (1966), DOCTOR DOLITTLE (1967), THE BOSTON STRANGLER (1968), TORA! TORA! TORA! (1970), SOYLENT GREEN (1973), CONAN THE DESTROYER (1984) and RED SONJA (1985).

THE CLAY PIGEON is an entertaining little B film that shows a director and screenwriter paying their dues, learning their respective crafts and laying the groundwork for bigger things to come in their careers. Recommended.