RICHARD FLEISCHER'S WRONG MAN ACTION NOIR 'THE CLAY PIGEON'

Title: THE CLAY PIGEON Stars: Bill Williams, Barbara Hale Year: 1949 Rating: ****

Richard Fleischer's Wrong Man Film Noir has a patriotic World War II twist when Bill Williams wakes up, knocked out in the hospital, with amnesia not about who he is, but what he's done to get there: all while overhearing a doctor and nurse about how he's a ratting traitor who caused the death of a fellow soldier and friend...

He quickly escapes to that friend's widow, played by Bill's real life wife and future PERRY MASON actress Barbara Hale, who spends enough realistic time fighting to escape from the desperate soldier... who has to prove his innocence to everyone before being captured and tried...

Bill Williams and Barbara Hale in THE CLAY PIGEON

She comes around around thirty minutes in, upon realizing someone wants to kill both of them, and the rest of THE CLAY PIGEON is both action-packed and suspenseful, taking place in Chinatown, Los Angeles with added use of the RKO Studios lot, where Bill's Jim Fletcher spots former Japanese POW chief guard Richard Loo as The Weasel... while only thinking he has a friend in fellow prison camp soldier Richard Quine, predictably in cahoots with the Japanese villain (eventually evened-out by good Japanese American Marya Marco)... 

The lead thug is future cinematic Mike Hammer Robert Bray, chasing Williams both around town and on a train, where director Fleischer gets practice for another RKO noir THE NARROW MARGIN: yet PIGEON excels in simplicity and a one-note agenda to simply entertain from beginning, middle and end, like a single breathtaking sprint but with enough character downtime for the restless action to matter.

Bill Williams and Barbara Hale in THE CLAY PIGEON

Bill Williams and Barbara Hale in THE CLAY PIGEON

Bill Williams in THE CLAY PIGEON

Richard Quine and Richard Loo in THE CLAY PIGEON

Bill Williams and Barbara Hale in THE CLAY PIGEON

Robert Bray and Richard Loo in THE CLAY PIGEON

from THE CLAY PIGEON

Marya Marco in THE CLAY PIGEON

Marya Marco with Robert Bray and Richard Loo in THE CLAY PIGEON

Robert Bray and Richard Loo in THE CLAY PIGEON

From THE CLAY PIGEON