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Imprisoned during the Spanish Civil War, John "Kit" McKittrick is released when a New York City policeman pulls some strings. Upon returning to America, McKittrick hears that a friend has committed suicide, and he begins to smell a rat. During his investigation, McKittrick questions three beautiful women, one of whom has a tie to his refugee past. Pursued by Nazi operatives, McKittrick learns of the death of another friend, and begins to suspect the dark Dr. Skaas.
"There are some things you've gotta do, it doesn't matter what you think about it, or how much afraid you are. You just have to do it."
John "Kit" McKittrick (John Garfield) gets sprung from a WWII prison by his friend Louie Lepetino, only to find out that his benefactor has turned up dead. The official line is that Louie committed suicide, but John isn't buying it and begins investigating to uncover the truth.
The Fallen Sparrow is a decent enough war time picture, though it has to be said it is a little on the dull side for the most part. There's a mystery surrounding what the prison interrogators wanted to get out of John and who the Nazi…
A truly tedious film noir which has the cardinal sin of being a bore. John Garfield plays a man with a past who seeks the truth about why his friend, a policeman called Louie, fell out of a window and died. Maureen O'Hara is the lady of mystery who might or might not have the key to the puzzle.
Trouble is, there isn't much of a puzzle, and there is no spark between the leads. Garfield could be and was better than this, and O'Hara isn't the right kind of actress to convince in a hard-boiled same role. There's a thankless role for musical starlet Patricia Morison and an on-type one for Walter Slezak, but really, there's nothing here, and I just didn't care how this one would end.
Liked how they played into a soldiers war psyche, giving John Garfield his troubled soul as we try and entangle this odd story. Atmosphere was amazing at times! Really pulled off that potential paranoia angle. Not so sure I liked the story. Not plausible enough for me. Felt like they were making up things on the go. Didn't stop me from enjoying large portions of The Fallen Sparrow (1943).
From the title on, this kind wants to be The Maltese Falcon, but instead of a tough detective it has a former Spanish Civil War POW with PTSD. The mystery is very unengaging, but the scenes dealing with Garfield paranoia have a stark oppressive quality. He is very good and obvious enjoying fighting nazis instead of playing small crooks and his scenes with Maureen O'Hara are strong. It is a shame the gallery around Garfield is so uninteresting right down to the nazi supervillain.
The Fallen Sparrow is a movie that zigged when it should have zagged. It's a movie that puts a lead character with some serious wartime PTSD into a murder mystery involving Nazi spies searching for some MacGuffin. Had it leaned more into the character and less into the mid-level mystery, it wouldn't have felt like such a waste.
And I really wish it had expanded more on the lead, because the scenes in which his condition takes center stage are easily the most suspenseful parts of the movie.
Take one scene almost smack in the middle. John Garfield's character, Kit, is in a dark apartment. He hears a footstep dragging, eventually hearing the sound of water dripping from a faucet.…
A Big Sleep-like noir with too many characters and a confusing plot that doesn't make a lot of sense. John Garfield is a WWII vet returning home after being tortured in Spain, and falling into some kind of spy ring. What kind of spy ring, I couldn't really tell you, because I didn't understand it. He meets up with 3 hot chicks and has flashbacks about some guy who drags his foot while he walks. He meets the Prince of somewhere-or-other, has a butler, beats up a pianist, dresses up in a tux to go to parties, and talks a lot about a flag he hid someplace. I couldn't keep up. But it was good watching Garfield crash his way through proceedings like a cannonball. If only I knew why.
The Fallen Sparrow gives us John Garfield as “Kit” McKittrick, a restless son of New York society who wouldn’t seem out of place in the For Whom the Bell Tolls extended universe. The year is 1940, and with America not yet at war with Germany, anyone itching to join the fight has to get creative. For the adventurous Kit, this means volunteering with the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War; for a Hollywood political thriller, it means exposing Nazi interlopers as they make murderous mischief on American shores. (1939 and 1940 saw a burst of antifascist movies along these lines, driven in part by the influx of German exiles into prewar Hollywood. Allow me to recommend Otto Friedrich’s City of…
A below average wartime fusion of noir and spy thriller that fails to fully embrace the potential for the dynamic between Garfield and Slezak's characters in favour of superfluous romance.
There's elements to The Fallen Sparrow that I do appreciate; there's some interesting monologues that go into the motivations that one may have for fighting and what one fights for, for example. How tangible objects can take on a role in that, and it somewhat reminds me of, for example, the stories of men who would rush to grab the flag in battle when the previous flag bearer was shot so that the flag would stay off the ground (there's nothing tactically necessary about this) or even the way that the state of Minnesota has had the 28th Virginia battle flag on display even though for the last 60 years Virginia has been asking to have their flag returned (and,…
Perhaps not the best story or the most compelling Noir, but I'm always interested in a protagonist who can't trust their own mind, and John Garfield plays Kit with a unique resignation and doggedness. He's clearly still struggling with the trauma and aftermath of the torture he experienced during the Spanish Civil War, and though trying to solve the mystery of his friend's death isn't helping his own mental state, he doesn't give it up.
While the psychological aspects of The Fallen Sparrow were really brilliant, every single thread of the story is drawn together by the end, thus making the far-fetched espionage plot feel awfully contrived. Worse still, Maureen O'Hara really wasn't right for her role and hadn't a trace of real chemistry with John Garfield. Martha O’Driscoll and Patricia Morison had nearly as much screen time though and were both excellent!
Interesting and dark anti-Nazi/PTSD noir. Probably wouldn't be quite as good without Musuraca's lens and Wise's cutting cause the script itself isn't all that sharp apart from the sense of a guy getting caught up in something way bigger than himself.
