The Fallen Sparrow (1943)

☆ ☆ ☆ 

The Fallen Sparrow (1943) – R. Wallace

Things begin well for this wartime noir, with John Garfield starring as John McKittrick, a veteran of the Spanish Civil War who has just returned to New York (with PTSD) to try to get to the bottom of the mysterious death of one of his buddies. He’s not a cop himself but his father was a famous one and so was his buddy who he knows did not commit suicide. To solve the murder, he begins mixing in the posh social circle that surrounded his friend at the time of his death, including with an elderly prince and his adult granddaughter (played by Maureen O’Hara). His attention soon focuses on two refugees from Norway, played by Walter Slezak (in a wheelchair) and Hugh Beaumont, but one, two, or three femme fatales may also be guilty (O’Hara, Patricia Morison, or Martha O’Driscoll). However, just as we begin to understand how McKittrick himself figures in the plot (why he was tortured in a Spanish prison and how this relates to his friend’s death), we also start to question whether his judgment is affected by the PTSD that resulted. He keeps hearing a limping man, perhaps the same limping man he heard coming down the hall from his dark cell or perhaps just a recurring traumatic memory. Unfortunately, this tantalizing ambiguity slowly dissolves into a muddled plot where it is hard to keep the various side characters and their motivations straight (until the villain is revealed and it all seems so obvious). Yet, through it all, Garfield holds his blustery own as McKittrick, a noir protagonist navigating through a confusing world, questioning his own sanity but gifted with a moral compass that guides him through even to the final scene where he must do the right thing.