The Fallen Sparrow
| The Fallen Sparrow TUT | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Richard Wallace |
| Produced by | Robert Fellows |
| Screenplay by | Warren Duff |
| Based on |
The Fallen Sparrow (novel) by Dorothy B. Hughes |
| Starring |
John Garfield Maureen O'Hara Walter Slezak Patricia Morison |
| Music by | Roy Webb |
| Cinematography | Nicholas Musuraca |
| Edited by | Robert Wise |
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Production
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| Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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94 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $1.5 million (US rentals) |
The Fallen Sparrow is a 1943 spy film starring John Garfield, Maureen O'Hara, Patricia Morison and Walter Slezak. It is based on the novel of the same name by Dorothy B. Hughes. Its plot concerns an American who returns home to find out who murdered his friend.
John "Kit" McKittrick (John Garfield) endured two years of brutal torture after being captured in the Spanish Civil War. However, he managed to withhold the vital information sought by his captors, particularly their leader, a never-seen Nazi with a limp. His lifelong friend, Louie Lepetino, arranged his escape. When Louie, a New York police lieutenant, dies under suspicious circumstances, Kit ends his convalescence in Arizona and returns to the city to investigate. At the end of the trip, he bumps into attractive fellow passenger Toni Donne (Maureen O'Hara).
When Kit goes to the police to find out what they know, Inspector Tobin (John Miljan) tells him it was suicide, but Kit knows better. After arranging to stay in the apartment of another friend, Ab Parker (Bruce Edwards), he begins to make the acquaintance of the various guests at the party in which Louie made his fatal plunge. Among them are noted Norwegian historian and wheelchair-using refugee Dr. Christian Skaas (Walter Slezak), his nephew Otto (Hugh Beaumont), Kit's old flame Barby Taviton (Patricia Morison), who hosted the ill-fated party, and Toni Donne. Also present were singer Whitney Parker (Martha O'Driscoll), who is Ab's cousin, and her piano-playing accompanist Anton (John Banner). Kit is shaken when Dr. Skaas discusses the superiority of modern methods of torture over those of the past; it jibes too closely with what he endured.
Kit does not know whom to trust, but is attracted to Toni, and she to him. However, it turns out that Toni was the only witness to Louie's fall, raising Kit's suspicions. Meanwhile, Kit repeatedly hears, or imagines he hears, the man with the limp, showing that he may not be fully recovered from his ordeal.
Later, when Kit returns to the apartment, he is attacked in the darkness. He manages to gain the upper hand. When he turns on the light, he discovers his assailant is Anton. Anton reveals that Kit was allowed to escape from Spain, and that he has been watched constantly ever since in the hope that he would betray himself. It turns out that Kit's brigade killed a general who was very close to Adolf Hitler. Hitler vowed to get all those responsible and to hang the brigade's battle standard on his wall; Kit knows where the flag is hidden.
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Wikipedia