“John Garfield (the cat?) and Maureen O’Hara…I just want to see the sparrow!”
“What does this ‘canary‘ have to do with sparrows? Wish she’d stop that caterwauling!”
“This movie is a bust. No sparrows, no kitty!”
Andy checks out.
Of course, he comes back a short time later for a catnap.
=(^+^)=
“The Fallen Sparrow” isn’t about sparrows, of course, except metaphorically. Andy got it wrong.
Garfield was intense, probably acting at the best I ever recall him acting. Too bad he died of a heart attack at 39 because he easily was one of the top actors of his time.
As for Maureen O’Hara…whew!.. she was very good in this film, too, and the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen! She almost stole the scenes she was in, as long as she wasn’t acting against Garfield. The two were intense, easily as matched as Bergman and Bogart in “Casablanca” or Bogart and Bacall in any film. [“If you want me, just whistle. You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow.” – my favorite scene from “To Have and Have Not”!]
The film was shown as part of a film noir series on TCM Channel, though it had a spy aspect, noting the Garfield character fought Franco’s fascist nationalists as a member of the Lincoln Brigade. Captured, tortured by a Nazi who flew in from Berlin to Spain once a month, he escapes to America, suffering post-traumatic stress disorder. He gets – mostly – over PTSD at a rest ranch in Arizona, returns east to spend the rest of the film trying to unravel the murder of a friend… and to find and kill the torturer he can identify only by the fact he drags one foot when he walks.
But no sparrows! Andy got that much right. On the other hand, it was very entertaining. I always enjoy a Garfield film and will remember Mauree O’Hara for being her most beautiful in this film.