Best movie of this year hands down!

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Political and Propaganda Picture, this John Garfield Film-Noir has its Pro-War Message Buried Deep in 1940 Pre-War Foreign Intrigue Involving Fascist and Hitler's Henchmen Coming to America to Recover an Important and Symbolic Emblem.It is All Convoluted into a Multi-Character, Twisted Plot that is so Confusing and "Foreign" at Times it sort of Begs for the McGuffin to be Forgotten for a While. But that Never Happens. People Talk about it Relentlessly and as the Viewer Strains for it All to Make Sense the Movie is in Danger of Losing Anyone who was Initially Interested.But Garfield and a Pretty Good Cast Including a Stiff Looking but Stunning Maureen O'Hara and some Great Noir Cinematography and Claustrophobic Sets Keeps Things Engaging. There is some Cutting Edge Talk about Torture and the Psychological Scarring of Garfield Returning from a POW Camp Suffering from Hallucinations and Confusion is Central to the Perplexing Plot, Suspicious Loyalties, and Spy Stuff.Overall the Overwritten and Obscure Talking about so Many Characters keeps this from Excellent Status, but Garfield's Mental Instability and an Underlying Creepy Factor make this an Above Average War Story about Life During Wartime.

Maureen O'Hara once told me that no studio photographed her to better advantage than RKO and, after seeing this movie once again, I have to agree. I also found it refreshing to see her play a role different from what was usually expected of her. John Garfield is always wonderful, but for me the most interesting character was that played by the great Walter Slezak. This actor dominates every scene he is in and should be remembered and appreciated as much as other similar greats such as Sydney Greenstreet. As for the story, I think this is an example of style trumping narrative. The RKO style (camera, sets, art direction, etc.)was second to none and for those of us appreciative of such visuals, this movie is a treat.

Hollywood fought World War II on many fronts: most obviously, in its documentaries and war dramas; in genre series coopted for the war effort (such as Sherlock Holmes programmers); and in thrillers dedicated to smoking out the Fifth Column at home (The House on Ninety-Second Street). There was also a more complicated, ideologically tinged kind of movie, not simply anti-Nazi but more broadly `anti-Fascist' (and defiantly leftist). Lillian Hellman's Watch on the Rhine was one; The Fallen Sparrow was another.John Garfield (who else?) survived torture while fighting for the anti-Franco forces in the Spanish Civil War, but it took its toll; he recuperated in a sanitarium in the Southwest. Upon returning to New York – where a war buddy has met death by defenestration from a penthouse party – he finds some of his friends traveling in the same circles as vaguely sinister Europeans and fly-specked aristocrats – Germans, Italians, Spaniards – who take a perverse interest in him. Among them is Maureen O'Hara (in a dark, forties updo), who runs hot and cold when it comes to his advances. The dense plot of The Fallen Sparrow collapses into a noirish muddle. Multiple heavies purr in a babel of as many stage accents (Hugh Beaumont's Prussian the most amusing of them). Walter Slezak plays a mittel-European professor whose passion seems to be the aesthetics of torture, and whose limp summons up nightmares for Garfield. There are also family crests dating from at least the Borgias (whose speciality was goblets of poisoned wine), a senile old curmudgeon who believes he'll be restored to the throne of France, and a tattered standard Garfield has rescued from Spain, which becomes this film's black bird....Following all these threads require rapt attention, but who would be willing to devote anything less to the fight against Fascism? The film borrows from such immediate predecessors in the nascent noir cycle as The Maltese Falcon (especially the ending) and The Glass Key. It cooks up plenty of atmosphere but lacks vital clarity. It's not without interest – the attention to the psychological aftermath of torture is a bold and courageous stroke – but with its political passions looking quaint, if not naive, this overheated melodrama leaves a scorched aftertaste.

Thank you Turner Classic Movies and Robert Osborne for introducing us to this excellent specimen of film noir. What is obvious to John Garfield fans is his passion and energy that he pours into his characters. Along with his performance, Maureen O'Hara is in an unusual role as the mysterious girl friend. A thriller!