Nitpicking

I saw this for the first time today, on TCM, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Yes, I noticed most of the improbables you've raised but they didn't impair my enjoyment, I suppose partly because I was thinking more of the general scenarios rather than specific questionable details, and partly because I love George Sanders's trademark manipulative and specious persona.

The only one you raise that really troubles me is the cashing of the check. As you say, there's no way that Wilson wouldn't have called his bank to stop the check long before any thief had a chance to cash it. Nor can I think of any way that the plot can be repaired to eliminate this inconsistency while preserving the thrust of the story (unless, unbeknown to Wilson, the two critical documents the wallet contained just happened to fall from the wallet while it was being retrieved or returned to his pocket).

I agree that it's unlikely that they could have found Sabourin so quickly but, as far as I can tell, that incident isn't fundamental to the plot and could have been left out, though I guess it provides an element of early excitement as Wilson comes within inches of the actual location of his purloined wallet.

I think I can answer one of your questions for you, viz., "Why did Wilson think Clement stole his wallet? Why not one of the hundreds of other people at the station?" Recall that on the ship in conversation with Wilson, Sabourin gave a strong hint that he [Sabourin] was a dishonest person, or at least disposed to dishonest practices. Also, weren't they standing in close proximity at the time the wallet dropped?

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Clement was able to cash Wilson's check the day following the theft, despite Wilson saying that he'd be contacting his bank to stop payment. That could have been done in a phone call, so Clement shouldn't have been able to cash the check.

SPOILERS

This was a major plot point, which was explained clearly in the movie, and had significant consequences including [spoiler alert] being the start of the chain of events which led to the main character's death.

At the start of the day, Sabourin gave the banker's draft for $20,000 to O'Hara, an employee of a stockbrokers.

O'Hara opened an account for him and bought $20,000 worth of shares. This was on the trust/assumption that the banker's draft would clear, but the purchase was made with the stockbroker's own funds. ie the stockbroker did not wait until after the banker's draft had cleared.

Sabourin was being very reckless, but it was a calculated (though high risk) gamble. He was gambling that the share price would rise quickly and that, by one means or another, he'd be able to get hold of a "clean" $20,000 later in the same day, and use that "clean" money to get back the banker's draft before that banker's draft was presented to the bank.

Sabourin knew that, as you say, the stop had already been put on the banker's draft, and that, therefore, if it was presented to the bank with his name on it, then he would be done for.

As it turned out, things did go the way he had hoped. He was able to get a "clean" $20,000 from Mrs Ryan, and was able to persuade O'Hara to retrieve the "dirty" banker's draft before the authorities realised what had happened.

However, Sabourin ultimately played a high price. O'Hara knew what Sabourin had done, and he insisted on becoming part of Sabourin's future criminal enterprises as his price for returning the banker's draft to him. When Sabourin decided that he wanted to give up is ill-gotten gains to try to make a deal to stay in the US, O'Hara was unwilling to give up his share, and tried to stop him by shooting him.

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the check was not cashed but you raise some valid problematic plot points.

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