Sat 9 Jul 2011
Reviewed by Dan Stumpf: OUT OF THE FOG (1941).
Posted by Steve under Crime Films , Reviews[7] Comments
OUT OF THE FOG. Warner Brothers, 1941. John Garfield, Ida Lupino, Thomas Mitchell, Eddie Albert, George Tobias, John Qualen, Aline MacMahon, Jerome Cowan, Odette Myrtil, Leo Gorcey. Based on the play The Gentle People by Irwin Shaw. Director: Anatole Litvak.
After the three Paula the Ape Woman movies [reviewed here ] and moving on to things more criminous, I watched Out of the Fog, one of those movies that seem to typify a whole era; casting, story, sets and the overall feel of the picture somehow evoke the 1940s Warners “look” so completely, one gets lost in time just watching it.
John Garfield and Ida Lupino, those two echt-40s sub-stars, light the marquee on this one, he as a petty gangster and she as a pretty working girl, drawn to his shallow glamour and staccato sexuality, but the weight of the plot is carried by Thomas Mitchell and John Qualen as a couple of working stiffs leaned on by Garfield for protection money and finally summoning up the courage to rid the world of him — or so they think.
That’s the plot, but the charm of Fog lies in its stylish execution. Anatole Litvak, a Warner’s house director with a European touch, handles the actors well and moves the plot quickly, with some clever quirky moments, like murder plotted in a bath-house under the rantings of George Tobias as a loud-mouth émigré, or a tense interview with a bland and nasty assistant DA played with complete lack of charm by Jerome Cowan (of whom more later) and best of all, the scenes at night, on a foggy river, with Mitchell and Qualen in the foreground like figures out of Winslow Homer, while small boats blink at them and large ships pass in the rippling background — all shot on a studio set with the artistic camera of James Wong Howe, a cinematographer whose credits stretch from Shanghai Express to Hud and beyond, and who imparts a glowing intimacy to a genuinely likable film.
July 9th, 2011 at 8:19 am
I have the sort of mind that delights in making useless and tenuous connections. Here’s one. 33 years later, Ida Lupino guest starred in an episode of Columbo. In OUT OF THE FOG she appears with the second actor to play Lt Columbo–Thomas Mitchell! Mitchell played the detective in the stage play PRESCRIPTION MURDER, which was an adaption of Levinson and Link’s earlier TV play ENOUGH ROPE (with Bert Freed as Columbo). Freed would go on to appear with John Garfield Jr in an episode of the short lived TV series SHANE in the mid 60s.
A Columbia talent scout described Peter Falk as ‘the second John Garfield’.
Sorry.
July 9th, 2011 at 10:31 am
Very very neat. No apologies necessary!
PS. It shouldn’t be hard to work Kevin Bacon in there somewhere, should it?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Degrees_of_Kevin_Bacon
July 9th, 2011 at 10:45 am
Although I haven’t seen it, a book that’s been recommended to me is James Wong Howe–The Camera Eye: A Career Interview, by Alain Silver.
Prompted by that last sentence in Dan’s review, I’ve gone ahead and made the next step. The book is now in my Amazon shopping cart.
July 9th, 2011 at 11:04 am
Steve: Well, it seems that Bacon worked with actor Ted Bartsch, who also worked with Peter Falk, but somehow that seems a little lazy!
July 9th, 2011 at 1:51 pm
Bradstreet: You’re right. I like your connections better. They’re a lot more interesting!
July 16th, 2011 at 9:32 pm
[…] Wong Howe, who was last mentioned here for his work on Out of the Fog, also handled the camera on Seconds, a film which has been described […]
September 27th, 2011 at 4:01 pm
There is a scene in OUT OF THE FOG when George Tobias is in the steam room. He has a towel wrapped around him & he lifts his leg up & he has no underwear!! I was surprised that the editor of the film didn’t catch that..lol