Sat 9 Oct 2010
A Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: FOG ISLAND (1945).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[6] Comments
FOG ISLAND. PRC, 1945. George Zucco, Lionel Atwill, Jerome Cowan, Sharon Douglas, Veda Ann Borg, John Whitney, Jacqueline DeWit, Ian Keith. Screenplay by Pierre Gendron, based on the play Angel Island, by Bernadine Angus. Director: Terry O. Morse.
Fog Island cost about a buck-ninety-five to chum out and looks it, but here is a film to sink your teeth into; a stylish, creaky Old-Dark-House thriller directed at penurious pace by someone named Terry Morse and offering a hand-picked cast of cinematic low-lifes including George Zucco, Lionel Atwill, Ian Keith, Veda Ann Borg and Jerome Cowan (best remembered as the short-lived half of the Spade-Archer partnership in The Maltese Falcon) at his slimiest.
Before going on to rave about this thing I should add perhaps that by nomic standards, Fog Island don’t amount to much. The script makes very little sense at all, the sets — when there are any seem about to topple any moment, and the whole affair is served up with a rushed look that seems cheap-jack even by PRC’s bottom-of-the-trash-can standards.
Watching it is like seeing a derelict car chug its clanking way down a superhighway – you can’t believe it’s actually moving right there in front of you, much less understand what keeps it going.
For the record, Fog Island concerns itself with the efforts of recently paroled embezzler Zucco to revenge himself on his unindicted co-conspirators, and their efforts to prise out of him the money they’re sure he squirreled away.
As the plot unspools, hints are dropped here and there that Zucco and/or some of his cronies may or may not be guilty — but these are mostly left unresolved in the haste to get this thing in the can.
What’s left is brilliantly atmospheric and astonishingly grim as Zucco, Atwill et. al. struggle, grasp and claw at each other to see who will emerge Wealthy… or Alive, anyway. Oh. there’s a romantic sub-plot stuck in there somewhere, but Director Morse and writer Pierre Gendron (who worked on Ulmer’s masterful Bluebeard) clearly save most of their interest for the Baddies — who are all played by much more interesting actors anyway.
The big Confrontation scene where Zucco and Atwill pull out all the dramatic stops and hammer away at each other (accent on Ham) with histrionic abandon has — no kidding — Real Chemistry — made all the more compelling by being shot practically in the dark to hide the cheap-o sets.
With nothing to distract us, the eyes are drawn irresistibly to the spectacle of two full-blooded (to put it mildly) performers face-to-face and toe-to-toe in the thespic equivalent of a knockdown drag-out prize fight.
After this emotional high point, Fog Island drags, lurches and stumbles a bit to a conclusion that, as I say, is surprisingly grim and well-realized for a B-Horror/Mystery Movie. The glimpse of impressive artistry someone heaped on this obscure thing while no one was looking makes me despair of facile, expensive things like The Firm and Line of Fire.
Which is not to say that Fog Island is as entertaining as either of them; it isn’t. The only thing it has going for it is the gratuitous energy and enthusiasm of its creators. Which is enough for me.
October 9th, 2010 at 7:28 pm
This is well worth seeing given the caveats of the review (chiefly that you don’t pay more than $1.95 for a copy), largely for the presence of two screen Moriarity’s and horror masters chewing the scenery and each other masterfully.
Almost everyone in the cast saw better days. Veda Van Borg was good as Margo Lane to Victor Jory’s Shadow in the Columbia serial, and had a nice bit as a lady cab driver in THE FALCON IN HOLLYWOOD. Jerome Cowan aside from THE MALTESE FALCON was a notable villain in VICTORY and Geoffrey Homes Humphrey Campbell in CRIME BY NIGHT with Jane Wyman, Jane Greer, and Eleanor Parker.
Zucco fared much better in THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES as the screen’s best Moriarity and has a wonderful role as a droll wry Scotland Yard man playing ably off of Lucille Ball in Douglas Sirk’s noirish mystery LURED.
Atwill always seemed his best in relatively small doses, though he is notable in MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM and MURDER AT THE ZOO. He’s a a fine Moriarity in SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE SECRET WEAPON, and shines in CHARLIE CHAN’S MURDER CRUISE and THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. Rx.
All in all this one is well worth the time — especially at under $2 for the admittance.
October 10th, 2010 at 1:04 am
I read about this one in a film horror book but have never seen. Zucco is always a fun villain and Atwill is one of my favorites. He had a Barrymore flourish to him! He died not long after this film, I believe.
October 10th, 2010 at 4:57 am
I would watch any movie with Atwill and Zucco in (well, nearly any movie). Atwill in particular seemed to relish roles with a big slice of the perverse with them. I love him in MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM and DR. X and I’m hoping one day to catch up with another of his early 30s thrillers MURDERS IN THE ZOO, where he starts the movie by sewing together the lips of one of his victims!
October 10th, 2010 at 5:38 am
MURDERS IN THE ZOO is excellent, plus you have Charles Ruggles and Randolph Scott as the leading man. It’s one of the grislier horror films of the era.
October 10th, 2010 at 8:34 am
Dan is right – this is a classic (of a sort). How wrong can you go with Zucco and Atwill in a movie?
October 10th, 2010 at 1:25 pm
Murders in the Zoo is definitely perverse! Holds up well today, though I could have done fine without the Charles Ruggles “comedy relief.” That sort of thing was all too common back then–it is worse in one section of Werewolf of London.
Atwill portrayed Inspector Krogh in Son of Frankenstein, a character memorably sent up in Young Frankenstein. He’s very good. He also stole the show in Night Monster (a great cast, though again horrible comic “relief”). He had some good “straight” roles as well, like in Johnny Apollo and To Be or Not to Be.