Noirvember: Escape In The Fog (1945)

It’s odd when you decide to spend some time wallowing in film noir and then find that your first viewing choice doesn’t feel as fully noir-ish as expected. Never mind though. I am not one to insist that films always stick within very rigid parameters, and I enjoyed Escape In The Fog enough, even if it wasn’t quite what I was expecting.

Nina Foch stars as Eileen, a woman who starts this movie having a disturbing nightmare about a man being the victim of an attempted murder. Things start to take a turn for the strange when she meets a man, Barry (William Wright), who may actually be the man she just saw in her dream. It turns out that Barry is an agent, about to undertake a dangerous mission, unbeknownst to Eileen, and it isn’t long until a dark dream becomes a tense reality.

Directed by Bud Boetticher (billed here as Oscar Boetticher Jr.) and written by Aubrey Wisberg, Escape In The Fog is a spy thriller that tries to give the melodrama an edge with the atmosphere and palpable sense of danger throughout. Viewers are present while the villains make their plans, keeping us one or two steps ahead of the leads, and there’s fun to be had in watching the moving parts all interconnect and work together like some precision-engineered machine components.

Foch is perfectly fine in her role, and Wright is quite the dapper chap, but the more entertaining performances come from the supporting players, and mainly from the bad guys. Konstantin Shayne, Ivan Triesault, and (in particular) Ernie Adams are more entertaining to watch than the heroes. It’s also worth mentioning a small bit of scene-stealing from Shelley Winters in one all-too-brief moment.

Sadly, beyond the dialogue and cast, nothing really stands out here. The direction, soundtrack, even what you might expect from a third act, it all falls a bit flat. The plotting runs out of steam by the last 5-10 minutes, or so it seems, with an ending that feels more arbitrary than logical and satisfying. Maybe I blinked and missed a key moment, but there were surely a number of better ways this could have ended.

At least it is a slight film though, the runtime only clocks in at just over an hour, and it isn’t pretending to be anything more. Those involved were aiming to provide some fanciful thrills, and they do. Just.

Not recommended, but not one I could ever actively dislike. It is an easy one to add to your viewing schedule if you want to fill an hour though.

5/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews

Murder, My Sweet (1944)

AKA Farewell My Lovely

Dick Powell stars as private eye Philip Marlowe in this adaptation of a Raymond Chandler novel that entertains while never really attaining greatness.

Marlowe's day starts when he's asked by a big moose of a man (Moose Malloy, played by  Mike Mazurki) to track down a woman he loves. Moose turns out to be a bit of a hard man to keep passive, but that's only the start of Marlowe's worries. He then agrees to accompany a man (Lindsay Marriott, played by Douglas Walton) as an exchange is made - cash for a stolen necklace. The exchange doesn't go according to plan, and Marlowe finds himself getting deeper and deeper in trouble, thanks, he suspects, in no small part to Mrs. Helen Grayle (Claire Trevor) and her step-daughter, Ann (Anne Shirley).

Adapted for the screen by John Paxton, and directed by Edward Dmytryk, Murder, My Sweet has some decent dialogue and an entertaining cast of characters (with Moose Malloy particularly reminsicent of some Dick Tracy hoodlum), but nothing feels quite as sharp as it could be.

Powell isn't terribly charismatic in the lead role, which ultimately drags the whole film down a notch, and the two main ladies also fail to really create any sparks, although both do slightly better than anyone else onscreen, with the exception of the enjoyable Mazurki. Donald Douglas is good as an exasperated Police Lieutenant, but Otto Kruger and Ralf Harolde are both instantly forgettable as soon as they move offscreen.

Fans of this type of movie WILL find enough to enjoy here. The plot twists together nicely, a few one-liners tickle the earlobes and the finale is enjoyable and satisfying. But there are many other movies more deserving of your time.

6/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews