ESCAPE IN THE FOG [1945] [Limited Edition] [Blu-ray] [1945 / 2020] [UK Release] Slipping Silently Out Of The Fog . . . Came MURDER!
During World War II, a San Francisco nurse keeps having dreams where she sees two men trying to murder a third and then meets the “victim” in real life. When she meets that man in real life, they team up to tackle a Nazi spy ring in the fog of San Francisco. What she saw in the dream helps her in an effort to thwart enemy spies. An early directorial effort from director Oscar Boetticher, Jr., and ‘ESCAPE IN THE FOG’ is a brisk “film noir” starring Otto Kruger [‘Scandal Sheet’] and Nina Foch [‘Johnny O’Clock’].
FILM FACT: Director Oscar Boetticher, Jr. called it a “nothing” picture, though he enjoyed working with Nina Foch and Otto Kruger. Film critic Jeremy Arnold gave the film a mixed review, writing “Although William Wright and Nina Foch have the most screen time; and top billing goes to Otto Kruger, the immensely enjoyable character actor who specialized in charming, urbane villains. Otto Kruger's fine as always here but doesn't get much to do. William Wright was an unremarkable actor who appeared almost entirely in “B movies” in a 45-film career that spanned the 1940’s.
Cast: Otto Kruger, Nina Foch, William Wright, Konstantin Shayne, Ivan Triesault, Ernie Adams, Jessie Arnold (uncredited), Chin Kuang Chow (uncredited), Edmund Cobb (uncredited), Heinie Conklin (uncredited), Noel Cravat (uncredited), Leslie Denison (uncredited), Tom Dillon (uncredited), Ralph Dunn (uncredited), John Elliott (uncredited), Wing Foo (uncredited), Harrison Greene (uncredited), Chuck Hamilton (uncredited), Dick Jensen (uncredited), Charles Jordan (uncredited), Elmo Lincoln (uncredited), Frank Mayo (uncredited), Mary Newton (uncredited), Frank O'Connor (uncredited), Joe Palma (uncredited), Eddie Parker (uncredited), LeRoy Taylor (uncredited), Victor Travis (uncredited), John Tyrrell (uncredited), Emmett Vogan (uncredited), Robert B. Williams (uncredited), Shelley Winters (uncredited) and William Yip (uncredited)
Director: Oscar Boetticher, Jr.
Producer: Wallace MacDonald
Screenplay: Aubrey Wisberg (original screenplay)
Composers: Ernst Toch (composer: stock music) (uncredited), Louis Gruenberg (composer: stock music) (uncredited), Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (composer: stock music) (uncredited) and Sidney Cutner (composer: stock music) (uncredited)
Cinematography: George Meehan, A.S.C. (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Black and White)
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
Audio: English: 1.0 LPCM Mono Audio
Audio Description: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English
Running Time: 62 minutes
Region: Region B/2
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Columbia Pictures / Powerhouse Films / INDICATOR
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘ESCAPE IN THE FOG’ [1945] welcomes you to Eileen Carr [Nina Foch] nightmare. We find Eileen Carr is walking along San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge on a foggy evening, when out of nowhere, a cab screeches to a halt and three men tumble out, two of them attempting to murder the other. Screams herself awake, Eileen Carr discovers she’s at the Rustic Dell Inn just outside of San Francisco, where she meets Barry Malcolm [William Wright], the man she saw attacked in her nightmare.
Eileen Carr tells Barry Malcolm that she served on a hospital ship that was bombed during the war. Fair enough, because Barry works in psychological warfare. Eileen Carr and Barry Malcolm hit it off so well and so quickly and Barry Malcolm asks Eileen Carr to join him in San Francisco, where he has a work assignment. Eileen Carr is clearly interested, but so is George Smith [Ernie Adams], who picks up a phone in the lobby of the inn, informing someone of Barry Malcolm’s change in itinerary.
What follows involves espionage, double agents, a watch and clock repair shop, a hidden recording device, a ship that doesn’t exist, a creative escape, a clever method of hacking a number from a rotary telephone, and to top it all off, a young Shelley Winters (uncredited) as a taxi driver.
The film ‘ESCAPE IN THE FOG’ also attempts to dabble into psychological territory perhaps more than it should, but after all, this was the era for that. Otherwise, things happen fast and implausibility certainly comes into play more than once, and the film is a better-than-average cast that includes Otto Kruger, Konstantin Shayne, and Ivan Triesault and makes this B-movie a nifty treat.
Written by Aubrey Wisberg and directed by legendary Oscar Boetticher, Jr and the film ‘ESCAPE IN THE FOG’ is a tightly plotted, “film noir” tinged wartime thriller whose only real oddity is Eileen Carr’s dream, which as you will see that the first half of the film unfolds looks increasingly certain to be a premonition, and of course this introduces an element of fantasy into a film that otherwise has its feet in the real world of international wartime espionage, and is all the more peculiar for being an isolated incident whose payoff occurs not at the film’s climax but at roughly the halfway mark.
Thus Eileen Carr is not a clairvoyant but a woman who for some explicable reason experiences a premonition that would allow her to play a crucial part in changing the destiny of a man she’d never previously met, and then never had another. It almost feels as if two screenplays were melded together and explanatory elements were chopped to fit the running time.
* * * * *
Blu-ray Image Quality – Columbia Pictures, Powerhouse Films + INDICATOR presents us the film ‘ESCAPE IN THE FOG’ with a really nice 1080p black-and-white image that is very clean and have no juddering or movement of the image in frame, and all boast a strong sharpness and a fine level of detail and of course it is shown in the 1.37:1 aspect ratio. Occasionally wider shots can feel a little soft, but facial close-ups are impressive across the board, as are the textures of surfaces and clothing. The contrast balance is generally very good, though there is some variance in the strength of the black levels, being a tad softer on darker shots in the film. There is some minor flickering during the foggy scenes in ‘ESCAPE IN THE FOG’ which is the oldest of the Columbia Pictures feature film here, but otherwise no trace of any former wear and tear is evident. So all in all, Columbia Pictures, Powerhouse Films + INDICATOR have done a really good image transfer. Please Note: Playback Region B/2: This will not play on most Blu-ray players sold in North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Learn more about Blu-ray region specifications.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – Columbia Pictures, Powerhouse Films + INDICATOR brings us the film ‘ESCAPE IN THE FOG’ with a standard 1.0 LPCM Mono Audio and it is “fine” throughout the film, and at least it sounds clean enough with no serious signs of damage, and dialogue is clear and easy to hear. This is wonderful, and it very smooth, unobstructed sound cleaner than films twice its age. The same goes for the composed film score, punctuated by pure highs and needed lows in order to capture the tone of the wonderful audio. Like the print, damage is readily avoided, from hissing to popping. Nothing impedes this audio track.
* * * * *
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Special Feature: ‘ESCAPE IN THE FOG’ Audio Commentary with Pamela Hutchinson [Audio only] [2020] [1080p] [1.37:1] [62:38] With this featurette, we get to hear from Film Historian Pamela Hutchinson who is here to talk in-depth about the 1945 film ‘ESCAPE IN THE FOG’ and starts by stating that the film has an interesting supernatural element to it that ultimately goes nowhere, and also talks a lot about certain shots throughout the film and especially the plot elements in the film that Pamela Hutchinson likes and also talks about the elements that haven’t aged particularly well, like how our heroes manages to escape from one situation near the end of the film, but also devotes a whole section about the director that I must confess I’m entirely unfamiliar with. Pamela Hutchinson also talks in-depth about the main actors that appear throughout the film and they are Nina Foch and William Wright and also talks about the setting at the start of the film in fog shrouded San Francisco Bay brief, that the wonderful American actress Nina Foch sees in a nightmare dream that eventually because a reality. Pamela Hutchinson also talks about Nina Foch and the films she has appeared in like ‘An American in Paris,’ ‘My Name Is Julia Ross,’ ‘Executive Suite,’ ‘Cry of the Werewolf’ and The Dark Past’ and Pamela Hutchinson also talks in-depth about the American actor William Wright who was a leading man in films who was most popular in the 1940s when he was typically compared to Clark Gable, whose career was temporarily derailed by World War II and appeared in ‘Eve Knew Her Apples,’ ‘King of the Gamblers,’ ‘Rose of the Yukon’ and ‘Daughter of the Jungle.’ On top of all that, Pamela Hutchinson kind of gets trapped in just talking about what’s going on in the film and the various performers that show up now and again in the film. As we get near to the end of the film Pamela Hutchinson talks in-depth where Nina Foch and William Wright are trapped by the Nazi spies in the Golden Gate Clock & Watch Repairs and have a sort of cat and mouse situation, but William Wright has a brilliant idea of using a lens and some words written on the lend and shines in on a window and that is how they are rescued. For what Pamela Hutchinson has to work with, Pamela Hutchinson still packs in some good interesting topics and keeps things going throughout the whole of the film. Finally, Pamela Hutchinson hopes you have enjoyed viewing the 1945 film ‘ESCAPE IN THE FOG’ and cannot recommend the 1945 “film noir” and thanks you for listening and at that point this Pamela Hutchinson audio commentary comes to an end.
Special Feature: Image Gallery: with this featurette, we get to view 24 wonderful 1080p publicity and promotional images for the 1945 film ‘ESCAPE IN THE FOG.’ It informs us that you have to use the right hand NEXT button on your remote control to advance the images and that to exit this featurette you have to press either MENU or TOP MENU.
Special Feature: The Fleet That Came to Stay [1945] [480i] [1.37:1] [21:12] With this featurette, we get to view a World War II black-and-white documentary propaganda short film in conjunction with The United States Navy, the Combat Photography by the U.S. Navy, and the U.S. Coast Guard in 1945 about the naval engagements of the invasion of Okinawa and was compiled and directed by Budd Boetticher from original combat footage captured during the Battle of Okinawa, and was released shortly after the 1945 film ‘ESCAPE IN THE FOG’ release. The propaganda short film opens with the small talk of the American G.I.’s soon after they find out where they are headed. One notes that some of the American G.I.’s thinks the island looks like San Francisco, while another responds that he once drove from Los Angeles to San Francisco in eight hours, prompting another to boast that he once covered the 360 miles from Buffalo to New York in six. Then it dawns on the servicemen that they will be less than 350 miles from Japan when they get to Okinawa. It comprised primarily of combat footage, it explains the importance of the battle and then offers a quick account through the provided footage. War correspondent Ernie Pyle makes a brief appearance, only weeks before he was killed on an island near Okinawa.
Special Feature: You Nazi Spy! [1940] [480i] [1.37:1] [17:59] With this featurette, we get to view a World War II comedy starring the Three Stooges, in which the trio satirise the Third Reich and help publicise the Nazi threat to American audiences. In this satire of the Nazis, the Three Stooges are paperhangers in the country of Moronica. When evil cabinet ministers overthrow the king, they decide to make Moe the new ruler as he'll be stupid enough to follow their orders. Moe becomes Dictator, Curly is a Field Marshal and Larry becomes Minister of propaganda. At one point a spy manages to work their way in and eventually, as one would guess, things don’t go to plan and total chaos erupts.
Finally, ‘ESCAPE IN THE FOG’ [1945] is quite an interesting “film noir” and especially for its tight plotting, its solid performances, its well-defined characters and the thought that goes into many of their action packed sequences in the film. And yes, I even found the off-the-wall clairvoyance element is oddly engaging. ‘ESCAPE IN THE FOG’ is an early Oscar Boetticher, Jr. film, certainly not as good as his later films, but you can see the talent beginning to develop. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the film comes from the performance of the American actress Nina Foch and the American actor William Wright. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
