My Review of ‘Out of the Fog’ (1941)
Hi, today I’m reviewing Out of a Fog from 1941.
I saw this on TCM Noir Alley and Eddie Mueller called it a proto-noir, I believe. And yeah, that description does seem to fit. It’s not quite film noir yet, but it’s definitely getting into that territory. And it is actually kind of a film noir, but really more, it’s more like a gangster movie that’s creeping into film noir territory. I thought it was okay as a movie. I thought it was kind of slow moving in some ways and kind of corny in some ways. But I think the thing that really got me about this movie was watching John Garfield, who I normally think of as a sympathetic character, be such a mean guy. I mean, he plays this gangster who’s extorting these fishermen, and it’s really kind of revolting and you just want to kill him.
But anyway, he gets involved with Ida Lupino, and that’s the other thing that really got me about this movie, Ida Lupino playing such a dishrag. I just wanted to say, “Wake up, girl.” But then again, I could completely understand where she was coming from. She’s like, “I don’t want to live my life as a fishwife on this waterfront all the time.” And so you can kind of see all the Depression era roots in this movie. It’s based on a play called The Gentle People and the gentle people are the people in the boats who are being extorted, of course. And the whole thing is about exploitation of people in this position and how the powerful exert control over the weak and the not-so-powerful. And so for that, I mean, it’s worth watching. I mean, especially for cineates. I mean, true cineates. This one is worth watching, I suppose.
And because it really gives you a flavor for that whole historical, all that time there. The films that came out of the Depression are interesting. I mean, I could probably do a whole series on that, on the fact that there were so many really upbeat Yeah, yeah, yeah movies during the Depression to counteract all that depression. And also at the same time, you had this gangster stuff coming up and real dark stuff. So this is a really interesting movie as kind of an in-between, between that period and the solid film noir period of the forties and fifties.
As for the actors, I love them all. I love Ida Lupino, I love John Garfield. Eddie Albert was in the unenviable position of playing the normal nice guy who, of course, always looks so dull and boring compared to the bad guy, I guess. As you see in Out of the Past, for instance. Now there’s a film noir. Anyway, how did I get on that subject? I don’t know.
But it’s a good film, one that I would recommend for cineates, particularly because of the whole historical context really. And there’s a lot of history that goes into the making as far as what could and couldn’t go into this film because there were definite changes from the end of the play that had to be made because of the Hayes Code and all of that. Anyway, that’s it for me and I’ll talk to you later. Thanks.
Here’s the trailer!
I’ll give it 4 stars!
*****
Directed by Anatole Litvak
Screenplay by Robert Rossen, Jerry Wald, and Richard Macaulay (based on the play The Gentle People by Irwin Shaw)
Produced by Hal B. Wallis
