Out of the Fog

Directed by Anatole Litvak, Out of the Fog follows several characters, including Ida Lupino’s Stella Goodwin and Eddie Albert’s George Watkins, as they’re forced to contend with the arrival of a vicious hoodlum (John Garfield’s Harold Goff) within their small, sleepy town. Filmmaker Litvak, armed with Robert Macaulay, Robert Rossen, and Jerry Wald’s screenplay, delivers a progressively compelling endeavor that gets off to a less-than-promising start, as the picture kicks off with a meandering first act that admittedly feels as though it’s laying the groundwork for everything that’s to come – and yet it’s equally clear that the stagy, talky atmosphere does little to effectively capture and sustain the viewer’s initial interest. There’s little doubt, then, that Out of the Fog improves considerably as it slowly-but-surely transforms into an agreeable melodrama, with the inclusion of several engrossing sequences (eg Stella’s father attempts to warn her away from Goff) going a long way towards perpetuating the increasingly watchable vibe – although it’s fairly apparent that the movie’s success is eventually due almost entirely to Garfield’s exciting, electrifying turn as the impressively villainous antagonist. The satisfying bent of the film’s climactic stretch, which boasts a palpably tense interlude involving a midnight boat ride, ensures that Out of the Fog concludes on a strong note, with the end result a stirring adaptation that ultimately does receive plenty of mileage out of Garfield’s mere presence (ie he’s just that good here).

*** out of ****