Fog Over Frisco

Bette Davis gets top billing even though she isn't in two thirds of the movie? Well, considering how boring the leads were, she deserved it. This films crams a lot into 68 minutes. Red herrings, wild car chases, a butler with a secret and of course Bette Davis as the one who sets it all off, it's all in the film. Davis as Arlene Bradford, seems always in command, that her fate is a little shocking but not unexpected and a little bit delicious. With her short blonde hair and the tight shiny dresses, she is quite a welcome sight. A short fun little film.

LOVE the butt-snapping game the reporters play at the city desk of the newspaper. That scene was a little risqué for its time, but the Hayes Code hadn't quite kicked in yet. It's a possible kidnapping of a rich, scheming socialite Arlene Bradford (Bette Davis). William Demarest is the reporter "Spike" who gets the call to check out the story. It's a Warner shortie, at 68 minutes, and just one of the four films Davis made with director William Dieterle in the 1930s. Margaret Lindsay and Donald Woods co-star. Alan Hale Sr. is Chief O'Malley, of course. No movie could be made in the 1930s or 1940s without Hale. Regular TCM viewers will also recognize Douglass Dumbrille as "Josh Maynard"; Dumbrille had made "A Day a the Races" and "The Big Store" with the Marx Brothers. Gordon Westcott plays Joe Bello, and in real life, Westcott died at 32 in a weird polo accident. The newspaper dudes and photographers are all over this story, so apparently being followed by the news hounds is nothing new... Arlene's dad is played by Arthur Byron, and he died only a couple years after making this. Some GREAT scenery of foggy San Francisco. The story moves pretty quickly, so pay attention! The sound and photography are a little shaky, but it does show on Turner Classic Movies now & then. A Fun, quick paced film, even if Bette Davis doesn't appear in much of the film! /ksf-2

Bette Davis is an absolute delight and this is worth watching just to see her in her pre-code sultry best. There are some great costumes, nice sets and sequences but the plot and direction gets muddled midway after a great 20 minutes at the beginning. They try to cram too much into a short space and then move too quickly without making sense of what happens. There is also some corny screwball stuff which interferes with the flow of the film. This is what you would call a b picture with some good appearances by an interesting cast but it has an identity crisis going from serious danger in the air beginning with hot fox Davis and ends up as your average who done it vehicle.

Considering the reputations and historicity of Bette Davis and Michael Curtiz, why hasn't anyone issued this marvelously little fast-paced film on video? Davis is lightning-sharp as wicked Arlene, and Margaret Lindsay was an interesting early Warners player. I understand that Jack Warner, in the early days of the talkies, used this film to demonstrate what a director could accomplish with a tight budget and filmic expertise.

Mysterious crime, unconventional way of solving it, witty dialog, fast paced events, car chasing, unexpected resolution... are we watching just another detective action film starring Mel Gibson? No, it is 1934 film Fog over Frisco. It is amazing how little has this type of film evolved in last 70 years or so. The only "improvements" we see in modern versions of action films are slimy kissing and love-making scenes, two dozen explosions and rolling stock of a smaller country destroyed. Oh, yeah, done to include something for everyone and to extend the film time to standard one and a half hour.

Well Fog over Frisco is what a good action film should look like. It is absolutely enough to have a bit more than a hour to tell everything. Of course, Dieterle could easily make a film a bit longer and the plot more understandable, but this amazing pace is what makes this film even more special. You are moving in the spiral of events so fast that it is necessary to see it twice to get everything straight.

But this is not all. We see some really exceptional acting here. Bette Davis makes from one seemingly tiny role more than some leading character actors did in the whole acting career. She is absolutely convincing as Arlene, a spoiled and bored rich girl and you can never see Bette in another film to be so beautiful, glamorous, amusing and enchanting. No wonder that most men in film really seem to be in love with her. Margaret Lindsay, who plays a real head role of her step-sister Val, isn't match for Ms. Davis, however she did her part correctly. Other notable performances include Donald Woods playing Tony and Hugh Herbert playing Izzy, who are convincing as a witty reporter - funny photographer pair.

This film is one of the most underestimated films in the whole history of Hollywood and is a must-see for 1930s film period.