Out of the Fog

A nice little B picture from prolific thriller director Montgomery Tully. The plot is unusual enough to make this stand out and there are some great little moments portrayed very well despite what is obviously a low budget. Heck, even the fog is in short supply here, but OUT OF THE FOG still packs a punch as a murder mystery and has something to say at the same time.

The plot sees the callow and unlikeable David Sumner being released from prison and going to live in a kind of halfway house populated by delightful old lags. Most of these ex-cons are made of great British character actors like Michael Ripper, George Woodbridge, and Richard Shaw. The jovial James Hayter is the nice chap who runs the place. However, this is just the background for the main plot, involving a serial killer with a penchant for strangling blondes.

Sumner is the main suspect and OUT OF THE FOG follows the police's tailing and eventual attempts to apprehend him. Susan Travers has a fine role as the undercover policewoman used as bait. There's a wonderfully evocative ending and lots of good character work en route; nothing much feels out of place, and overall the film is a nice and tidy piece of work.

The heavy overacting by the leading actor was a bit tiresome and got worse as time passed as he played " the angry young man" for all it was worth, this would have been a much better film if he had toned it down a bit. I like James Hayter's deep voice and his films are usually very enjoyable. The ex-cons in the house were a nice mixture of characters and it was unusual to see Michel Ripper in a film without vampires or similar creatures in it him being "Mr Hammer Horror Film Man". A nice period piece but the ending could have been a lot better done. It was probably very cheap to make but it's still worth watching.

This film was recently shown on Talking Pictures and it must be its first outing for many years.I don't recall seeing it on TV before if I had I would definitely have remembered.It builds up very nicely to a truly atmospheric and creepy finale.I can just imagine audiences jumping out of their seats when the stragglers hands suddenly clutch at the blonde policewoman throat.the director,Montgomery Tully is one of those unsung heroes of British cinema of the 1950s.films such as this are far more memorable than the film's they supported.catch it when it is shown again on particular the final ten minutes when you really aren't certain what is going to happen,a rare event for any film in that period.

Ex-con George Mallon (David Sumner) secures a room at a half-way house and a job at a furniture company, but the police won't leave him alone, suspecting him of the murders of several women. Is Mallon innocent or does he really have an uncontrollable urge to throttle pretty, young blondes under the light of a full moon?

Out of the Fog is an entertaining little thriller, although the incessant surliness of its central character does detract slightly from the fun: Mallon's antisocial attitude is necessary in order to cast doubt about his character, but Sumner over-eggs the pudding, his performance proving irritating in the extreme.

Fortunately, the mystery is engaging enough to make the movie worth persevering with, especially when sexy sergeant June Lock (Susan Travers) is ordered to go undercover and act as bait for the killer: posing as a saleswoman at the furniture company, she befriends Mallon, going on several dates with the young man, the police keeping them under surveillance. Mallon isn't fooled, however, and manages to get Ms. Lock alone on the foggy Eastgate 'flats' where the killer always strikes.

To his credit, director Montgomery Tully successfully keeps the audience guessing about Mallon to the very end, making the final reel effectively suspenseful. 6/10.

On his release from prison, George Mallon moves into a hostel for ex-convicts run by Mr. Daniels. When a series of murders of blond women takes place on the local common, the police suspect Mallon, despite having no hard evidence.

Blonde policewoman June Lock is assigned to befriend Mallon as bait for him to attack her. She thinks he's not the killer, but her superiors aren't convinced ... then instead of taking her to the pictures he takes her across the common ...

From the time the pretty blonde is given the job to bait an ex-con with a giant chip on his shoulder and suspected of strangling blondes on the common around the full moon, there were shades of similarity that struck me - very much similar to a Tales of an Unexpected episode called "Decoy" and seeing the rest of this British B film confirmed this. Now I know the writers of Tales of the Unexpected Decoy - writers of this film aren't the same - copied bits from this film. Of course, there's some minor difference between Decoy and Out of the Fog.

Anyways, Out of the Fog is solid second feature with a good cast, crisp direction and decent production values - the finale is fairly tense. It's quite neatly packed thriller. The suspense regarding the ex-con- whether he's a killer not - is maintained right towards the end. I think there's a bit of a "angry young man" social thing going in terms of the ex-cons character who draws heinous pictures which highlights his disdain for certain people, dislikes women and doesn't trust coppers.