I perversi

When we first see Stephen Lowry (Stewart Granger)he seems to be a grieving widower as he stands beside his late wife's grave in Victorian London .The truth is another thing altogether and we soon learn that he has murdered his wife ,by poison ,and concealed the evidence .Unfortunately for him he was observed by the ambitious and put upon parlour maid Lily Watkins (Jean Simmons)who blackmails him into giving her the job of housekeeper and takes possession of the deceased's jewels .She is also in love with Lowry and he strings her along with promises of marriage while plotting to kill her and marry the dutiful Elizabeth (Belinda Lee)the daughter of his business partner Alfred Travis(Ronald Squire).much to the consternation of straight arrow lawyer David Mcdonald (Bill Travers)who is in love with Elizabeth and who harbours the gravest suspicion about Lowry.

This is a well made movie ,with lavish interiors ,some striking Tecnicolor photography and a moody score .It is strikingly well acted especially by Granger who always appeared at ease in period roles .Simmons struggles a tad with the Cockney accent but still manages to convince as an opportunistic female with a pathetically unrequited love for Lowry .Strong support from Marjorie Rhodes as her nagging boss ,Peter Bull as a prosecuting attorney and William Hartnell as an oily blackmailer also boost proceedings .The whole thing is lushly and slickly made melodrama that stands out from the run of the mill studio product of its time

Stewart Grainger plays Stephen Lowry, an initially sympathetic character. The audience's goodwill dissipates rapidly however, when he maltreats the family cat: some things a hero should never do. He is guilty of even worse, too, but that's not for this review. Suffice it to say that he meets his match and it's then that things become really interesting. Jean Simmons is Lily Watkins, another character who holds our sympathies - but should she? Such is the nature of this terrifically twisting plot that you never really know.

The intrigue takes on a darker turn and thus provides the thrust of the story. All this in a richly furnished, luxurious house that quickly becomes cold and unfriendly - a terrific setting for the bleak drama, all furnished with a host of well-known faces like Victor Maddern, Bill Travers, Peter Bull and the original Doctor Who, William Hartnell. My score is 8 out of 10.

"Footsteps in the Fog" is a truly excellent Victorian drama starring husband and wife team Stewart Granger and Jean Simmons.

Granger plays Stephen Lowry, a man who has murdered his wife and gotten away with it; Simmons plays his maid, Lily, who knows he did it. There are two different paths he can take to keep her quiet. He prefers one way; she prefers the other.

Meanwhile, Lowry has fallen for a beautiful woman, Elizabeth Travers (the luminous Belinda Lee) of his own class, and, after a suitable period of mourning, wants to marry her.

The fly in the ointment there is a solicitor, David MacDonald (Bill Travers) who is also in love with Elizabeth and very suspicious of Lowry's behavior. When Lowry is accused of a crime, Elizabeth asks David to take the case.

This is a really neat film with a surprise ending. The acting is wonderful, as is the atmosphere, which captures not only the danger in certain scenes but the whole ambiance of Victorian London.

Jean Simmons to my mind has always been underrated. She does an excellent job here as the quietly wily Lily. Granger is attractive and plays the fairly unflappable Lowry very well.

Sadly, the gorgeous Lee would die a few years later, at the age of 26, in a car accident. Not only is she lovely in the role, but no expense was spared for her costumes, especially that blue gown.

Filmed in color. Highly recommended. A real buried treasure.

She died last weekend aged 80, a great star whose career never seemed to find a summit, forestalled by middling films and imprecise casting. While this Edwardian Gothic gave her one of her more intriguing roles I've always felt she was too beautiful for it. If Lily the blackmailing housemaid had been less attractive the dangerous affair with her murderous employer would have felt a lot darker, seamier and her final pathos - the little skivvy whose dream-world collapses around her - more acute. When the Grangers are together they look perfectly suited - a married star-team of their day. Full marks to their performances, though.

While one or two plot-twists are far too facile - the brother-in-law mistaking the barrister for Lowry just because he comes out of a room, for instance - Arthur Lubin's direction gets the points across clearly and efficiently though lacking the Hitchcock intensity and lingering touches which might have made this a minor classic. A solid Technicolor production there's nonetheless a certain aura of rush and tweaking here and there with odd continuity slips and scenes that suddenly trail away in mid-sentence. Some bad processing is evident when the rather wet second-leads go driving together in the new horseless-carriage, which at least provides some topically amusing light-relief. But it's a memorable little show overall, good to watch with a last glimpse of Granger that's quite clammy - and now to be cherished more than ever as another movie-icon slips away from us in the dark.

At first glance, FOOTSTEPS IN THE FOG looks to be a traditional Gothic mystery about a maid becoming involved with her sinister master, who may or may not have contributed to his wife's demise. Once you start watching it, though, you quickly realise that this film is anything but traditional. Instead it's a uniquely quirky black comedy, an exploration of some of the seedier aspects of the human condition; the '50s version of VERY BAD THINGS, if you will.

Stewart Granger, who has the capacity to be wooden (see SODOM & GOMORRAH), is a good fit as Stephen Lowry, a shifty aristocrat who thinks nothing of poisoning his wife when he tires of her. Even better is Jean Simmons as his timid maid who decides to take on her master. The whole film hinges on this central relationship, and it's a real zinger.

Excellent production values, plenty of tongue-in-cheek humour, and a finely-judged humorous supporting role for William Hartnell (HELL DRIVERS) all help to provide the interest, and by the end of it FOOTSTEPS IN THE FOG has become a thoroughly engrossing and atypical mystery story with plenty of twists you'll never see coming. A gem, in other words!