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.

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.

Under-rated, unpretentious B-movie that keeps you guessing till the end. David Sumner's 'surly' and unlikeable lead grows on you once you realise that he never lets up; and the ending doesn't let you down. An uncompromising gem. Made on the cheap, for sure - they even stint on the fog - and Montgomery Tully was a hit-and-miss director at best, but this film is about ten years ahead of its time and still has a kind of individualism that weathers the fifty-or-so years that have elapsed since then rather well. From prison to a halfway house to eventual employment to a tentative relationship with a woman who ditches our 'hero' as soon as she finds out about his criminal past ...and then a trap is set, for he is under constant suspicion. This is one of those stories where much of the 'important' stuff -the killings, the planning of a heist- happens off-screen. And it's all the better for it.

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.

An interesting companion piece to Ken Loach's new film 'Sorry You Were Out' in which ex-con David Sumner gets a job as a delivery driver in the fictional London suburb of Eastgate, where his surly demeanour and lack of interest in delivering on time would ensure he didn't last five minutes in today's gig economy.

Although his previous form doesn't include violent sex offences, his abrasive personality results in him immediately coming under suspicion for a series of murders being committed every full moon in a lonely local area known as 'The Flats'. On paper that plot sounds like Gothic Horror, but it's mainly played (and photographed) as a police procedural; with platinum blonde policewoman Susan Travers letting her hair down to go undercover. As a trained police sergeant she should have been better able to defend herself when it's eventually her turn to get attacked in the fog; but there's a final satisfying revelation literally in the last minute which answers at least one question that had been looming ever larger on my mind as the film had been progressing.