A Face in the Fog

A bizarre killer called "The Fiend" is holding the city in a grip of fear. No one has seen his face and lived to describe it. He kills with a diabolical poison but there is never a wound on the body. Who is he? How does he commit his crimes? Is he a madman or is he dangerously sane?

This thriller from 1936 came very late into the genre. In fact this was the year the first great cycle of terror films ended due to the British market drying up. Still it is a fun film that mixes suspense with comedy.

Frank Gordon and Jean Monroe (Lloyd Hughes and June Collier) are reporters for the "Daily Journal". Jean prints an article that she has seen the face of The Fiend which gets her marked as a victim. With Frank helping the cops in tracking down clues they track the seemingly crippled, hunchbacked killer to a theatre where a musical show is going on. Hardly have they arrived when the shows lead dancer becomes the next victim. With the producers worried the bad publicity will wreck the show and the playwright playing amateur detective it'll be a miracle if Frank and the cops can get anything done.

If this movie had been made 6 years earlier I would have expected Sheldon Lewis to be in the cast. Whoever dreamed up the character of The Fiend seems to have borrowed a few pages out of Mr. Lewis' acting manual though because our villain reminded me a lot of The Clutching Hand. Of course the idea of a caped, limping hunchback goes back to the 1926 serial OFFICER 444 and maybe even further than that. usually the villain turns out to be an ordinary person in makeup but knowing Who does not always mean knowing Why and that is what keeps us guessing throughout many of the movies in this genre. A FACE IN THE FOG is no exception to that rule.

Acting is fairly competent all around. Lloyd Hughes is best remembered (by me anyway) as the brave reporter who goes with Wallace Beery and Bessie Love to THE LOST WORLD in 1925. Watch for Al St. John as Elmer, the photographer who is scared of his own shadow and keeps tripping over his own feet. Al got started with Mack Sennett and appeared with people like Buster Keaton and Fatty Arbuckle. In the 40's he grew a beard and became "Fuzzy" St. John and acted in dozens of B western with Buster Crabbe, Eddie Dean and any other sagebrush hero who needed a sidekick.

Okay so the comedy relief gets a little strained at times. At one point Frank gets Elmer on the phone and tells him to call the cops because The Fiend is close by. Elmer faints on the spot and when he comes to an hour later the police already have a suspect in custody. The one musical number we get to see is . . .well . . .okay, but it is obvious producer Sam Katzman was no Busby Berkley. As for suspense, expect plenty!

Give this one a chance. You will not be disappointed.

A Face in the Fog is a very derivative 1930's mystery movie. We have many of the staples of the genre – a mysterious black cloaked villain, a bubbly and inquisitive female journalist, a cowardly comedy character, a ridiculous murder method, etc etc. So it isn't exactly breaking the mould to say the least. However, it isn't too bad as these films go either. Unlike many mystery movies of the time, this one actually remembers to include some suspenseful moments. OK, it's hardly a white knuckle ride but it does have a reasonable villain and a good enough final confrontation; while the mystery is reasonably diverting enough. And last, and by no means least, it's very short so it never really outstays its welcome. These old Poverty Row films are for the most part extremely limited and lacking, and while this one doesn't entirely break away from that generalisation, it's one of the more entertaining ones.

Newspaperman Lloyd Hughes and newspaperwoman June Collyer want to get married, but first they need to track down the Fiend, a hunchback who's been attacking a theatrical company putting on a play by author Lawrence Gray. The fiend poisons people, but takes a break to shoot at Miss Collyer. He keeps hitting other people, who die of poisoning. The two are helped -- if that's the word -- by cameraman/comic relief Al St. John, who seems not to have read the script, but walks around with a vague, wary expression and responds to everything with "So long as you've got your health."

It's a cheap and unengaging piece of tripe, with stars who have long since lost their luster the only draw, just the sort of thing you'd expect from producer Sam Katzman. Director Robert Hill does not require his actors to speak loudly enough to reach the back row of the balcony, for which I credit sound man J.S. Westmoreland.

I've always been a fan of films where the killer is disguised in some way.....usually hunchbacked, a long cloak, a hat pulled down over his face, and a decided limp. That's why i LOVE this film! :)

(Other films with "disfigured murderers" are The Bat Whispers, Miss Pinkerton & the Cat & the Canary).

This film also uses a stock music track that was most noticeably used in "The Clutching Hand" serial...........viewing this film, it's difficult to believe that this film is a LATE 30's entry!!!

A weird-looking killer, known as "The Fiend" is out to murder the members of a Broadway show, with a most unusual weapon (no spoiler here!).

The lites go out, and the person is dead....they've been poisoned, but without a mark on them!

Two newpaper employees try to track 'em down (to get the scoop and the reward money for their honeymoon----they do, of course!).

Despite what the "trivia" says, this film IS NOT "LOST" !!!!!!!!!!!!! I have a copy of it, and i imagine that there are others out there somewhere.

This is a MUST SEE........IF you're lucky enuff to find it!

Norm

A reporter claims to have seen the face of "the Fiend", a hunchbacked killer dressed in black that is terrorizing a city and a theater in particular by poisoning people by some unknown means. The Fiend naturally makes her his next target and she has to go on the run. Hooking up with a reporter she attempts to find out the killer and remain alive.

Fast moving and making almost no real sense whats so ever this movie is as artificial a mystery as you can get. Its best described as taking a 1930's mystery and stripping it of anything other than the mystery mechanism (Murderer is on the lose killing people) while throwing in cliché characters, comic relief and making any revelation either a red herring or more likely a twist out of the left field of a ball park two cities over just to keep things going.

In any real sense its a mess, however as a pure machine it works. As totally mindless mystery time killer it can entertain you. Its the type of thing where you can pretty much guess the killer the instant he appears, but you don't care and can't be sure because the film is making so many odd turns that nothing makes sense even though you're hoping it will.

I don't know if you should search it out, but if you run across it an want to see as nonsensical and stripped down mystery as you can get its worth a shot. (I just don't recommend this if you need things to make and real linear sort of sense)