Fog Island

Watching this reminded me of staying up late at night in the early 50s after mom and dad went to bed. Cheaply made, mediocre acting, and a spooky soundtrack.

It was interesting to hear the Theme from "The Whistler" radio show in the first few moments after the opening credits. But there is no other mention of a conn3ction to the radio show in the film.

Wow, Atwill and Zucco together at last. I was expecting crackling transformers, electrical arcs, and monsters galore. No such luck. They do have one minor face-off, but I don't think the producers knew what sinister potential they had in these two veteran madmen.

It's a typical PRC cheap budget— a big drawing room, some secret passages, and an underground room that becomes a swimming pool at inconvenient times. And that's about it. The plot's supposed to be about an island host (Zucco) using a ruse to get people who wronged him onto his island as guests so he can get revenge. Maybe the premise is not very original, but it does have potential. Trouble is there's very little development producing either suspense or mystery. Mostly, it's scattered dialog and playing hide and seek in semi-darkness. In short, the narrative's a series of individual occurrences that fail to build beyond themselves. Thus, we're left with a few interesting set-ups but little more. Too bad.

Oh yes, mustn't forget not just one spider woman, but two—Borg and DeWit. Both are tall, forceful, and attractive. Like Zucco & Atwill, they do have one minor face-off, but I guess I was hoping for an all-out catfight, or more aptly a lioness fight. Now that would have been memorable. Anyway, the film does have its moments, but fails to cohere into anything more.

This genre of mystery film began in the twenties and ended in the early 1940's. It is a good late night movie to be seen before bedtime. It has none of the overkill of the movies of the 1990's.

Fog Island is a rather creepy little chiller from B-movie specialists PRC.

A man who lives in a creepy mansion with his step-daughter on a small island shrouded in fog invites some of his friends to stay. This mansion has hidden extras including secret passages and hidden doorways. The man also gives each of his "friends" strange little gifts including a skull, a key and a times table book. This man has a reason for all this though and strange things start happening...

This movie is quite creepy and atmospheric even though a little slow moving at times.

The cast includes horror B-movie regulars George Zucco (The Flying Serpent, Scared To Death) and Lionel Atwill (The Vampire Bat, House of Dracula).

Fog Island is worth a look at. Not too bad.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

I would have voted 6, but had to subtract one for the grizzly, bouncy print, even the DVD print purchased from DeepdiscountDVD was wretched (not their fault.) But, the price was right, under $5.00 on sale. The actors were wonderful in their scenery chewing portrayals of the various greedy characters. Many of them were quite well known actors in the 40s. The only truly bad acting was by the two actors portraying the young lovers, whose characters added no value to the story anyway. The other reviews pretty well cover the story and need not be repeated here. The story was adapted from the play "Angel Island". What was fun about the movie presentation is that it doesn't stray far from the stage play form. The scenes don't change often and the action is concentrated in one spot. This helps maintain the continuity of the story, which in low budget presentations can quite often get lost. If you like stories like "Ten Little Indians", you'll like this.