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.

My copy of this film is very difficult to watch (lots of vertical wavy lines), so it was tough to stick with this film, but it was an interesting 1930s murder mystery. It was fun to see lots of old cars with running boards all over the street scenes. The acting was competent, & the plot involved a novel idea (of "frozen" bullets). You have to forget about the fact that the killer carried these "frozen" bullets around for hours in his pocket, but that's a mere insignificant detail in a "Poverty Row" film such as this one. I rate it 5/10.

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)

"A stage company cast finds themselves terrified when a bizarre killer known as 'The Fiend' targets them for death. A pair of reporters and their clumsy photographer set out to work the story of 'The Fiend' and find themselves targets as well. Just as you think our trio of heroes has the case solved, you're thrown another twist that has you wondering who the killer really is," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.

Taking "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" to Hollywood, producer Sam Katzman's lack of studio settings probably helps "A Face in the Fog" look interesting, especially toward the end (1930s traffic). The direction could be improved upon; for example, the camera angle on the fight scene is not helpful. The budget appears slight. Under the circumstances, most of the silent/talkie crossover cast perform it amiably.

**** A Face in the Fog (2/1/36) Robert F. Hill ~ Lloyd Hughes, June Collyer, Al St. John

A mysterious murderer known as The Fiend is targeting the people of a theatre. To draw the killer into the open, newspaper reporter Jean Monroe (June Collyer) writes an article claiming that she saw his face and can identify him; naturally that makes her a target. Sure enough, the killer strikes but isn't successful. Jean's love interest Frank Gordon (Lloyd Hughes) tries to protect her while playwright Peter Fortune (Lawrence Gray) assists the police in apprehending the villain.

This poverty row effort is so cheap that it doesn't even deliver on the fog promised in the title (or sound effects for a gun firing, for that matter).

Sloppily written and directed, with no notable performances (unless you count Al St. John as comic relief photographer Elmer, who is only notable for being so thoroughly irritating), the film lurches awkwardly from scene to scene. There's a modicum of fun to be had from the ridiculous idea of a gun (silently) firing frozen poison into the victims and leaving no marks, and the hunchbacked killer in black cloak and hat is suitably menacing, but the film is too slapdash and laboriously talky to be an effective thriller.

3.5/10, rounded up to 4 for the entertaining acrobatic dance rehearsal at the theatre.