Out of the Fog

Oddly atmospheric mixture of noir melodrama and semi-comic parable (based on Irwin Shaw's play The Gentle People), in which Garfield's tinpot Dillinger terrorises a small wharfside community by extracting protection money. Problems arise when Lupino, daughter of Mitchell - who eventually plots with Qualen to combat their oppressor - falls for the hood. Originally intended by Shaw as an anti-fascist statement, the film's message is inevitably confused by the fact that Mitchell and Qualen finally take the law into their own hands. Nevertheless, the vivid performances, the occasionally poetic dialogue (by a team of writers that included Jerry Wald and Robert Rossen), and James Wong Howe's excellent moody photography lend it a professionalism that the story barely warrants.