Out of the Fog (1941)
A studio film, very Warner Bros. and moody. The plot takes a while to get going, and Ida Lupino finally is a great help to the energy which John Garfield doesn't quite have. But the title makes sense from the get go-even though this is Brooklyn and not San Francisco. The photography by James Wong Howe is enough to keep me going...so what happens beyond the camera? This is a war-era film, and it's about people trying to make it in a world not sympathetic to the poor. Lupino plays a naive girl, Stella, whose father (the always likable Thomas Mitchell) is getting shafted by a small time chiseler Goff (Garfield). Everyone is trying to succeed in small ways. Stella wants to rise out of the hood, Goff is trying to muscle his way out being a tough guy, and Mitchell just wants to finish his day's work as a tailor so he can go out at night and fish. There is plenty of sentiment and lighthearted humor to fill two movies, and it's only the brooding foggy night that illuminates most scenes that keeps it serious. Garfield is a sorry weak point in this whole enterprise because he is meant to be an actually scary guy and he's sort of pathetic, not only as an actor too self-conscious for a good movie but also he lacks weight. And he needs to be convincing to make the rest of the plot work. Lupino is a shining bit of brightness that seems to represent the future, a kind of unformed and uneducated talent that deserves more than life gives her. The fact that Goff is in love with her is a plot convenience that fails to add tension because of Stella's basic naiveté, and her desperate need to simply escape the poverty of Brooklyn. Again, this is a war-era film, made just before Pearl Harbor, and it's loaded with metaphor. Garfield's Goff is meant to be the enemy that deserves defeat at any cost. So the ordinary (and multi-cultural) citizens like Stella's dad and his buddy Olaf (played by the famous character actor John Qualen) have to step outside the normal moral box to find justice. It's a strain, but the point is timely. And the "authority" of the police goes along with the ruse. "It's not such a terrible thing to be ordinary people," says Stella's dad near the end, handing her a cigarette. Such was 1941. "Casablanca" would be next year's comment on the war (complete with John Qualen). Warner Bros. on the move.
A studio film, very Warner Bros. and moody. The plot takes a while to get going, and Ida Lupino finally is a great help to the energy which John Garfield doesn't quite have. But the title makes sense from the get go-even though this is Brooklyn and not San Francisco. The photography by James Wong Howe is enough to keep me going...so what happens beyond the camera? This is a war-era film, and it's about people trying to make it in a world not sympathetic to the poor. Lupino plays a naive girl, Stella, whose father (the always likable Thomas Mitchell) is getting shafted by a small time chiseler Goff (Garfield). Everyone is trying to succeed in small ways. Stella wants to rise out of the hood, Goff is trying to muscle his way out being a tough guy, and Mitchell just wants to finish his day's work as a tailor so he can go out at night and fish. There is plenty of sentiment and lighthearted humor to fill two movies, and it's only the brooding foggy night that illuminates most scenes that keeps it serious. Garfield is a sorry weak point in this whole enterprise because he is meant to be an actually scary guy and he's sort of pathetic, not only as an actor too self-conscious for a good movie but also he lacks weight. And he needs to be convincing to make the rest of the plot work. Lupino is a shining bit of brightness that seems to represent the future, a kind of unformed and uneducated talent that deserves more than life gives her. The fact that Goff is in love with her is a plot convenience that fails to add tension because of Stella's basic naiveté, and her desperate need to simply escape the poverty of Brooklyn. Again, this is a war-era film, made just before Pearl Harbor, and it's loaded with metaphor. Garfield's Goff is meant to be the enemy that deserves defeat at any cost. So the ordinary (and multi-cultural) citizens like Stella's dad and his buddy Olaf (played by the famous character actor John Qualen) have to step outside the normal moral box to find justice. It's a strain, but the point is timely. And the "authority" of the police goes along with the ruse. "It's not such a terrible thing to be ordinary people," says Stella's dad near the end, handing her a cigarette. Such was 1941. "Casablanca" would be next year's comment on the war (complete with John Qualen). Warner Bros. on the move.