Just what I expected

Absolutely the worst movie.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Considering this black and white film was released eight (8) decades ago, I will say that I was quite impressed with how well the story line holds up. There are five main characters in this crime/drama film which stars Ida Lupino as a young telephone operator named Stella Goodwin who lives at home with her parents who show little affection towards each other and Stella is still dating the old high school quarterback named George Watkins played by Eddie Albert (Green Acres fame). Now George has a good job in Brooklyn and he loves Stella and some day would like to marry her. Stella though is bored and very restless and she yearns for some excitement to get her out of her dreary Brooklyn neighborhood which her boyfriend George Watkins just does not understand because George is very content with his work, his neighborhood and his girlfriend Stella.Strolling into town is a two bit hood named Harold Goff (played by John Garfield) who has grand ideas that he is going to run Brooklyn and live the high life which includes having as many broads as he so desires. One of those so called broads that he desires is the naive and high strung Stella Goodwin. There is good chemistry and there is bad chemistry. Harold toying with Stella's need for instant gratification and plenty of excitement makes for some bad chemistry, which very quickly implodes not only in Stella's old boyfriend George Watkin's face, but also in Stella's fathers' face Jonah Goodwin played by Thomas Mitchell and his best friend and fishing buddy Olaf Johnson played by John Qualen. Now Jonah and Olaf both work hard during the day and they love to escape in the evening in their tiny conservative fishing boat onto the Brooklyn waterways whether they catch any fish or not, they just want to put their troubles aside for a few hours and enjoy each others company. But trouble follows them in the name of the two bit hood Harold Goff who extorts out of these two fisherman a weekly sum of five (5) dollars to avoid anything harming their boat and/or their personal bodies.The film is interspersed with some light comedy via the many humorous conversations that take place amongst the five main characters as well as by the local restaurant owner Caroline Pomponette, played by Odette Myrtil, who is chasing Olaf (who is the cook) around the restaurant kitchen and even out on the fishermans wharf to marry her and have children with her which Olaf wants nothing to do with her.The film ending is both redeeming and rewarding and right to the bitter end the film continues with some light comedy as well as drama. You know the old adage, "crime doesn't pay"? Well, lets just say that I enjoyed Out Of the Fog even though it is close to a century old now. I give the film a decent 6 out of 10 rating.

Why was this movie even made ? I didn't like any of the characters. The gangster was despicable, without any redeeming qualities. The two old guys were pretty spineless throughout most of the movie. The Eddie Albert character was a nice guy but too boring and predictable. The Ida Lupino character was interesting but why did she go for a total bottom feeder like the gangster ? I realized she wanted more excitement in her life, but how could she pick such a loser as the gangster character ? Finally, the two spineless old men gather the nerve to kill the gangster, but essentially fail. It's only through dumb luck that they make it out alive.

Racketeer Goff extorts money from small boat owners like Jonah and Olaf, while romancing Jonah's daughter! With an equation like this, something's got to give.The movie's very much a product of the leftish 1930's. Note the way it lavishes praise on "ordinary" people, and how happiness is seen as coming to accept one's own ordinariness. Note also the words the vicious Goff is made to say— phrases like "superior people" and "only the strong" surviving. Clearly, Goff amounts to an enemy of ordinary people, and on the eve of WWII, that amounts to a stand-in for fascism. In fact, the movie itself amounts to an allegory of a fascist movement (Goff) that by 1941 had conquered much of Europe, holding its ordinary people either in thrall (Stella) or in fear (Jonah & Olaf).Now, there's nothing wrong with a sub-text like this, except the movie's pretty stagey (a single sound-stage set) and the characters one-dimensional, likely an unfortunate result of the allegorical sub-text. Anyway, there are helpful deposits of humor from the Jewish characters that apparently retains some flavor of the original play. However, the screenplay really cops out by having "God", instead of Goff's victims, take care of the oppressor. In fact, Olaf is made so meek and submissive he's almost craven and unworthy of his dreams. But, I suspect the writers were up against a Production Code that would insist on punishing the two fishermen had they gone through with their plan. Thus God is called in to do the job instead. To me, however, carrying through the plan would have shown that the oppressed can rise up and free themselves without metaphysical assistance, a valuable lesson, I believe, Code or no Code. All in all, the film remains very much a Hollywood adaptation of a much grittier New York play (IMDB Trivia), and a disappointment considering the talent involved.

Always liked John Garfield films and his style of acting, in this film John plays the role as Harold Goff who is a racketeer who lives around the water front and burns people's boats who do not pay for his protection money. Jonah Goodwin, (Thomas Mitchell) is an elderly man who owns a business and loves to fish along with his friend, Olaf Johnson, (John Qualen) who is a chef in a local store. These two men are confronted by Harold Goff who demands five dollars a week protection money for their boat, they eventually give in and start paying him. However, Harold starts dating Jonah Goodwin's daughter, Stella Goodwin and she starts falling in love with him. Harold finds out that Jonah has saved one-hundred and ninety dollars and so he decides to grab that money from him and that is when the trouble starts to happen. This is a great picture and one you will not want to miss. Enjoy.