Escape in the Fog (1945)

The ESP angle isn’t the most unbelievable facet of this movie, 14 December 2020

A woman, Eileen Carr (Nina Foch), has a nightmare where she witnesses a man being beaten on a bridge.  She wakes from her sleep to find the man, whom she’s never met, in her room.  Is her dream a premonition of things to come?

While there were bits and pieces of Escape in the Fog that I enjoyed, overall the film just didn’t work for me.  My main issues with the film center on two things – actor William Wright and his character Barry Malcolm.  Wright was too bland for my liking.  At no time while watching the movie did he come across to me as the hero / leading man type.  The fact that this guy could get a woman to run off with him to San Francisco after knowing each other for a few hours was more unbelievable than the movie’s ESP hokum.  As for Barry Malcolm, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more stupid, careless secret agent in a film.  For example, Malcolm too easily trusts this woman he’s just met with top secret government information.  How does he know she’s not a foreign agent?  Another example, he receives some important information on a slip of paper.   Does he destroy the paper after reading it?  No.  Of course the baddies get hold of it and know exactly what he’s up to.  Just two examples, but you get the idea.  Some of the other characters do some pretty dumb stuff, but Malcolm’s idiocy really took me out of the movie.

Finally, what’s with that dime store badge Malcolm carried?  All he had to do was flash that cheap looking thing and anyone in authority immediately did what he asked.  I’m not sure why the bad guys wanted the papers he was carrying – why not go after that all powerful badge?

 

4/10