Footsteps in the Fog (1955) - film review

London, in the early 1900s.   When she discovers that her employer, Stephen Lowry, poisoned his wife, housemaid Lily Watkins soon turns the situation to her advantage.  She blackmails Lowry into making her his housekeeper and dismissing the other servants, although her motive is not malice but love.  She worships her master and dares to imagine that he might one day love her.  But Lowry’s feelings towards Lily are far from tender.  Seeing her as a threat, he decides to kill her.  One foggy evening, he follows her out into the street and strikes her with his walking stick.  However, it is not Miss Watkins he kills but an innocent woman.  On the testimony of two men who witnessed the attack, Lowry is arrested and tried, but acquitted on false evidence provided by Lily.  To show his gratitude, Lowry tells Lily that he intends to marry her and start a new life with her in America.  In fact, he has already made up his mind to marry Elizabeth Travers, the daughter of his business partner.   He must now rid himself of Lily once and for all – but how...?

During his long and productive career as a filmmaker, Arthur Lubin never earned the critical acclaim that he deserved, although his films, mostly low budget B-movies, were often very popular and directed with great flair.  His diverse oeuvre includes film noir dramas such as Gangs of Chicago (1940), thrillers such as Who Killed Aunt Maggie? (1940) and several entertaining Abbott and Costello comedies.  His biggest hit was his 1943 version of the Phantom of the Opera, now considered a classic in the horror genre.  

Footsteps in the Fog is one of Lubin’s lesser known films, one of the few films he made in England, and arguably one of his finer achievements.   Based on W.W. Jacobs’s novella The Interruption, the film combines Hitchcockian suspense with a hint of Sirkian melodrama, an implausible concoction that works surprisingly well.  Lubin borrows some of the familiar film noir motifs (high contrast lighting and odd camera angles) to build tension, whilst the art department comes up with a remarkably authentic representation of Edwardian England.

The film marks the fourth and final pairing of Stewart Granger and Jean Simmons, at the time one of the silver screen’s most famous couples.  Married in 1950 (but divorced a decade later), they had previously starred opposite one another in Adam and Evelyne (1949), Caesar and Cleopatra (1945) and Young Bess (1953).  That the passion had gone out of their marriage is apparent from their distinctly cool on-screen rapport on this film, although both actors still manage to turn in an exemplary performance.

Granger is at his best when he plays calculating evil and here is utterly vile, to the extent that Simmons, well cast as the conniving femme fatale, appears as the blameless innocent.  So convincing are their performances that you can’t help wondering whether this might possibly be a case of art mirroring real life a little too closely.  The contributions of these two stars are suitably complemented by an excellent supporting cast which includes such distinguished British actors as Bill Travers - better known as Virginia McKenna’s other half in Born Free (1966) – and William Hartnell – who would achieve stardom as the first Dr Who.  With its astutely cynical portrayal of human nature and torturously suspenseful plot, Footsteps in the Fog is a dark yet compelling work that deserves to be more widely appreciated.

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

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