Out Of The Fog (1941) Movie Review & Film summary, Cast

Based on an Irwin Shaw play, it has that familiar refrain of Key Largo in comparing Nazi-type ideology with gangsterism, and also (with Robert Rossen co-scripting) sneaks in a few capitalism-as-evil points too – paging Joe McCarthy! Garfield’s garrulous ratbag of a villain is fond of pseudo-ubermensch pronouncements and we know he deserves just about any nasty fate when he beats Thomas Mitchell with a rubber hose. It’s the only film I’ve ever seen where Garfield plays a complete asshole and he does it exceptionally well; Ida Lupino matches him as Mitchell’s hot-to-trot daughter who mysteriously finds Garfield sexier than prospective boyfriend Eddie Albert. Lupino was rare and cool in her willingness to play females of less than stellar moral status. But the film really belongs to Mitchell and John Qualen as the put-upon “gentle people” who decide to fight back.