FOG ISLAND (1945)

In February 1945 Poverty Row studio PRC released Fog Island, a variation on the well-trodden formula of The Cat and the Canary in which shady potential beneficiaries, gathering to hear what they can grasp from the will of a benefactor, are stranded in the owner’s house and set tasks before their inheritance. The change here is that the protagonist assembling the avaricious is very much alive. Leo Grainger (George Zucco) is an ex-convict nursing a long resentment following five years spent in a penitentiary as a result of their betrayal. His proposed guests were all investors in business dealings of his that he teases may have yielded a huge sum years later. He is confident in the lure of greed as within their cabal he knows that his treacherous secretary Sylvia (Veda Ann Borg) squealed on him to the authorities and that the group murdered his beloved wife. 

If you think that’s a hefty slab of exposition cake to digest, it’s actually served up like this by poor Zucco to his step-daughter Gail (Sharon Douglas) in the first five minutes of Pierre Gendron’s screenplay - based on the stage play by Bernadine Angus. B-movie veteran Terry O. Morse takes the reigns of the ensuing Agatha Christie-style machinations; he was later responsible for directing the American scenes injecting Raymond Burr into the Japanese original Godzilla, King of the Monsters (1954), retooling it to great success for the U.S. market.

Here, the action is much less subdued than city-demolishing monsters but makes an adequate whodunnit mystery. Having discharged himself of the back story ballast, Zucco the beady-eyed, bald eagle of low-budget horror acquits himself suitably. Along for the ride as his chief suspect is Lionel Atwill channelling his best urbane cad as Alec Ritchfield, Grainger’s former business partner. An equally dubious fellow invitee is Grainger’s fake astrologist Emiline Bronson (Jacqueline DeWit); we know she’s a phoney partly because she sports a tell-tale shiny turban and also when we see her pass off information she gleans from her own invite as part of her paranormal gift when talking to Alec. Sylvia is a necessary component as is the thunder-faced Dr Lake (Hollywood costume epic stalwart Ian Keith) and Jerome Cowan’s shifty Kavanaugh who in common with the rest is on his guard against Grainger: “Five years in a penitentiary can do a lot to a man”. The supporting cast on the whole play their parts with functional if nondescript professionalism. Half-Swedish Borg had by now overcome 1943’s Revenge of the Zombies and the long ago inadvertent clanger of her 1936 Paramount modelling contract labelling her in the press as a ‘former New York and Boston manakin’.

One unexpected wild card for puppet-master Grainger is the arrival of John Whitney’s Jeff Kingsley (son of shady confederate Jefferson who Grainger didn’t know had died. Fortunately for Gail, he opted to come to reignite an almost-romance with her from their college days, that is if he can get beyond her hard-to-get haughty act.

Once the conniving crew are together, Grainger smugly informs them that the ferryboat is gone for the night and without telephone access they must spend the night as his guests in forced puzzle-solving while he determines to identify the culprits for his “retribution”. Hints are doled out in the form of clue objects such as a knife, a chisel, a book of multiplication tables and a key. This is the catalyst for a passable game of dishonour among thieves as the group members team up and double-cross each other in pursuit of the rumoured reward.

In private, Grainger buttonholes Alec with the direct accusation of killing his wife in a highlight of cackling glee that underestimates his evil opponent: “You’ve signed your own de-“ he burbles as Alec signs his instead and dumps his body through a secret room’s trap-door.

Ultimately, an unholy foursome of Kavanaugh, Alec, Sylvia and mystic bullshitter Emiline unite to crack the code, giving Grainger and us the satisfaction of seeing them take a chest that rewards them with nothing but triggering a closing door to seal them in a watery tomb. Meanwhile Jeff and Gail find the real loot, a box of her mother’s jewellery and a poignant note exonerating her step-father of any blame as well.

Seeing the evil quartet suffer the throes of Grainger’s vengeance from beyond the grave would have made a strong ending whilst the lovers leave, but the resolution’s impact is weakened by having Jeff unnecessarily go off to discover the drowned corpses first. A mist opportunity...