User reviews

What a treat! I just watched this movie, and apart from the ending which makes things come into place a little too neatly and quickly for my taste, I loved it. Not least the sense of style that Litvak and cameraman par excellence Wong Howe use to make this not very inspiring script come to life. The huge set, a provincial fishing village in Brooklyn, is wonderfully lit and photographed, only partly visible through the fog that weigh on young lusty Ida Lupino's mind as she dreams of better things, of Cuba and crystal-clear water, of glamorous, dangerous men who take what they want and make no excuses for themselves. At times the story is so downbeat that it takes a small miracle here and there to rise above it, but nearly all is ultimately forgiven. John Garfield is deliciously wicked as the racketeer who sets out to destroy everybody's lives in order to eke out his own beastly living, Thomas Mitchell and Anthony Qualen are brilliant in the real starring parts as the two old-timers who finally realize that they have to make a stand against the evil of this world. In a small, but significant part as a hilarious, bankrupt man in a sauna, George Tobias shines. If it ever comes your way, you should see it. It's the real thing.

John Garfield must have felt right back home with this gritty and relevant social drama that was originally on Broadway in 1939 as a Group Theater production. He fits the lead of Goff who's a dirty little protection racket gangster, terrorizing the gentle people who inhabit the Sheepshead Bay area of Brooklyn.

What must have annoyed Garfield no end was the ethnic cleansing of the story, the uprooting of all the Jewishness from the original play to the film. Out Of The Fog was originally entitled The Gentle People which was written by Irwin Shaw and ran for 141 performances on Broadway in 1939. If Garfield had not been in Hollywood in 1939 he could easily have been in the lead on Broadway.

On Broadway the part was played by Franchot Tone. Garfield fits the role perfectly, but I certainly would love to have seen what Tone did with the part. The Gentle People was hardly the kind of property that his studio MGM would have bought. Over at Leo the Lion Franchot Tone was rarely out of his dinner clothes, it was later when freelanced that he showed he was capable of this kind of role on screen.

The parts played by the two older men who are among several of Garfield's 'clients' are John Qualen and Thomas Mitchell. On Broadway they had distinctly Jewish last names and were played by Lee J. Cobb and Sam Jaffe. Garfield approaches these two men who are partners in a fishing boat and offers them 'protection' for $5.00 a week, a special rate because he's liking Mitchell's daughter Ida Lupino.

Shaw's play is of course an anti-Nazi allegory, but Warner Brothers decided to take the ethnicity away from the victims. Still the message is comes through loud and clear as Qualen and Mitchell decide that when the law doesn't work, they have to take matters in their own hands.

As always the mark of a good play or film is the development of lesser characters like Aline McMahon who is the longstanding perpetually suffering mother with continual aches and pains. Also Eddie Albert who plays Ida's steady reliable beau who looks rather plain next to Garfield's flash.

Robert Homans as the Irish cop on the beat who delivers a final summation for the results of the story has some words to the wise. There are times when conventional law enforcement won't do the job.

This story features John Garfield at his nastiest. He is a dirty little thug who spends his time beating up poor fishermen in order to extort money from them. Just when you think it can't get any worse, it does as later in the movie Garfield not only wants one sailor's money but his lovely daughter as well! But, because Garfield is tough and ruthless, no one seems willing to go to the police or stand up to him in any other way. However, how this dilemma was solved was very atypical of Warner Brothers movies of this era and helps to raise this picture above most others. I won't divulge the exact ending, but it really tied the movie together well and felt very real as well as satisfying.

'Out of the Fog' is director Anatole Litvak's excellent film version of the Irwin Shaw play, 'The Gentle People,' starring two of Warner Brothers greatest stars, John Garfield and Ida Lupino. Garfield plays a cruel, small-time racketeer who terrorizes two Brooklyn fishermen as the one's restless daughter (Lupino) falls in love with him. Both stars offer terrific performances, with Garfield especially good in a rare villainous role. Top honors, though, go to Thomas Mitchell and John Qualen, two of our very best character actors, who steal the film from the stars with their top-notch performances as the terrorized fishermen.

Highly recommended.

John Garfield is a sadistic, heartless thug in "Out of the Fog," starring Ida Lupino, Thomas Mitchell, John Qualen, and Eddie Albert. Garfield's life centers around intimidating scared, weak people into coughing up "protection" money so that he won't set their boats or businesses on fire or beat them to a pulp. Ida Lupino plays Stella, a young woman who's bored with her boyfriend (Eddie Albert) and sick of her life, and when she meets Garfield, she sees a chance for excitement. Little does she know that he's shaking down her father (Mitchell) and his partner in a fishing boat (Qualen).

This drama was interesting, had a rich atmosphere and a good cast. That, however, doesn't mean I enjoyed it. Garfield was so mean he was disgusting, John Qualen was so lily-livered I wanted to slap him, and all I could do was pity poor Thomas Mitchell. How Lupino could have had anything to do with Garfield after she found out he was demanding money from her father is beyond me.

The point of the film, brought home by Eddie Albert and Mitchell, is that Stella is just an ordinary girl and she shouldn't want or reach for anything special. Well, maybe she shouldn't have wanted or reached for any special via John Garfield, but how's that for a nice sexist 1940s message. However, the ending (not liked by at least one of the posters commenting here) does indicate that Stella will be able to achieve a balance in her life, so in that way, it was very satisfying.

The best characters were played by Mitchell and Qualen who, not surprisingly, give the best performances. They had a lot more to work with, Mitchell especially, and he gave it everything he had. Garfield's role was one-dimensional, and we learn nothing about how he came to be such a rat, so all you can do is hate him. Lupino's role is strictly ingénue - she found a better niche later on.

Interesting movie that, whether you like it or not, will hold your interest.

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.

Jonah (Thomas Mitchell) and Olaf (John Qualen) are two poor, hard-working men who share a love of fishing and have both bought a half-share in a boat that allows them to follow their passion each night. However, they are bullied by Goff (John Garfield) into paying him protection money against the burning of their boat. Things get worse as Goff starts to date Jonah's daughter, Stella (Ida Lupino) and then demands all of Jonah's savings. The fisherman decide to fight back....

This is a fun film to watch but it's a shame that it is played so much for comedy. It would have been far more effective if the fisherman played it straight. As it stands, the cast let down the proceedings apart from John Garfield and Thomas Mitchell. Garfield is excellent as the man we hate and Mitchell gives a realistic performance of a man who doesn't want trouble. He gives his character some depth as he holds information back from his daughter and tries to stand up against Garfield's character. At the other extreme are John Qualen and Ida Lupino. Qualen is sooooooo frustrating and such an annoying character that you will want to slap his head and Lupino is wasted as I know that she can do so much better. Her character also wasn't really involved and I think this was a waste of time for her standards of performance. It is maybe the fault of the script as ultimately, she, too, just frustrates.

There are humorous moments, eg, when Jonah and Olaf are on the boat with Goff and Jonah keeps yelling out the signal for Olaf to make his move. The scene would fit perfectly into any comedy film and it is genuinely funny. Unfortunately, what Olaf does next highlights exactly why this film is a disappointment. Overall, the film is OK despite some wasted talent on show.

This odd little film effectively weds comedy and drama and works in practice in a way that you'd never believe if someone just laid out the plot for you on paper.

John Garfield takes some chances here with his fan base as he plays a very one-dimensional hood, Goff, who goes for the easy pickings. Rather than go to the big city where he would most probably have to contend with gangsters rougher and smarter than himself, he moves in on a fishing community and chooses to shake down the peace-loving and gentle populace.

Thomas Mitchell and John Qualen play pals Jonah Goodwin and Olaf Johnson, who live for the nights they go fishing - they both have day jobs. They comprise most of the comedy and the most touching parts of the drama as they gradually come to realize that the law won't help them get the ruffian Goff out of their lives, and they may just have to take action themselves. With someone like Goff, there is only one action that will work - murder.

Ida Lupino plays a rather one-dimensional character herself - Jonah Goodwin's daughter Stella - and as such she is just made for Goff, whom she desperately wants on any terms regardless of what he is doing to her own father. She finds existence in the fishing village boring and is looking for a way out when Goff comes along and sweeps her off her feet by dazzling her with dollars and his devil-may-care attitude. I have to really applaud John Garfield's performance here - he shows not a shred of humanity. Considering he had already built up a reputation as playing sensitive loners, this was quite a chance he was taking.

The end pulls punches compared to the story it is based upon, but you have to lay the blame for that at the feet of the censors at the time, not Warner Brothers. Highly recommended.

I found "Out of the Fog" to be a dreary film, in part because it takes place entirely at night (in a Hollywood studio's version of the slums of Brooklyn), and in part because its take on human nature is bleak.

John Garfield, as a small-time gangster, offers up no redeeming qualities; he's pure evil in a smarmy sort of way, and so not very interesting. According to TCM's Robert Osborne, Humphrey Bogart was considered for this role. Though Garfield was strong in other movies, I believe Bogie would have brought more to the table in this one than we see from Garfield.

Ida Lupino as the working class girl who wants to see a bigger, brighter world, falls equally short. She's sweet and kind to her father, yet dates Garfield's Goff character even after learning that Goff is shaking down dear old Dad. Her acting fails to reconcile these two facts (although the screenplay may equally be to blame).

Though "Out of the Fog" apparently had its roots in socialist perspective, it comes off as patronizing; the working class folk should be happy with their lot, it suggests, and when their pleas for help are ignored by their government (represented by the court here), their only ally is the working class cop who walks the local beat.

"Out of the Fog" fails as a film noir crime drama and as a morality tale. The ending is happy -- though everyone we're supposed to care about returns to their bleak existence -- but it is an unsatisfying resolution.

In Brooklyn, fishing is the hobby of the workers Jonah Goodwin (Thomas Mitchell) and Olaf Johnson (John Qualen) and they use to fish every night in their old boat. Jonah's daughter is the twenty-one year-old telephone operator Stella Goodwin (Ida Lupino), who is an ambitious young woman that dreams on leaving her neighborhood. She is the sweetheart of the worker George Watkins (Eddie Albert), a simple man that dreams on marrying her.

When the smalltime gangster Harold Goff (John Garfield) arrives in Brooklyn, he extorts money from Jonah and Olaf to "protect" their boat from fire and dates Stella. Jonah tries to convince his daughter that Goff is a racketeer that takes money out of poor ordinary people but she does not care to her father since she sees Goff as her chance to have a comfortable life and visit new places. When she discloses to Goff that her father has savings, Goff demands the money to Jonah. Now the old man is convinced that the only chance to get rid off Goff is to fight back.

"Out of the Fog" is a good drama with John Garfield performing a cold racketeer and Ida Lupino kind of lost in a contradictory role of a silly young woman that seems to love her father but even after knowing that her boyfriend is extorting him, she continues to date the racketeer. Despite the bleak and amoral conclusion, "Out of the Fog" is a great classic. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Quando a Noite Cai" ("When the Night Falls")

A small time racketeer forces two old fishermen into paying him protection money on their crummy rowboat, then starts to date one's daughter (Lupino). He demands more and more until the realize they can't keep giving in so make a plan to kill him. Whoops he drowns accidentally so maybe all is saved?

This is a very typical "morality" type of story from the New York stage. Anti-capitalist, anti-fascist, and full of dialogue decrying the state of the "simple folk." It's all a little preachy honestly and the ending completely ruins the concept of fighting back against fascism with a cop out answer (imposed by the production code).

Overall, okay, but nothing amazing.

In spite of the effort to "open up" what had originally been a play, this drama, like so many other adaptations, remains stagebound and static. Even with imaginative sets, camera work and lighting, the scenes are essentially conversations: two (sometimes three) people talking, each representing a viewpoint in the story's conflict among moralities - scenes that are all but devoid of physical action, unless you count lighting cigarettes as action.

As for the characters themselves, they are largely one-dimensional, and unconvincingly unworldly for big-city people of the late 1930s. I found the Ida Lupino character hardly credible in her inability to resist the lure of small-time thrills promised by a fling with Goff: she does in fact resist him initially, she is gently warned about his likes by her father, with whom she has an excellent relationship, and despite her yearning for something more than what she has, Goff is no different from scores like him that she would have seen come and go over the years.

Lupino and Garfield are cast as "types," resulting in neither having an opportunity to utilize their considerable talents. Eddie Albert, as he so often does, plays an ineffectual nice guy. Aline McMahon is a complaining wife, a role that seems to have no particular function in the story. The honors do indeed go to Thomas Mitchell and John Quaylen, who make the most of characters given an opportunity to weigh things in the balance, change their minds, and act according to their principles. Even so, the "comical" closing scene is out of keeping with the overall mood of the picture.

In Brooklyn, restless telephone operator Ida Lupino (as Stella) begins seeing racketeer John Garfield (as Harold Goff) while he uses terror tactics to extort $5.00 a week from her tailor father Thomas Mitchell (as Jonah Goodwin) and his Swedish immigrant friend John Qualen (as Olaf Knudsen). The men enjoy fishing in Sheepshead Bay, where Mr. Garfield burns boats owned by those who refuse to pay. Even after discovering Garfield is a violent gangster, Ms. Lupino remains aroused; he is much more exciting than milquetoast fiancé Eddie Albert (as George Watkins)...

One of the problems with "Out of the Fog" is that the characters get too little scripted explanation for some of their actions (and lack thereof). God intervenes. Lupino helps by conveying slighted sexual desire. The film is artfully directed and photographed by dependable Anatole Litvak with James Wong Howe. The support team is in good form, with Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Qualen claiming most of the attention. Others featured include series regulars George Tobias ("Bewitched"), Bernard and Leo Gorcey ("The Bowery Boys"), and the admirable but underused Aline MacMahon.

****** Out of the Fog (6/14/41) Anatole Litvak ~ Ida Lupino, John Garfield, Thomas Mitchell, John Qualen

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.

It's based on the 1938 play, "Gentle People," by Irwin Shaw. It's a morality movie set in 1941 Brooklyn and is at least partially a commentary on European political events of the time. It's also somewhat anti-big capitalism. The film follows two poor immigrant men and their reaction to a gangster who tries to extort a weekly fee from them while at the same time courting the daughter of one of them.

Jonah Goodwin (Thomas Mitchell) runs a small tailor shop. His wife, Florence (Aline MacMahon), is sickly and demanding. His daughter, Stella (Ida Lupino), is a switchboard operator. She's been in a relationship with George Watkins (Eddie Albert), who wants to marry her, though she finds him and her life quite boring.

The other immigrant is Olaf Johnson (John Qualen), a cook for Caroline (Odette Myrtil), who runs the neighborhood diner. Caroline is unmarried and has her eye on an uninterested Olaf.

Jonah and Olaf own a small fishing boat they take out at night, mostly to escape the cares of their world. However, an up-and-coming gangster, Harold Goff (John Garfield), demands $5 a week as protection money, which they assent to in order to avoid trouble. When Goff discovers Jonah has some savings, his demands increase. Meanwhile, Stella finds Goff's aggressive manner attractive compared to George.

The conflict increases and achieves resolution at the end.

The movie is quickly-cranked-out studio fare that mixes some immigrant humor with the drama. For example, Leo Gorcey of the "Dead End Kids" and "Bowery Boys" runs the counter in the diner, and his father, Bernard Gorcey, is one of the diner's regulars. John Garfield is an effective gangster. Thomas Mitchell does his usual excellent job. Ida Lupino is somewhat less convincing. Eddie Albert plays a decent second fiddle.

The film's political implications are pretty obvious. Irwin Shaw had Jewish ancestry, and Anatole Litvak, the director, was a refugee from Germany. In the play, Jonah and his family are clearly identified as Jewish. Goff, the powerful gangster, is exciting and aggressive, making him attractive to the naive. Jonah and Olaf find Goff very difficult to resist, though the movie has a pro-Allies ending not present in the less optimistic original play.

I watched this to see the interesting political references. The mix of humor separated it from some similar dramas. The New York Times review of the day missed all of the political implications.

Out of the Fog (1941)

A studio film, very Warner Bros. and moody. The plot takes a while to get going, and Ida Lupino finally is a great help to the energy which John Garfield doesn't quite have. But the title makes sense from the get go-even though this is Brooklyn and not San Francisco. The photography by James Wong Howe is enough to keep me going...so what happens beyond the camera? This is a war-era film, and it's about people trying to make it in a world not sympathetic to the poor. Lupino plays a naive girl, Stella, whose father (the always likable Thomas Mitchell) is getting shafted by a small time chiseler Goff (Garfield). Everyone is trying to succeed in small ways. Stella wants to rise out of the hood, Goff is trying to muscle his way out being a tough guy, and Mitchell just wants to finish his day's work as a tailor so he can go out at night and fish. There is plenty of sentiment and lighthearted humor to fill two movies, and it's only the brooding foggy night that illuminates most scenes that keeps it serious. Garfield is a sorry weak point in this whole enterprise because he is meant to be an actually scary guy and he's sort of pathetic, not only as an actor too self-conscious for a good movie but also he lacks weight. And he needs to be convincing to make the rest of the plot work. Lupino is a shining bit of brightness that seems to represent the future, a kind of unformed and uneducated talent that deserves more than life gives her. The fact that Goff is in love with her is a plot convenience that fails to add tension because of Stella's basic naiveté, and her desperate need to simply escape the poverty of Brooklyn. Again, this is a war-era film, made just before Pearl Harbor, and it's loaded with metaphor. Garfield's Goff is meant to be the enemy that deserves defeat at any cost. So the ordinary (and multi-cultural) citizens like Stella's dad and his buddy Olaf (played by the famous character actor John Qualen) have to step outside the normal moral box to find justice. It's a strain, but the point is timely. And the "authority" of the police goes along with the ruse. "It's not such a terrible thing to be ordinary people," says Stella's dad near the end, handing her a cigarette. Such was 1941. "Casablanca" would be next year's comment on the war (complete with John Qualen). Warner Bros. on the move.

Having never seen this before I recorded it off TCM more out of curiosity than expectation. Boy, was I wrong! This one really is a gem.

The hugely talented Mitchell and Qualen dominate - as has already been noted by previous reviewers. Garfield is suitably nasty, but not too nasty. Lupino is believably hormonally confused between her "steady Eddie" boyfriend George (appropriately played by Eddie "Green Acres" Albert) and Garfield's devil-may-care petty gangster.

Overall, it's a fairly slight story, but extremely well directed, staged and photographed. The satisfying ending merely adds the finishing touch. Terrific atmosphere somewhere between "To Have and Have Not" and some darker Capra moments, terrific acting and a great way to spend 80 minutes or so.

Had this starred Bogart or Edward G Robinson, it would have been more widely recognised today for the minor classic that it undoubtedly is.

Out of the Fog is directed by Anatole Litvak and collectively adapted to screenplay by Robert Macaulay, Robert Rosen and Jerry Wald from the play The Gentle People written by Irwin Shaw. It stars John Garfield, Ida Lupino, Thomas Mitchell, John Qualen and Eddie Albert. Music is by Heinz Roemheld and cinematography by James Wong Howe.

The Brooklyn wharf-side is the setting for this melodrama tinted with noirish themes and players. The area is Sheepshead Bay and the local citizens are a gathering of people stuck in a rut they seem incapable of getting out of. Old gentlemen dreamers planning to buy a big boat and sail off to sunnier climes, the local lovely who's in a dull relationship with a dullard – who craves for something more spicy. Other patrons of Sheepshead just while away the hours playing cards in the local restaurant - that's the peak of their excitement, and others are just slaves to the grindstone. Then there's Jacob Goff (Garfield), a chiseller and racketeer, a man who stomps around the wharf like the cock of the hen-house, gathering protection money or casually setting fire to the boats of anyone who dares not to pay their dues…

There's a wonderfully atmospheric feel to Out of the Fog, due to the claustrophobic setting of the story and Wong Howe's moody photography. Characterisations are enhanced by some well versed scripting that puts lyrical dialogue into the mouths of the principal players. Goff is the archetypal charming rogue, with a killer smile and sexy danger oozing from his pores, it's no wonder that frustrated Stella Goodwin (Lupino) spies an opportunity to escape her humdrum existence. Hell! Goff even does card tricks. But of course he is a sort of devil in disguise, or fascism in disguise as it happens, and as he tips the lives upside down of the Sheepshead residents, it brings threats and violence to this once quiet little waterfront.

1941 was a key year for film noir, with the likes of The Maltese Falcon and I Wake Up Screaming lighting the touch paper of a film making style that would burn brightly for the next 20 years. Out of the Fog has made its may into some noir publications, which is understandable given the essence of the story and the presence of noir legends Lupino and Garfield, but it's not what I would call essential film noir by some margin. However, it's a comfortable recommendation to like minded noirphiles regardless. 7/10

So said The N.Y. Times in reviewing OUT OF THE FOG and I absolutely agree with their verdict.

JOHN GARFIELD has seldom played a nastier character than he does here as a shake-down hood getting every penny out of his racketeering business from Brooklyn fishermen THOMAS MITCHELL and JOHN QUALEN, and playing around with Mitchell's daughter, IDA LUPINO.

None of the characters are likable, so there's really no one to root for. Ida Lupino's sudden infatuation with the lowdown heel and her willingness to go along with his plans makes no sense when she's clearly a daughter concerned about her father's welfare. Qualen plays a cowardly follower who can never make up his mind about anything (and does it well, by the way). And Thomas Mitchell is a stubborn old man who is finally able to turn the tables on Garfield in an unexpected way.

But the script is one-dimensional gangster stuff with some very good actors given some very banal material to work with. Based on an Irwin Shaw play, it's old-fashioned in concept and tedious in execution even though the director is Anatole Litvak who clearly didn't have his heart in this story.

Garfield and Lupino are fine actors who've done much better work in other films. Both of them are guilty of some heavy overacting here, especially Lupino whenever she loses her temper.