Fog Over Frisco (1934)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

William Dieterle

Writers:

Robert N. Lee (screenplay)
George Dyer (story)

Release Date:

2 June 1934 (USA)

Genre:

Thriller | Mystery

Plot:

Arlene is involved with underworld types. Her society girl sister believes it is only innocent thrill...

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Nightclub | Stepsister | Gunshot Wound | Gunfire

Cast

Bette Davis	...	Arlene Bradford
Donald Woods	...	Tony Sterling
Margaret Lindsay	...	Val Bradford
Lyle Talbot	...	Spencer Carlton
Hugh Herbert	...	Izzy Wright
Arthur Byron	...	Everett Bradford
Robert Barrat	...	Thorne
Henry O'Neill	...	Oren Porter
Irving Pichel	...	Jake Bellow
Douglass Dumbrille	...	Joshua Maynard (as Douglas Dumbrille)
Alan Hale	...	Chief O'Malley
Gordon Westcott	...	Joe Bello
Charles C. Wilson	...	Detective Sergeant O'Hagen (as Charles Wilson)
Harold Minjir	...	Archie Van Ness
William Demarest	...	Spike Smith

Runtime:

68 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:TV-G (TV rating) | USA:Approved

Filming Locations:

San Francisco, California, USA

Company:

First National Pictures

Trivia:

Although George Dyer is credited onscreen for "story," the source of the movie was his book, entitled "The Five Fragments."

Movie Connections:

Remade as Spy Ship (1942)

Soundtrack:

Why Do I Dream Those Dreams?

A complicated mystery thriller needing more than one viewing to fully understand.

This film is so rapidly paced that some of the action flew by me too fast to fully understand, although some of the confusion was cleared up in the end. Director William Dieterle used fancy wipes rather than fade-outs and overlapping sound to speed the action along. I prefer a more leisurely pace to enable me to digest the material. Still, the ending was exciting with location shooting in San Francisco a big plus, and it's always enjoyable to watch Bette Davis, who had emerged as a big star by this time. Hugh Herbert provides very minimal comic relief as an inept photographer. I was reminded a bit by Hitchcock's film "Psycho (1960)," but you'll have to watch this film to see what I mean.