''Footsteps in the Fog'' is a 1955 British
Technicolor
Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades.
Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...
film noir
Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...
crime film
Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...
starring
Stewart Granger
Stewart Granger (born James Lablache Stewart; 6 May 1913 – 16 August 1993) was a British film actor, mainly associated with heroic and romantic leading roles. He was a popular leading man from the 1940s to the early 1960s, rising to fame thr ...
and
Jean Simmons, with a screenplay co-written by
Lenore Coffee
Lenore Jackson Coffee (July 13, 1896 – July 2, 1984) was an American screenwriter, playwright, and novelist.
Biography
Lenore was born in San Francisco in 1896 to Andrew Jackson Coffee Jr. and Ella Muffley. She attended Dominican College ...
and
Dorothy Davenport
Fannie Dorothy Davenport (March 13, 1895 – October 12, 1977) was an American actress, screenwriter, film director, and producer.
Born into a family of film performers, Davenport had her own independent career before her marriage to the film a ...
, and released by
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...
. The film is based on the short story "The Interruption" by
W. W. Jacobs
William Wymark Jacobs (8 September 1863 – 1 September 1943) was an English author of short fiction and drama. His best remembered story is "The Monkey's Paw". He was born in Wapping, London, on 8 September 1863, the son of William Gage Jacobs ...
.
It was shot at
Shepperton Studios
Shepperton Studios is a film studio located in Shepperton, Surrey, England, with a history dating back to 1931. It is now part of the Pinewood Studios Group. During its early existence, the studio was branded as Sound City (not to be confused w ...
, with sets designed by the
art director
Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games.
It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...
Wilfred Shingleton
Wilfred Shingleton (January 24, 1914 – June, 1983) was an English art director. He enjoyed a distinguished career in the British film industry from his debut in 1937. Some of his early assignments were several George Formby vehicles – hugely ...
.
Plot
After poisoning and killing his wife, the master of the house, Stephen Lowry (Granger), is blackmailed by his
Cockney
Cockney is an accent and dialect of English, mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by working-class and lower middle-class Londoners. The term "Cockney" has traditionally been used to describe a person from the East End, or b ...
maid, Lily Watkins (Jean Simmons), who demands promotion. As she steadily takes the place of his dead wife, Lowry attempts to murder her as well. While attempting to murder Lily, by following someone who looked like her through the fog, he mistakenly kills Constable Burke's wife and gets chased by an angry mob, which he evades. Lily returns home and Stephen learns of his mistake. Some local bar-goers saw him murder Mrs Burke and Stephen is put on trial, but their claims are dismissed after they are revealed to drink a lot and Lily lies to provide an alibi. The main testimony however is Lily's - who swears he never left the house - she does this as she wants to marry him.
Although Lowry owes Lily his life, his eyes are on another woman - Elizabeth Travers - the daughter of a wealthy man - and object of affection of his lawyer. He tells Lily it is part of a plot to gain money and he will use the money to take Lily and himself to America. He suggests he will marry her but demands she retrieves a letter she sent to her sister telling of Lowry's actions. But Herbert, her sister's husband rescues the letter from the fire. He goes to Lowry's lawyer and tries to extort £500 for the incriminating letter.
Lowry feigns illness and sends the maid to fetch the doctor. She says she will return urgently with the doctor within five minutes. He calculates this will be enough time for him to frame the maid by drinking the poison that he used to kill his own wife and planting it and his wife's jewelry in the maid's room.
Lily is, however, detained by the police as a "tell-all" letter she has written to her sister, to safeguard herself after the master's failed plot to kill her, surfaces.
Lowry's plan backfires - he is dying. He gets Burke the local policeman to run for the doctor. Meanwhile Lily's handwriting is compared to the letter. Lily is told it doesn't match - but it does. A warrant is sworn for the arrest of Lowry. Lily returns too late, and the doctor declares it is too late to save him. Lily pieces together the situation, realising that Stephen never loved her, then is arrested by police at the scene as Lowry accuses her of poisoning both him and his wife.
Cast
*
Stewart Granger
Stewart Granger (born James Lablache Stewart; 6 May 1913 – 16 August 1993) was a British film actor, mainly associated with heroic and romantic leading roles. He was a popular leading man from the 1940s to the early 1960s, rising to fame thr ...
as Stephen Lowry
*
Jean Simmons as Lily Watkins
*
Bill Travers
William Inglis Lindon Travers (3 January 1922 – 29 March 1994) was a British actor, screenwriter, director and animal rights activist. Prior to his show business career, he served in the British army with Gurkha and special forces units.
E ...
as David MacDonald, Lowry's lawyer
*
Belinda Lee
Belinda Lee (15 June 193512 March 1961) was an English actress.
A profile for the British Film Institute's Screenonline website asserts: "of all the Rank Organisation's starlets, Belinda Lee stands out as the most notorious, yet paradoxically ...
as Elizabeth Travers
*
Ronald Squire
Ronald Launcelot Squire (25 March 1886 – 16 November 1958) was an English character actor.
Biography
Born in Tiverton, Devon, England, the son of an army officer, Lt.-Col. Frederick Squirl and his Irish-born wife Mary (Ronald's surname 'Sq ...
as Alfred Travers
*
Finlay Currie as Inspector Peters
*
William Hartnell
William Henry Hartnell (8 January 1908 – 23 April 1975) was an English actor. He is best remembered for his portrayal of the First Doctor, first incarnation of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor in ''Doctor Who'' from 1963 to 1966. In film, ...
as Herbert Moresby
*
Frederick Leister
Frederick Leister (1 December 1885 – 24 August 1970), was an English actor. He began his career in musical comedy and after serving in the First World War he played character roles in modern West End plays and in classic drama. He appeared in ...
as Dr. Simpson
*
Percy Marmont
Percy Marmont (25 November 1883 – 3 March 1977) was an English film actor.
Biography
Marmont appeared in more than 80 films between 1916 and 1968. A veteran film actor by 1923, he scored a big hit that year in ''If Winter Comes'', later rem ...
as Magistrate
*
Marjorie Rhodes
Marjorie Rhodes (9 April 1897 – 4 July 1979) was a British actress. She was born Millicent Wise in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire.
One of her better-known roles was as Lucy Fitton, the mother in Bill Naughton's play '' All in Good Time''. Sh ...
as Mrs. Park
*
Peter Bull
Peter Cecil Bull, (21 March 1912 – 20 May 1984) was a British character actor who appeared in supporting roles in such films as '' The African Queen'', '' Tom Jones'', and ''Dr. Strangelove''.
Biography
He was the fourth and youngest son ...
as Brasher
* Barry Keegan as Constable Burke
*
Sheila Manahan
Sheila Manahan (1 January 1924 – 29 March 1988) was an Irish actress.
Career
Among her film roles were Ann Willingdon in ''Seven Days to Noon'' (1950), Esther's mother in ''The Story of Esther Costello'' (1957), and Mrs. Jenkins in ''Only Tw ...
as Rose Moresby
* Norman Macowan as Grimes
*
Cameron Hall as Corcoran
*
Victor Maddern
Victor Jack Maddern (16 March 1928 – 22 June 1993) was an English actor. He was described by ''The Telegraph'' as having "one of the most distinctive and eloquent faces in post-war British cinema."
Life and career
Born in Seven Kings, ...
as Jones
*
Arthur Howard
Arthur Howard (born Arthur John Steiner; 18 January 1910 – 18 June 1995) was an English stage, film and television actor.
Life and career
Born in Camberwell, London, Howard was the younger son of Lilian (née Blumberg) and Ferdinand "Frank" ...
as Vicar
*
Peter Williams as Constable Farrow
*
Erik Chitty
Erik Chitty (8 July 1907 in Dover, Kent – 22 July 1977 Brent, Middlesex), was an English stage, film and television actor.
Early life
Chitty was the son of a flour miller, Frederick Walter Chitty and his wife Ethel Elsie Assistance née Fra ...
as Hedges
Production
Development
The film was based on a story "The Interruption", first published in the July 4, 1925, issue of ''Liberty'' magazine and later collected in ''Sea Whispers'' in 1926. Arthur Lubin bought the rights to the story in August 1949 for his own company. Several parties were interested in the story. The rights holders liked the job Lubin did on ''
Two Sinners
''Two Sinners'' is a 1935 film directed by Arthur Lubin.
Plot
In London, Henry Vane gets out of prison after serving fifteen years for murder and tries to rebuild his life.
Cast
*Otto Kruger as Henry Vane
*Martha Sleeper as Elsie Summerstone
*Mi ...
'' based on the story of a friend of theirs, Warwick Deeping. Lubin hoped to make the film in October 1949 from a script by Dorothy Reid with
Glenn Ford
Gwyllyn Samuel Newton "Glenn" Ford (May 1, 1916 – August 30, 2006) was a Canadian-American actor who often portrayed ordinary men in unusual circumstances. Ford was most prominent during Classical Hollywood cinema, Hollywood's Golden Age as ...
starring.
However Lubin instead made ''
Francis the Talking Mule
Francis the Talking Mule was a mule character who gained popularity during the 1950s as the star of seven popular Universal-International film comedies. The character originated in the 1946 novel ''Francis'' by former U.S. Army Captain David S ...
'' and became busy doing comedies with animals. He continued to seek finance for ''The Interruption'' saying he wanted to "remind producers that he can direct people too." In August 1951 he said he said signed
Leonard Styles to play the barrister and wanted to make the movie after ''It Grows on Trees''. In April 1952 Lubin said Dorothy Reid was writing a script and that he hoped to star
Jean Simmons or
Jennifer Jones
Jennifer Jones (born Phylis Lee Isley; March 2, 1919 – December 17, 2009), also known as Jennifer Jones Simon, was an American actress and mental health advocate. Over the course of her career that spanned over five decades, she was nominated ...
in the female lead and
Robert Donat
Friedrich Robert Donat (18 March 1905 – 9 June 1958) was an English actor. He is best remembered for his roles in Alfred Hitchcock's '' The 39 Steps'' (1935) and ''Goodbye, Mr. Chips'' (1939), winning for the latter the Academy Award for ...
in the male lead.
In July 1952 Lubin said he was about to sign a deal with James Woolf of Romulus Films. He visited England in August seeking to raise finance and hoped for
Terence Rattigan
Sir Terence Mervyn Rattigan (10 June 191130 November 1977) was a British dramatist and screenwriter. He was one of England's most popular mid-20th-century dramatists. His plays are typically set in an upper-middle-class background.Geoffrey Wan ...
to write the script.
In October 1953 Lubin, who had just made ''Star of India'' in England, said he planned to shoot it in that country as ''The Interrupted'' with
Glynis Johns
Glynis Margaret Payne Johns (born 5 October 1923) is a South African-born British former actress, dancer, musician and singer. Recognised as a film and Broadway icon, Johns has a career spanning eight decades, in which she appeared in more than ...
starring. In March 1954 the film was called ''Deadlock'' and Lubin had sent a script to
Alec Guinness
Sir Alec Guinness (born Alec Guinness de Cuffe; 2 April 1914 – 5 August 2000) was an English actor. After an early career on the stage, Guinness was featured in several of the Ealing comedies, including ''Kind Hearts and Coronets'' (194 ...
. Then in June 1954 Lubin said Columbia had agreed to finance and that
Maureen O'Hara
Maureen O'Hara (; 17 August 1920 – 24 October 2015) was a native Irish and naturalized American actress and singer, who became successful in Cinema of the United States, Hollywood from the 1940s through to the 1960s. She was a natural ...
and
George Sanders
George Henry Sanders (3 July 1906 – 25 April 1972) was a British actor and singer whose career spanned over 40 years. His heavy, upper-class English accent and smooth, bass voice often led him to be cast as sophisticated but villainous chara ...
would star.
Then in October Lubin announced the stars would be Stewart Granger and Jean Simmons and the film would be made by Mike Frankovich's company, Film Locations. Later the title would be changed to ''Rebound'' before ''Footsteps in the Fog''.
The film was to be the second in a four picture slate from Frankovich's Film Locations. The first was ''Fire Over Africa''. The third was to be ''Ghosts of Drury Lane'' directed by Lubin. The fourth was to be ''Matador'' starring and directed by JoséFerrer. The third and fourth films were not made.
Shooting
Arthur Lubin enjoyed making the film. "Mike
rankovichwas a very nice person to work for", he recalled. "I had problems with the leading man, Stewart Granger, who hated me. He didn't like anything. He would go to Frankovich and say 'Mike, if Lubin doesn't stop annoying me I'm going to be sick tomorrow.' But miraculously the picture turned out to be a good one."
Reception
Gene Blottner said the movie is a "good Gothic noir" with both Simmons and Grainger "believably playing vile characters."
Lubin wanted to follow it with another film for Frankovich, ''Ghosts of Drury Lane.'' However it was not made.
''Variety'' called it "humdrum, rarely exciting."
''Diabolique'' magazine called it "an unpretentious, enjoyable little thriller... it doesn’t hit great expressionistic heights but is lots of fun, and it's a shame box office receptions weren’t strong enough to allow him do more work in this line."
References
External links
*
*
Footsteps in the Fogat BFI
Foosteps in the Fogat Letterbox DVD
Complete text of novelat Fullreads
{{Arthur Lubin
1955 films
British crime thriller films
Columbia Pictures films
1955 crime drama films
Films based on works by W. W. Jacobs
Films directed by Arthur Lubin
Films set in the 1900s
British crime drama films
Films based on short fiction
Films scored by Benjamin Frankel
Films set in London
British historical films
1950s historical films
1950s English-language films
Films shot at Shepperton Studios
1950s British films