FOG ISLAND

Formidable adversaries: Atwill; Zucco

FOG ISLAND (1945). Director: Terry O. Morse. Colorized.

Leo Grainer (George Zucco) has a lot to be ticked off about. He believes he spent time in jail because he was framed by certain associates. He also believes that one of those associates murdered his wife. He now lives on an isolated island with his stepdaughter, Gail (Sharon Douglas), and invites all of the suspects there. For their own reasons -- including the possibility of finding a treasure cache -- they all agree. The guests include Ritchfield (Lionel Atwill of Lady in the Death House); fortune teller Emiline (Jacqueline deWit); Grainer's former secretary, Sylvia (Veda Ann Borg of Naked Gun); Doc Kingsley (Ian Keith), who was in jail with Grainer; Kavanaugh (Jerome Cowan of Black Zoo); and others. As the fog rolls in -- and in and in -- people start dying one by one. 

Sharon Douglas and John Whitney

The best -- and best-acted -- scenes have to do with Zucco and Atwill, two excellent performers who make the most out of weak material. Their scenes together are too brief to amount to much, however, and the rest of the creaky movie takes a while to really get going. John Whitney plays a love interest for Gail, who is pretty miserable to him for most of the running time. At the conclusion the picture is enlivened by a death trap sequence in which several of the characters are trapped in a locked underground chamber that is rapidly filling with water. Otherwise this is not that memorable a movie. 

Verdict: The fog machines on the sound stage were working overtime! **1/4.