On a foggy San Francisco night, dreamy Nina Foch (as Eileen Carr) takes a melancholy walk on the Golden Gate Bridge. The beautiful young woman is suddenly witness to a terrifying confrontation. Apparently, it ends with a murder, but Ms. Foch wakes up just before the deadly knife takes its final plunge. Fortunately, it was only a dream. Unfortunately, it begins to come true. Foch's wakening scream draws the attention of a man in the inn where she is staying. He looks exactly like the victim, William Wright (as Barry Malcolm), from her dream. Foch has never met the man before he appeared in her nightmare. He's a spy for the US, soon to receive a summons from agent Otto Kruger (as Paul Devon). After showing a romantic interest in Foch, Mr. Wright must deliver a top secret packet to Hong Kong...With a skillfully conceived story by Aubrey Wisberg, "Escape in the Fog" is an entertaining spy thriller. Director Budd Boetticher gets attention with the nightmarish opening and Foch delivers a fine characterization. On the downside, her romance with Mr. Wright is not initially believable; perhaps, if the actors had more quality time, the coupling would click. Most interesting is the fact that Foch's character has a supernatural power (seeing future events in her dreams). The explanation appears to be post-traumatic stress suffered during her stint as a nurse in World War II. Although this aspect of Foch's character is dispensed with early, she maintains interest. Watch for young starlet Shelley Winters as a hotel taxi driver and veteran D.W. Griffith player and "Tarzan" portrayer Elmo Lincoln as a lawman.****** Escape in the Fog (1945/04/05) Budd Boetticher ~ Nina Foch, William Wright, Otto Kruger, Konstantin Shayne

Escape in the Fog (1945) ** (out of 4) Early film for director Boetticher has a former Army nurse (Nina Foch) dreaming about her walking through the fog when they witness two men trying to kill another. She screams in fear and wakes up from the dream only to have the man (William Wright) who was about to be killed enter her room. The two hit it off but what she doesn't know is that he's spy who might actually have people out to kill him. This is a pretty bland "B" movie that doesn't have too much going for it. It's certainly not a horrid movie and it might be a good way to kill 65-minutes if you enjoy watching this type of stuff in the early mornings on TCM but the director would certainly go onto much better movies. This is the type of movie that might keep you entertained while watching it but a couple minutes after the end credits you've pretty much forgotten everything you've seen. While there's nothing overly bad here, there's really nothing good either. Boetticher's direction is pretty hit and miss. He keeps the film moving at a good pace, which is a good thing but the movie goes for psychological thrills but never really grasps this. The use of premonitions play a big part in the film yet they never really come off eerie, creepy or overly realistic. Foch is easy to look at but her performance is also rather hit and miss. Wright brings some charm to his character but Otto Kruger is wasted in his role. The second half of the film deals with an important package that must be tracked down but it's just not very interesting. On a side note, the action takes place on the Golden Gate bridge with one character asking Noch's if she is thinking of killing herself. It's interesting to note that the 2006 documentary delt with suicides off this bridge so apparently they were well known back when this was filmed as well.

The film begins with a fight on a bridge, as evil men are attempting to kill someone. However, it all turns out to be a dream by Eileen (Nina Foch). But, if it is just a dream, why is Barry (William Wright) in the dream being attacked and who are the other men? Is this a dream or perhaps a pre-cognition--some psychic situation where Eileen can see the future? It turns out that Barry is an agent for the US government and his job is to coordinate the underground in an assault on the Japanese (the war is still on). His boss (Paul--played by Otto Kruger) briefs him on his mission, but only moments later a Nazi agent sneaks into the home and removes a recording device--and now the enemy knows many of the details of his mission.Just after Barry is taken prisoner, Eileen is run over by a passing car. While she's not seriously injured, she once again has one of those weird dreams. When she awakens, she goes to see Paul, but he acts as if he has no idea who Barry is or what her concerns are. Of course, considering he's on a secret mission, it's not surprising that he doesn't acknowledge more--plus what stock can you put in a woman's odd dreams or visions.When Paul won't listen, Eileen rushes to the same bridge where she saw the evil men trying to kill Barry in her first dream. That's because she hopes to rescue him--and that's EXACTLY what happens! So, there is SOMETHING to her crazy dreams--she can see the future! The only negative is that as the men try to kill Barry, he loses a very important package over the side of the bridge that they were trying to toss him over in order to kill him. Oops.Much of the rest of the film concerns both trying to recover the package as well as stopping the evil Nazi spies. And, to make matters worse, these evil dogs now have captured Eileen, so it's up to the good guys to find her, capture the spies and make the world safe.Towards the end, Eileen and Barry are captured and locked in a room. The bad guys then open up the gas valve and lock them in to die. The only problem is that they didn't tie Barry up and there was nothing stopping him from just closing the valve! Instead, he comes up with a scheme to get help! A very silly and obvious mistake in the film.Overall, a silly premise for a film, but considering that it's a cheap B-movie propaganda film, it is still not too bad and pretty watchable today. In fact, the actors tried hard and did decent work but the script was the biggest problem--too many goofy holes or bizarre plot ideas.

Another wartime programmer that Hollywood was turning out by the hundreds. The only unusual angle is the mixing of espionage with psychic dreams, apparently an everyday occurrence in this scripted world. Except for the bland male lead (Wright), it's an excellent cast of stereotypes, including professional Hollywood Nazi, Ivan Triesault who made a career of these cruel types. There's also the incredibly smooth Otto Kruger playing a good guy, for once, but then who could do oily villains better than his smiling cobra. And what guy wouldn't like to partner-up with newcomer Nina Foch in an extended game of mixed doubles. With his penchant for cool blondes, I wonder why Hitchcock didn't enlist her obvious talents at some point. Anyway, cult director Boetticher helms in efficient style, the fog machine gets overtime, and a number of practiced players do their thing. (In passing, note how slickly Boetticher stages the shootout near movie's end—a foreshadowing of the classics to come. Note too, that Malcolm represents a generic federal agency and not the FBI by name. That way possible legal problems are avoided.) Nothing exceptional here, just a demonstration of how the studio assembly line turned out an entertaining product even under straitened wartime conditions.