In my review for The Black Raven I mentioned the brief period of joy in my life where I would settle in after a late night shift to watch an hour-long George Zucco thriller. Now that I'm back to reviewing, I've been finding enough Crazy Shit to make me see the weaknesses of these clunky old mysteries, but I didn't want to leave such a significant portion of my life without paying it proper due--though I know there's at least one other piece of Zuccoana I want to get into. The Black Raven and Fog Island are rather similar, in that they feature George Zucco as a noble criminal who ends up both outplaying and being outplayed by the various other criminals who wash up at his mysterious isolated house. The Black Raven didn't have Lionel Atwill or Ian Keith, however, and that makes worlds of difference.
Leo Grainger (Zucco) is an ex-convict whose wife Karma was murdered by one of his former business confederates. In addition to killing Karma they also swindled him out of his money and got him thrown in prison. However, they know they didn't get the whole of the sum they helped him embezzle, and now, on remote Fog Island, where he lives with his stepdaughter Gayle, Leo is in the prime position to use that remaining money as a lure to get revenge on his wife's killer. The assembled goons are Alec Ritchfield (Atwill), John Kavanaugh, phony medium Emiline Bronson, Sylvia, who turned on Leo when he married Karma and not her, and Jeff Kingsley, whose father, the subject of Leo's invitation, has passed away. Also joining them is a prison buddy of Leo's named Lake, who is posing as a doctor to subvert the guests. Then it's on to some pure shenanigans, Old Dark House style.
The acting is great in this. Zucco is wonderful as a calm, sophisticated man nonetheless driven singularly by revenge. His final breakdown before his death, the splintering of his serenity, is hammy but convincing. He also spends most of his time passive-aggressively mocking his guests about their coming demises. Edward G. Robinson he ain't, but he's never as bad as everyone says he is. Then there's Lionel Atwill--sadly close to his premature death, he nonetheless fulfills his usual quota of stuffiness, now accomplished fittingly by the flabby chins which protrude over his collar. He makes lovely faces in this and shows no signs of slowing down even thirteen years after Doctor X. He can say "Tut, tut," to someone and make it seem natural. I love him. Finally, there is Ian "Ormond Murks" Keith--slimy as always, he gets a chance to murder someone (resolving a pointless red herring about Leo's butler being an ex-con in the process), and it's pretty great. I want to see all of Ian Keith's movies. Damn.
The rest of this review will consist of me simply naming the things I liked. There are definitely some oddities here that put flesh on the film's bones.
I have to talk about the character of Jeff. Jeff, like Creepy Guy from Pillow of Death, is a Creepy Guy. He used to date Gayle in college, which is kind of a huge coincidence if you think about it. He's one of those '40s movie "heroes" who continually steps on his "love" interest's toes, ignores her wishes, and then does something unspeakable to her at the end. In this case, he covers up that Gayle's stepfather has been murdered, with the implication being that he will never tell her. Presumably that means they'll share a lifetime of her yearning to return to the man who helped raise her, only for her husband to block her at every turn, until she's forced to conclude that he's died of old age. I extrapolate based on the weird humor that Jeff displays while performing the cover-up.
Then there's the fact that Emiline, who is played as a phony psychic all throughout the movie, accurately predicts her own death. Maybe that wasn't a coincidence that joined Gayle and Jeff--if psychic powers really exist in this universe, then maybe black magic does too, and Jeff cursed Gayle to link her to him. It all makes sense!
I have to comment also on the scene where Emiline and Alec are speaking, and she asks him to get her a book to help her sleep. Kavanaugh recommends "something light" and he picks out Crime and Punishment. Like, I get the joke, but when I think "light reading" Dostoyevsky is not the first guy to come to mind. Just an observation.
Finally, there is an odd scene between Gayle and Sylvia, which I read as being hella gay. Let's just say that when an older woman starts talking to a younger one about the quality of her skin and how she should take care of it, there's some coding involved...even though this certainly isn't positive representation. Fortunately it's not like "lesbians are predatory" is a theme or anything but it's a testament to the lowness the times these movies were made in stooped to at times.
All in all, however, Fog Island is probably the '40s mystery for me--nothing extraordinary by any means, but still a fun, cozy movie to curl up with. Long live Zucco.
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