Out Of the Fog (1941)

A mean spirited thug (John Garfield) extorts money from poor hard working people. When he brutally beats one of his victims (Thomas Mitchell), the victim and his friend (John Qualen) turn their thoughts to murder. Based on the play GENTLE PEOPLE by Irwin Shaw and directed by Anatole Litvak (THE SNAKE PIT). This is a nifty little drama that has a noir-ish feel to it (all that fog). The film is resplendent in atmosphere (the aforementioned fog) and James Wong Howe's exceptional B&W cinematography is rich in detail and Heinz Roemheld's score helps considerably in that respect too. Garfield's character is so despicably unsympathetic, it's hard to see a leading star of today take on such a role. Frankly, I didn't much like any of the characters. Everyone is either a nasty piece of goods (Garfield), too weak to stand up for themselves (Mitchell, Qualen) or complicit in their own trouble like Ida Lupino as Mitchell's daughter who falls hard for Garfield even when she knows he's a rat. With Eddie Albert, Aline MacMahon as Mitchell's hypochondriac wife, George Tobias, Leo Gorcey and Jerome Cowan.