Escape In The Fog (1945)

Set during WWII, a nurse (Nina Foch) recovering from a nervous breakdown has a nightmare of witnessing a man (William Wright) being murdered in the fog. When she wakes up, the man in her dream is standing in front of her. What follows is a tale of espionage, Nazi spies and a missing package. Directed by Budd Boetticher, this B programmer is an acceptable if unexceptional mixture of noir-ish pulp and WWII propaganda. At a brief hour and three minutes, it gets the job done without wearing out its welcome. Foch makes for an attractive damsel in peril but Wright is a negligible hero. For fans of Boetticher, who would blossom in the 1950s with his Randolph Scott westerns, this is an enjoyable early effort but even fans of film noir might be engaged by it. With a pre-stardom Shelley Winters as a cab driver, Otto Kruger, Ivan Triesault and Konstantin Shayne.