Lady in the Fog (1952)

The Worst Film Ever

So much average

Captivating movie !

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

Cesar Romero is also the star of Lady in the Fog (1952) (Scotland Yard Inspector in the USA), competently directed by Pat Jackson and Sam Newfield for Hammer/Lippert. (Jackson and Newfield did not work in tandem. My educated guess is that Jackson was replaced by Newfield when wanted for a more prestigious assignment). The movie also boasts moody photography by Walter J. Harvey. After a slow start, the film gradually picks up pace, coming to a terrific climax in a movie studio. Geoffrey Keen gives a great performance, while Bernadette O'Farrell easily steals the female honors from the nominal star, the surprisingly colorless (at least in this assignment) Lois Maxwell. Available on an excellent VCI DVD.

An incompetent amateur gumshoe, American magazine writer Philip 'Phil' O'Dell (Cesar Romero of "Ocean's Eleven") struggles to convince skeptical Scotland Yard Inspector Rigby (Campbell Singer of "Murder on Monday") that an apparent hit-and-run accident was actually a premeditated, cold-blooded, homicide. Of course, we know O'Dell doesn't suffer from delusions because director Sam Newfield stages the crime at the outset of this epic. The charming but inept hero O'Dell is at a nightclub when he meets Heather McMara (Bernadette O'Farrell of "Bikini Baby") as he is waxing nostalgic about old times with Sid the bartender (Wensley Pithey) when about their exploits in World War II. O'Dell is intently mixing up a new alcoholic drink when Heather gives him a hand. About that time, a uniformed London Bobbie enters the premises and informs Heather that her brother, Danny McMara (Richard Johnson of "Never So Few"), has been a traffic accident victim. Since the event occurred during a murky, impenetrable fog, the authorities have classified it as an accident. Nevertheless, Heather is adamant that her brother Danny was murdered. The cheerful, urbane, well-intentioned O'Dell champions her cause, despite a conspicuous lack of evidence. The hopeless gallant O'Dell launches his own investigation to resolve the matter after the authorities balk . Not only does he find Heather enchanting, but also his flight has been delayed owing to the same fog that contributed to Danny's death. A comic gag that runs throughout "Scotland Yard Inspector" concerns updates about O'Dell's flight. The harried airport manager Boswell (Frank Birch) seems to have no luck either pleasing or placating our protagonist. Along the way, O'Dell makes a buffoon out of himself when he assures Heather that he has a long-time friend in Scotland Yard. Little does O'Dell know that his old friend is no longer an inspector. O'Dell's first blunder occurs when he tries to play a joke on the new Scotland Yard Inspector and O'Dell discovers that his old friend no longer holds that position. Instead, O'Dell winds up alienating the replacement by accidentally breaking the poor fellow's pipe and then tripping over things in his office. Since Heather cannot offer any tangible evidence aside from her intuition about her brother's demise, Rigby has no basis to initiate a murder investigation. Mind you, this doesn't discourage the overzealous O'Dell, and he starts nosing around, interviewing nightclub proprietress Margaret 'Peggy' Maybrick (Lois Maxwell of "Goldfinger") and a movie producer Christopher Hampden (Geoffrey Keen of "Moonraker") about Heather's brother. Eventually, our hero encounters trouble when he tricks his way into Danny's disheveled apartment. An intruder assaults him and departs in a flash. Afterward, O'Dell discovers a wire recording reel and tries to conceal himself in the shower when Rigby and Detective Sergeant Reilly walk in on him. Rigby has already warned O'Dell about interfering in police matters, but this doesn't dissuade O'Dell from blundering headlong into more trouble. O'Dell drops the wire recording reel on the floor and it rolls out into the apartment and he ends up confronting Rigby and the sergeant. Miraculously, O'Dell is able to extract himself from this predicament. Rigby makes disparaging remarks about amateur sleuths. Interestingly enough, Heather doesn't accompany her crusading friend on his jaunts. At one point, O'Dell enters a sanitarium and masquerades as a doctor to speak with a man, Martin Sorrowby (Lloyd Lamble) who knew Danny. Not long afterward, the evil nurse has Martin run down in the street. Inspector Rigby arrives as a crowd had gathered around Martin. Interestingly enough, the little old lady who said she witnessed the hit and run was Katie Johnson, the same old dame who survived the repeated attempts on her life by Alec Guinness and company in the original "The Lady Killers." Eventually, Inspector Rigby decides that O'Dell isn't totally bonkers. By that time, O'Dell finds himself pitted against three of the villains.Okay, so I won't reveal who killed Danny because he was blackmailing them. The final scene shows O'Dell and Heather now married trying to book a flight to America. "Scotland Yard Inspector" is no great shakes and the mystery is no surprise. Future Bond supporting plays Lois Maxwell and Geoffrey Keen give a good account of themselves, with Keen making a good villain. "Adventure Island" director Sam Newfield staged this nimble mystery comedy thriller abroad at Riverside Studios, Hammersmith, London, England. Cesar Romeo makes a good leading man and he knows how to handle the serious stuff and the silly shenanigans without embarrassing himself.

*Spoiler/plot- 1953, Scotland Yard Inspector, A Yank newsman in London sets out to solve a murder, American style with a twist. The rest of the plot includes assaults, mysterious tape recording, a visit to an asylum, and even a plot to steal an inventor's secrets.*Special Stars- Cesar Romero plays the news reporter lead. Lois Maxwell plays the damsel in distress. Bernadett O'Farrell plays the baddie dame. Campbell Singer plays the comedy relief.*Theme- The Americans can do it better.*Based on- BBC Radio serial "Lady In the Fog'.*Trivia/location/goofs- English Hammer mystery and cinema noir film. James Bond's "Mrs Moneypenny" Lois Maxwell early film. Some lost seldom seen English film noir of the early 50's. The comedy relief in this film is over played and very hard to watch and accept. It is most theatrical and over-the-top most times.*Emotion- Enjoyable and even bouncy mystery that keeps a nice pacing with Cesar Romero playing a bumbling but persistent American reporter showing up the famous London's Scotland Yard's Criminal Investigate Department on a murder. Nice to see Mr. Romero's excellent acting 'chops' for mystery and his role being completely natural such that his other American film roles were seldom the same. This is a very nice change and the viewer is rewarded by watching his ease with this role with this simple plot.

(Some Spoilers) Suave and handsome Cesar Romaro as American journalist Phil O'Dell has his hands full in "Lady in the Fog" in both charming the ladies and jumping out of windows as he solves a murder case that's 13 years old. In fact nobody knew it was a murder until Phil got wise to it.All this started when Danny McMara,Richard Johnson, was purposely run down in the fog one evening by a mysterious lady friend of his. Danny's sister Heather, Bernadette O'Farrell, just happened to be Phil's girlfriend who took it upon himself to solve her brother death in what everyone at the time, including Scotland Yard, thought was just a tragic accident. Getting worked over by this shadowy thug Connors, Reed De Rover,a number of times and almost being arrested by the London Police for interfering in their investigation of Danny McMara's death Phil eventually gets to the bottom to why Danny was murdered and who was behind it. It turns out that Danny had uncovered the murder of this inventor that took place in 1939 that was made to look, by his killers, to be an accident. The inventor died when his laboratory caught fire in a freak accident. Danny getting too close to the truth and at the same time blackmailing the killers ended up himself being murdered, that was made to look like an accident, by one of those whom he unknowingly, his girlfriend, was blackmailing!Phil, on a tip he got, getting inside the Glenhaven Sanitarium finds the only person-the nutty as a fruitcake-Martain Sorrowby, Llyod Lamble, who knows the truth about that 1939 covered-up arson murder. Sorrowby, who's mind is completely lost in Ga-Ga land, can lead Phil to not only the truth behind the unidentified inventors murder but at the same time the murder of Danny McMara. Just as Phil was about to get Scotland Yard inspector Rigby, Campbell Singer, to come over to Gleanhaven to interview Sorrowby he, like Danny, died in a suspicious car accident just outside the sanitarium. Realizing just what he got himself into Phil together with Heather track down Danny's killers but not before Heather, who had no idea whom she was dealing with, almost ended up getting murdered herself by someone, a friend of her's and Danny's, that she thought that she knew, and trusted, but really didn't!Worth watching in that fact that that we see legendary Hollywood Latin Lover Cesar Romaro playing a Humphrey Bogart type private investigator. Getting belted by the bad guys all over the place Caser, or Phil O'Dell, still didn't lose his both good looks and sense of humor, he also has the best as well as last line in the movie, despite all the hits he took to the head and body, as well as his inflated ego, in the film.