A FACE IN THE FOG

US, 1936, 66 minutes, Black and white.
June Collyer, Lloyd Hughes, Lawrence Gray, Jack Mulhall, Al St John.
Directed by Bob Hill.

This is one of those brief films, an hour or more, that entertained audiences as supporting features. It is not one of the best.

The film has both a newspaper and a theatre setting. There is a murderer on the loose, called The Fiend. He is killing performers in a musical play, using frozen bullets. An ambitious young reporter writes an article claiming that she has seen the murderer’s face – and she, therefore, is on the list for murder. She is helped by a fellow worker at the newspaper who is also assisting police in the investigations.

There are various false messages, set up so that people will be lured into situations where there will be killed, something which happens to one of the cast of the play. Also in the list of possibilities is a man who is completely suspicious, Reardon, as well is the director of the play, Fletcher, who, it seems, has had some difficulty in the past, including setting his theatre on fire.

The whole thing is pretty far-fetched, the performances adequate, with some clues, and the final revelation of the killer.

One thing that is different about this film is the musical numbers, quite an amount of the running time of the short film given over to song and dance.

A curiosity item.