FOG ISLAND

US, 1945, 72 minutes, Black-and-white.
George Zucco, Lionel Atwill, Jerome Cowan, Sharon Douglas, Veda Ann Borg, John Whitney, Jacqueline De Wit, Ian Keith.
Directed by Terry Morse.

Fog Island is based on a play, Angel Island, one of those plays and films that take place in an over-designed mansion and its elaborate period interiors, a gathering of the central characters, most of them suspicious, and, instead of the reading of a will, each of the guests on the island given a clue which they think will lead to wealth but actually leads to their deaths.

George Zucco portrays a businessman who made bad investments and spent five years in jail, especially because of his partners and rivals as well as the witness of his secretary. He considers them responsible for the death of his wife. He owns Fog Island and invites everyone to a weekend there.

On the island is his stepdaughter, played by Sharon Douglas, and a man she was previously in love with, John Whitney, comes to the island – with a happy ending although he acts very suspiciously, almost indicating that he is after the money himself.

There is also an accountant, a bogus doctor who comes to the owner of the island for help – and there is an ex-convict butler whom the doctor kills.

The early part of the film shows each of the guests receiving their letter, a medium who deals in astrology and was associated one of the calculating partners along with the secretary and an even more sinister business partner (Lionel Atwill) who seems to have been responsible for the wife’s death.

They all decide to come, the launch bringing them is sent back, the owner of the house explains that he is after retribution, whatever that may mean. He gives them each a clue and they follow these through. Unexpectedly, the owner is killed in a knife scuffle. However, we have seen him set up a trap, a mysterious box covered in water, with a stone over it – which holds down a pipe which, if released, closes the door to the basement room trapping those in it and then the room flooding – which is exactly what happens with everyone being drowned.

George Zucco and Lionel Atwill spent a lot of time in front of the cameras with sinister characters – which they do here.