OUT OF THE FOG (1941)

It’s lightning and thunder! It’s Lupino and Garfield!

John Garfield and Ida Lupino star in this big-screen adaptation of Irwin Shaw's play "The Gentle People". Tailor Jonah Goodwin (Thomas Mitchell) and lowly cook Olaf Johnson (John Qualen) are saving their money to go in as partners on a large fishing boat and make a long-desired career change. One night, small-time gangster Harold Goff (John Garfield) bullies them into paying him five dollars a week and then has them sign a document saying the money is repayment on a loan. When Jonah's self-centered daughter Stella (Ida Lupino) takes up with Goff, the pair decide to do away with him. Buttressed by a sharp screenplay by Robert Rossen and Jerry Wald (The Roaring Twenties), and sturdy direction from Anatole Litvak, OUT OF THE FOG is a prescient and powerful story worthy of re-discovery.