Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Sadly Over-hyped

How sad is this?

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Rising up quickly in the period of one year, Bette Davis appeared in a string of B pictures that showed off her pop eyed versatility. She's involved with men involved in obvious criminal activity, and pays dearly for it, almost dragging her stepsister Margaret Lindsay down with her. Surrounded by a versatile cast of Warner Brothers contract players, top billed Bette gets a surprising exit, and this changes the focus of the story. Bette had played bad girls before, but here, she's as bad as she would be when she was at her worst. That being said, you can see that it was only a matter of time before she hit her stride, and that came the same year on a loan out and a cockney accent. This for the most part is standard Warners B fare, but Bette makes it a must.

Look up lists of best murder mysteries and only three pre-1940 films appear: Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Thin Man. Both Morgue and Thin Man really stretch the point. There's no mystery in the former and the latter is really a comedy. It's not surprising that early films fail to make the list; they are infrequently seen. And when they are, modern sensibilities make them seem too old fashioned to rate high marks.Fog Over Frisco is a forgotten gem that deserves to be high on anyone's list. It takes over from the early Philo Vance films in complexity and adds original twists, tension and action. The Warner Brothers stock company players are uniformly good but Bette Davis is amazing. The film doesn't follow a standard mystery format and avoids most of the clichés found in such films. It is fresh, exiting and original. Fog Over Frisco is far and away the best of its kind made up to its time (1934) and perhaps through the entire 1930s.

I saw this at the Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto last week on a double bill with Of Human Bondage. At any rate, nothing really groundbreaking about this movie except that it was a fast paced, low budget bill-filler made before Bette Davis had broken through as a big star. The real treat here is the location shooting in San Francisco, showing the city before they built the bridges and a car chase that predates the one in Bullitt, except never exceeding 35 miles per hour. I also give the scriptwriters high marks for authentic use of forgotten place names ("Butchertown," "South of the Slot"). I'll admit my admiration is parochial, but you could do worse if it ever turns up on TCM or a streaming video service.BTW: I can't recommend the Stanford highly enough. Beautifully restored movie palace featuring live intermission organ music on weekends and the cheapest date in town at only $7/ticket for a double bill. Google Stanford Theatre for the latest program.

If anyone out there is looking for Shakespeare or Ingmar Bergman, then this is NOT the film for you. FOG OVER FRISCO is not exactly "high art" and yet is quite thrilling and fun--just the sort of gangster film that Warner Brothers did best during the 1930s. So, naturally the film is sensationalistic, action-packed and a tad scandalous! Bette Davis (at her radiant best) is a rich girl who thrives on excitement and danger. Despite being very comfortable, she has a yearning for self-destruction and seems on a collision course with disaster, as she frequents dives, runs around with gangsters and steals security bonds for the excitement of it! So, it's hardly surprising that eventually she disappears and the police are called in to sort out the mystery.The first portion of the film which features Davis in the lead is actually NOT the best aspect of the film. I love seeing her on film, but the film really heats up when her step-sister and a hot-shot reporter investigate. Then, the film accelerates into high gear and is non-stop action and suspense.All in all, this is a great film for those who just want to turn off their brains and have fun.