A Face in the Fog (1936)

A cigar-chomping caricature of a Hollywood producer, Sam Katzman spent his long career cutting every corner he came across. In the mid-'30s, his ramshackle Victory Pictures Corp. created a series of highly primitive but apparently quite lucrative thrillers filmed on rented sets with a stock company consisting mainly of has-beens and newcomers with little or no potential. A barely watchable surviving print does little for A Face in the Fog, which reportedly was primitive even by the standards of 1936, and the performances of such forgotten "names" as Lawrence Gray, the Ramsdell Dancers, and the Donna Lee Trio defy rational criticism. But June Collyer is pleasantly pretty and Al St. John always good for a chuckle or two. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide