darbski Movie's great. Bette Davis is totally lost on me; I've never appreciated what others thought was such greatness. Looks? You're kidding, right? She fits in this role, though. Snotty, spoiled, mouthy, self interested only and morally bankrupt. The real beauty is Margaret Lindsay, as well as the fact that she was as good an actress as Davis, and didn't need the grooming and praise.

classicsoncall The mark of a good actor (or actress) is how they either gain the viewer's empathy or conversely, elicit one's disgust for their character. In this film, Bette Davis does both, even though she doesn't make it to the end of the picture. Fans who are only familiar with Davis's later film roles might be surprised to see what a looker she was in her very early movies, an observation I've made note of as well regarding contemporaries like Joan Blondell, Angela Lansbury, and Barbara Stanwyck.The story starts out about a scheme involving securities fraud and turns into a murder mystery about half way through. Arlene Bradford (Davis) fancies herself a high flying society gal but is mixed up with the wrong crowd to the consternation of her father (Arthur Byron) and sister Val (Margaret Lindsay) who looks to her older sibling for inspiration. At just over an hour you would think the story would whiz right by but there's a decent amount of character development along with the set up involving the stolen securities.Once invested in the story though, a couple of head scratchers did turn up to puzzle this viewer. The first was when we learn that Arlene Bradford was already married to the heel Mayard/Buchard (Douglas Dumbrille) shortly after he throws her over. The difference in their ages was more than noticeable and seemed out of character with the way Davis's role was written. The other was the revelation in the final minutes that butler Thorne (Robert Barrat) was actually a police informant. So how'd he get on the family payroll?

GManfred It sure sounded like a good movie, especially with Bette Davis in the cast - in fact, she heads the cast. Then, nearly halfway through, she exits, and "Fog Over Frisco" falls flatter than a pancake. But she really didn't head the cast anyway. She had a prominent part, but it was mainly Margaret Lindsay's picture and she wasn't up to the job.Margaret Lindsay resembled Maureen O'Sullivan but lacked her charismatic on screen persona, and she received little help from Warner Bros. back-benchers Lyle Talbot and Donald Woods. So what starts out as a potential 'A' picture winds up a 'B', but with a pretty fair mystery plot going for it. It's just that when Bette Davis' character is killed it is a big letdown, as she kept the viewer's interest with a characteristic dynamic performance which the support characters could not sustain."Fog Over Frisco" is definitely worth a look, especially for Davis' many fans, but the website has got the rating about right. There are also some interesting shots of San Francisco in the 30's which should interest some natives of the Bay Area. I took note of one shot during a car chase down a steep hill which I think was the same steep hill in a "Dirty Harry" chase scene.

HerrDoktorMabuse 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.