The film begins with a fight on a bridge, as evil men are attempting to kill someone. However, it all turns out to be a dream by Eileen (Nina Foch). But, if it is just a dream, why is Barry (William Wright) in the dream being attacked and who are the other men? Is this a dream or perhaps a pre-cognition--some psychic situation where Eileen can see the future? It turns out that Barry is an agent for the US government and his job is to coordinate the underground in an assault on the Japanese (the war is still on). His boss (Paul--played by Otto Kruger) briefs him on his mission, but only moments later a Nazi agent sneaks into the home and removes a recording device--and now the enemy knows many of the details of his mission.

Just after Barry is taken prisoner, Eileen is run over by a passing car. While she's not seriously injured, she once again has one of those weird dreams. When she awakens, she goes to see Paul, but he acts as if he has no idea who Barry is or what her concerns are. Of course, considering he's on a secret mission, it's not surprising that he doesn't acknowledge more--plus what stock can you put in a woman's odd dreams or visions.

When Paul won't listen, Eileen rushes to the same bridge where she saw the evil men trying to kill Barry in her first dream. That's because she hopes to rescue him--and that's EXACTLY what happens! So, there is SOMETHING to her crazy dreams--she can see the future! The only negative is that as the men try to kill Barry, he loses a very important package over the side of the bridge that they were trying to toss him over in order to kill him. Oops.

Much of the rest of the film concerns both trying to recover the package as well as stopping the evil Nazi spies. And, to make matters worse, these evil dogs now have captured Eileen, so it's up to the good guys to find her, capture the spies and make the world safe.

Towards the end, Eileen and Barry are captured and locked in a room. The bad guys then open up the gas valve and lock them in to die. The only problem is that they didn't tie Barry up and there was nothing stopping him from just closing the valve! Instead, he comes up with a scheme to get help! A very silly and obvious mistake in the film.

Overall, a silly premise for a film, but considering that it's a cheap B-movie propaganda film, it is still not too bad and pretty watchable today. In fact, the actors tried hard and did decent work but the script was the biggest problem--too many goofy holes or bizarre plot ideas.

We've all got to start somewhere, it was in films like Escape In The Fog that somebody like Budd Boetticher could learn his trade before turning out good films. In fact the film was dated before it even hit the movie going public on June 25, 1945.

The war on Europe was over for almost two months, of course not even Harry Cohn could control the events of history. So I'm wondering why even back then the public didn't question why a Nazi spy ring was helping out the Japanese. Another very bad historical inaccuracy was that the FBI had nothing to do with the Pacific or Asian theater. The cloak and dagger stuff was the territory of the OSS in that part of the world.

When you're an FBI man like William Wright it sure good to have a psychic girl friend like Nina Foch. He's about to go on a mission to the Orient to deliver the names of key underground leaders to start a general uprising in China against the Japanese occupation. Germans who've been bugging Otto Kruger's house learn of this and the whole movie is spent with these guys who've already lost the war trying to help their allies. Who, by the way, they refer to as 'Japs'. When Foch is sideswiped by a speeding car and knocked unconscious she dreams about Wright's danger and sees what is about to happen to him on the Golden Gate Bridge. She goes there and foils the plot.

All the stuff you'd expect from a nice noir film is there, the foggy atmosphere of San Francisco, the dimly lit sets, Budd Boetticher tried his best as did the cast. But they just weren't convincing, probably because they didn't believe this claptrap themselves.

It's possible, but not likely that Nina Foch's dream and its psychic consequences might have been more developed and the developments were left on the cutting room floor. I think it was just a lousy screenplay.

And Budd and Harry Cohn at Columbia Pictures had the fast moving events of history going against them here.

"Escape in the Fog" is an intriguing 1945 B movie directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Nina Foch and Otto Kruger. Foch is a nurse, Eileen Carr, honorably discharged from the service after a something akin to a nervous breakdown. She has a nightmare where she witnesses a man being attacked on the Golden Gate Bridge. Once awake, she meets the actual victim in her dream, Barry Malcolm (William Wright) who is staying in the same place. There's an immediate attraction, and he offers to take her to San Francisco with him.

Once there, Malcolm, a special agent, gets orders from his boss, Paul Devon (Kruger) to go to Hong Kong to deliver a package to the Chinese underground. Devon's house has been bugged by the Axis, and they follow Malcolm to get the package. When it's revealed that the people who picked up Malcolm were not sent by Devon, Eileen realizes her dream is about to come true, and she rushes to the Golden Gate Bridge. The rest of the story takes place from there.

This is a pretty preposterous tale, but entertaining nonetheless, with a strong performance by the lovely Foch. Baby boomers like myself remember her as an older woman and a constant television presence. Here she's young, and she and Kruger do an excellent job of holding this film together.

If you can overcome the plot holes, you'll enjoy this one.