Out of the Fog Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

Out of the Fog Blu-ray Movie Review

Here comes Garfield.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III November 25, 2025

A popular actor whose career and life were both cut short by the anti-Communist document Red Channels, John Garfield leads the pack in Anatole Litvak's Out of the Fog, a 1941 noir-ish crime drama also headlined by Ida Lupino, Thomas Mitchell, and the underrated John Qualen. This simple story unfolds at a steady clip and exits before wearing out its welcome, and the film's only arguable crime is that it's perhaps a little too slight considering the melodramatic subject matter. Even so, Out of the Fog is an interesting little effort that's been given a new lease on life via Warner Archive's welcome new Blu-ray, which replaces their 15 year-old DVD sourced from inferior elements.

Its title is as literal as they come, since Out of the Fog opens in late-night Brooklyn where visibility is near zero at a local pier. Harold Goff (Garfield, The Postman Always Rings Twice) casually sets fire to a fishing boat and strolls into a nearby restaurant before police officer Magruder (Robert Homans) notices. The head chef Olaf (Qualen, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance) and his best friend Jonah (Thomas Mitchell, It's a Wonderful Life) enjoy regular fishing trips on that same pier and are rightly worried that their boat might be in danger. Soon, the connection is made: Goff turns out to be a small-time racketeer who shakes down locals for protection money... and they'll need to pay up immediately. That'll be hard enough, but there's another problem: Jonah's headstrong daughter Stella (Lupino, High Sierra) falls in love with the charming and "generous" Goff, and she even spills the beans about her dad's nest egg.

Things look grim for awhile, but Out of the Fog sees the perpetually put-upon Olaf and Jonah fight back; these two underdogs eventually hatch a plan to murder Goff after realizing that there's no other way to escape his grip. He's a seriously untouchable character, one smart enough to cover his tracks while remaining flashy and confident as Goff basically robs from the poor for his own personal gain. While Irwin Shaw's source play The Gentle People closes on a shockingly downbeat note, Out of the Fog follows stiff Hays Code restrictions and "rewards" audiences with a much more karmic ending that may or may not work to the film's advantage depending on viewer temperament. But one thing's for certain: Out of the Fog deftly avoids most of its potential speed bumps to deliver an entertaining and frequently engaging drama that feels intimate and not overstuffed with too many characters and detours.

More than anything else, it's the casting that gives Out of the Fog its strength. Mitchell and Qualen are likable as the long-time fishing buddies, and it's their suffering that may have first-time viewers questioning the film's moral compass before their plan is hatched. (Mitchell's Jonah is perhaps the most put-upon of them all, as he's boxed in from almost every conceivable angle including his marriage to shrill wife Florence, played by Aline MacMahon.) The coin's flip side reveals solid chemistry between Garfield and Lupino, who of course starred with Humphrey Bogart in both High Sierra and They Drive by Night a year before this film's release. Interestingly enough, Bogart unsuccessfully lobbied for the role of Goff… so he pivoted to The Maltese Falcon instead, which probably turned out for the best.

Other highlights include the original score by Heinz Roemheld and excellent cinematography by the prolific James Wong Howe, whose diverse filmography includes such classics as The Thin Man, Seconds, and Hud, which surprisingly has yet to reach Blu-ray. That's not the case for Out of the Fog, thanks to Warner Archive, whose sparkling new HD remaster greatly supports the film's audio and video strengths that fans and first-timers alike will appreciate.

Out of the Fog Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Once again, Warner Archive massively improves upon their own DVD edition (produced within the first year or two of the label's infancy, when they were unable to work with first-gen vault elements), as this sparkling new restoration of Out of the Fog is sourced from a recent 4K scan of the original nitrate camera negative. As its title implies, this film is loaded with fog and largely shot at night -- or at least shot to mimic night -- and thus might normally prove to be a challenging visual prospect for Blu-ray, which can easily fall victim to banding, macro blocking, and black crush if not handled with care. The great news is that it doesn't and absolutely crackles with fine detail and film grain in optimum conditions, leaving plenty of room for robust shadow detail and deep blacks that really set the mood. It's also as clean as possible under the circumstances, thanks to the boutique label's proprietary method of manual cleanup, and only in sporadic moments does the weight of age reveal itself. The bottom line is that it's once again a huge leap forward, enough so that die-hard fans will be surprised at how much better this murky, proto-noir film looks now.

Out of the Fog Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio mix doesn't reach the same heights, though I'd imagine this is much more likely tied to source-related limitations. While everything is intelligible and capably rendered, from the dialogue to Heinz Roemheld's original score, there's a slight but perceivable level of gauziness heard here as well as minor sibilance issues that waver depending on the scene. Even so, I'd bet that substantial efforts were made to leave its original dynamic range intact and, given the boutique label's exemplary track record for audio (which isn't recognized nearly as much as their visual prowess), I'd imagine that there's not a great deal of room for improvement here under the circumstances.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during the main feature only, not the extras listed below.

Out of the Fog Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with vintage poster-themed cover artwork; bonus features include a pair of restored cartoons from the vault as well as Out of the Fog's theatrical trailer.

• The Heckling Hare (7:26) - New to Blu-ray, this recently restored Merrie Melodies short was directed by Tex Avery and features Bugs facing off against a determined hunting dog named Willoughby.

• Hollywood Steps Out (7:44) - Last seen on the recently back-in-print Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume Two Blu-ray set, this star-studded short offers a "who's who" of Hollywood caricatures.

• Theatrical Trailer (2:44) - This vintage promotional piece can also be seen here.

Out of the Fog Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Anatole Litvak's Out of the Fog is a small but engaging crime drama that's fallen under the radar in recent decades and was thus long overdue for a resurrection on Blu-ray. Warner Archive provides just that with a sparkling new restoration, lossless audio, and a few thoughtful bonus features. Recommended to fans and first-timers alike.