A wrongfully jailed man vanishes into the fog—and Britain's class system becomes his real prison.
When Matt Denant (Gerald de Maurier) finds himself wrongly imprisoned for manslaughter, he takes an opportunity to escape from jail during a foggy day and is forced to rely on the goodwill of local people to remain a fugitive of the law.
Acting
Gerald du Maurier's understated desperation anchors every scene.
Direction
Basil Dean turns English landscapes into moral minefields.
Cinematography
Fog as character—obscuring both vision and truth.
Director
Basil Dean
Gerald du Maurier
Captain Matt Denant
Mabel Poulton
The Girl in Hyde Park
Ian Hunter
William Brown, the Plainclothesman
Gordon Harker
Convict 272
Edna Best
The Gentlewoman In Bed
Horace Hodges
The Gentleman at Stream-side
Lewis Casson
Landowner Browning
Madeleine Carroll
Dora
Marie Ney
Grace, Dora's sister
Austin Trevor
The Vicar
Felix Aylmer
The Prison Governor
Jean Cadell
The Picnic Woman
Phyllis Konstam
The Woman Hiker
Ann Casson
Betty, the Autograph Hound
Nigel Bruce
Constable at Vicarage
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Gerald du Maurier was Daphne du Maurier's father; his theatrical fame made this a prestige project for RKO's British unit.
The film's sympathetic fugitive premise shocked some censors, making it a rare pre-Code British thriller that questioned authority rather than celebrating it.
GB
