Footsteps in the Fog

Social climber Stephen Lowry (Stewart Granger) uses rat poison to knock off his wealthy nagging hypochondriac wife of ten years and inherits her wealth and the mansion, and gets away with the crime when his wife’s death is attributed to a gastric condition. Scullery maid Lily Watkins (Jean Simmons) observed Stephen poisoning his wife and blackmails him to stay on as head housekeeper, over her despised nemesis — the cook (Margery Rhodes) and the elderly unfriendly butler Grimes, and to keep his wife’s precious jewels.

Alfred Travers (Ronald Squire), Stephen’s friend and business confidant, offers him a partnership in his firm. His attractive daughter Elizabeth (Belinda Lee) pines for Stephen, but he remains in mourning. Young barrister David Macdonald (Bill Travers) pines for Elizabeth, but she opts for Stephen and is willing to wait for whenever it is he comes out of his funk. —Ozu’s World of Movie Reviews