The
lowdown: 'Footsteps in the Fog' is based on a short
story by WW Jacobs called The Interruption, and
stars Stewart Granger as
Stephen Lowry, a businessman in Victorian-era London. Lowry's wealthy wife
dies
from gastroenteritis, but
the Cockney scullery maid Lily Watkins (Jean Simmons) knows that she had
been
slowly poisoned by her husband
over a period of time. Lily uses this knowledge to blackmail Lowry, getting
herself promoted to the
position of housekeeper and getting her hands on Mrs Lowry's jewellery.
Lowry and
Lily eventually become romantically
involved, but Lowry soon plots to kill Lily when he comes to realise that
she has a great hold over
him. He follows her into the foggy streets of London one evening and bludgeons
her
to death with his walking
cane, only to discover that he has killed the wrong woman by mistake.
Lowry is arrested for the
murder of the young woman, who happened to have been a policeman's wife,
and his
outlook is grim when two
men positively identify him. However, he is acquited after Lily testifies
that she had
lost Lowry's cane some weeks
before the murder, but this only serves to increase Lily's hold over him.
Lily
protects herself by telling
Lowry that she has written a letter to her sister, Rose Moresby, about
the death of
Mrs Lowry and asks her to
open it if anything untoward happens to her. Lily writes to Rose asking
her destroy
the letter after Lowry asks
her to marry him, but Rose's husband Herbert (William Hartnell) becames
curious
about the contents of the
letter and opens it against his wife's wishes. He sees the opportunity
to make some
easy money by blackmailing
Lowry, but gives the letter to attorney David MacDonald, mistaking him
for Lowry.
MacDonald already believes
that Mrs Lowry had been murdered, and takes the letter to the police. Meanwhile,
Lowry has been slowly and
deliberately poisoning himself in an attempt to frame Lily and have her
blamed for
both his wife's death and
his attempted murder. Lowry dies and when the police find the vial of poison
and Mrs
Lowry's jewellery in Lily's
room, she is arrested for two crimes she did not commit.
Who
connections: 'Footsteps
in the Fog' also features Victor Maddern (Robson
in
Fury from the Deep) and
Erik Chitty (Charles Preslin
in The Massacre and Engin in The Deadly Assassin).
Video clips:
Herbert Moresby 6.1mb
Attempted extortion
2.7mb |
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