Tiger in the Smoke, The Fog of War

Yep, this will be the foggiest movie you have ever seen...even foggier than "The Fog" or "Fog Island"...combined!  This Film Noir classic from Pinewood Studios in England is set in the fog, and the fog even comes inside when someone opens the door.  What's the fog hiding? Shell shock (we call it PTSD now)?  A treasure chest? True love? A band of insane war vets welcoming home their psycho leader? Our feature today is 1956's "Tiger in the Smoke," directed by Roy Ward Baker. 

Major Elgin stepped on a mine and did not make it home from France.  The war ends and his men do make it home, shell shocked. Meg (Muriel Pavlow) is the Major's widow and is not too sad about being on the market again.  She won't be on the market long.  Hunk Geoffrey (Donald Sinden) is now engaged to her. Uh oh, Muriel is mailed photos of her husband...alive. Now the Major sets up a rendezvous with his about to be re-married wife.  This happens in the fog, and some imposter shows up. What's going on? It is all so foggy. Uh oh, a brass band of street people kidnap Geoffrey, kill the imposter, and bring the groom-to-be to their hideout...but why? Uh oh again, Jack (Tony Wright), a complete homicidal psycho escapes from prison and makes his way back to his shell shocked buddies.

Jack is busy, now that he has escaped.  He murders some more and is looking for something.  He'll sneak into Meg's home, do an unsuccessful search for something, and come within an inch from murdering Meg. Geoffrey?  Bound and gagged in the hideout of these crazy loons with brass instruments. Uh oh, Meg's priest (Laurence Naismith) knows some secrets...too many secrets. Now the priest is in mortal danger.  Not even Jack knows the secrets, only that he wants to know what they are. Geoffrey?  Useless, just like all men...but even so, he gets loose and thinks he can save Meg from certain maiming, and...well, you'll see.

Just what is the secret that Jack wants to know?  Is Meg's deceased husband alive?  Will the hunk Geoffrey do anything except being tied up, gagged, and escaping to advance the plot and protect Meg from the psycho Jack? The fog of war lasts way after the Germans surrendered and engulfs many returning soldiers...and no film captures this any better than "Tiger in the Smoke."