Although it’s based on a 1951 novel by Vic Sunesson (who also wrote the screenplay), Hidden in the Fog appears to owe a great debt to Otto Preminger’s Laura, an earlier film noir about a mystery woman at the heart of an unsolved murder whose presence casts a spell on the investigating detective. This Swedish spin opens stylishly—director Lars-Eric Kjellgren delivers a tracking POV shot of a woman’s hand firing a gun at a man in a chair—and proceeds to offer a few exciting aesthetic flourishes (sharp shadows, mirrored imagery, and the like). Unfortunately, Eva Henning brings little to the lead role of Lora, the murdered man’s wife, who is suspected of the killing until an unlikely alibi arises. “I’m still guilty,” she says at one point, suggesting a compelling internal layer to the narrative that Henning can’t quite access. Far livelier is Sonja Wigert as the husband’s shameless mistress, while Georg Rydeberg gives Bela Lugosi-as-Dracula vibes as the husband. Also amusing is the one Laura touch that could be considered a direct rip-off: the large painting of Lora that hangs on a wall, watching the proceedings like the one of Laura (Gene Tierney) in Preminger’s movie.
(2/3/2026)
