Footsteps in the Fog

Plot

After poisoning his wife, the master of the house (Stewart Granger) is blackmailed by his Cockney maid Lily Watkins (Jean Simmons), who demands promotion. As she steadily takes the place of his dead wife, he again attempts murder. While attempting to murder Lily, by following someone who looked like her through the fog, he mistakenly kills Constable Burke's wife and gets chased by an angry mob, which he evades. Lily returns home and Stephen learns of his mistake. Some local bar goers saw him murder Mrs Burke and Stephen is put on trial, but their claims are dismissed after it is revealed they drink a lot and Lily lies to provide an alibi.

Stephen now wishes to remarry and decides to finally rid himself of the maid. He feigns illness and sends the maid to fetch the doctor. She says she will return urgently with the doctor within five minutes. He calculates this will be enough time for himself to frame the maid by drinking the poison that he used to kill his own wife and planting it and his wife's jewelry in the maid's room.

Lily is, however, detained by the police as a "tell-all" letter she has written to her sister, to safeguard herself after the master's failed plot to kill her surfaces.

The master's plan does not work as Lily returns too late and the doctor declares it is too late to save him. Lily pieces together the situation realising that Stephen never loved her, then is arrested by police at the scene.

Cast