The Mexican heat, oppressive fog, and unending conflagrations in the surrounding oil fields of Roberto Gavaldón’s El niño y la niebla (US: The Boy and the Fog) symbolize the madness boiling up inside the minds of characters, especially the often hysterical Marta (Dolores del Rio), who’s terrified that her son Daniel (Alejandro Ciangherotti), who frequently walks in his sleep, has inherited the mental illness that runs in her family. Pedro López Lagar plays Marta’s husband Guillermo, an oilfield engineer who’s unaware of Marta’s family history and whose agitation by his wife’s constant histrionics and overprotection of Daniel leads him to find affection in the arms of loose women in town. While the criminal element is very minor and comes toward the end, the thick, oppressive doom of every scene soaks the film in a noir sensibility. Gavaldón and cinematographer Figueroa establish a practically volcanic atmosphere, industrial groans echoing through the house like a serenade to Marta’s fever dreams, tree branches crawling wildly across Daniel’s bedroom ceiling during his night terrors, Marta’s increasingly frenetic hallucinations comprising composite shots, filters, and extreme closeups. Based on a stage play by Rodolfo Usigli, the film is set in Poza Rica, Veracruz, which had developed into an economic powerhouse upon the discovery of rich oil fields in the 20th century; Gavaldón depicts the chaos of rapid growth in the scenes of crowded bars and clubs along the main drag. The film swept most categories at the 1954 Ariel Awards, Mexico’s equivalent to the Academy Awards.