Mystery Street
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| Mystery Street | |
|---|---|
 Mystery Street one-sheet movie poster |
|
| Directed by | John Sturges |
| Produced by | Frank E. Taylor |
| Written by | Leonard Spigelgass (story) Sydney Boehm Richard Brooks |
| Starring | Ricardo Montalban Sally Forrest Bruce Bennett Elsa Lanchester |
| Music by | Rudolph G. Kopp |
| Cinematography | John Alton |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) |
| Release date(s) | July 27, 1950 (U.S. release) |
| Running time | 93 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Mystery Street is 1950 black-and-white film directed by John Sturges with cinematography by famed lensman John Alton. The MGM film was shot on location in Boston and Cape Cod. Also featured are Harvard Medical School in Roxbury, Massachusetts and Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Blonde B-girl Vivian, working at "The Grass Skirt" in Boston talks a drunk in the bar into "borrowing" his car. She drives to Cape Cod with the cars owner drunk by her side. When the man realizes he's miles from Boston he objects and demands that he be taken back. Instead, she ditches him and steals the car. Afterward she meets up with a mysterious man who kills her. A day later the drunk reports the car stolen to his insurance but neglects to mention the blonde as not to get in trouble with his wife. Later, her body washes up on a beach. Barnstable cop Peter Morales (Montalban) teams up with Boston police and uses forensics with the help of Dr. McAdoo, a Harvard doctor (Bennett), to figure out who the woman is.
The cop then tries to figure out how she died and, later, who killed her. Vivian's nosey landlady attempts to blackmail one of her boyfriends Vivian used to call from her boarding house, going so far as to visit the wealthy married man and stealing his gun. Morales tracks down the stolen car from police records and questions Henry Shanway, the drunk man Vivian was with the night she disappeared. Eventually Morales finds Shanway's car and he's idenified in a police lineup. The innocent man is arrested and charged with the murder. Morales and Dr. McAdoo find the bullet still stuck in the car. Morales then finds out that the landlady has the gun but not before she tries to blackmail the owner and is knocked over the head. Morales chases the man but loses him. He eventually finds a hidden baggage check in the landladys room which sends Morales racing to catch the man before he can get his hands on the murder weapon that would prove his guilt.
[edit] Featured cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Ricardo Montalban | Lieutenant Peter Morales |
| Sally Forrest | Grace Shanway |
| Bruce Bennett | Dr. McAdoo at Harvard Medical School |
| Elsa Lanchester | Mrs. Smerrling, the landlady |
| Marshall Thompson | Henry Shanway |
| Jan Sterling | Vivian Heldon |
| John Sturges | |
|---|---|
| 1940s | The Man Who Dared | Shadowed | Alias Mr. Twilight | For the Love of Rusty | Keeper of the Bees | The Sign of the Ram | Best Man Wins | The Walking Hills |
| 1950s | The Magnificent Yankee | The Capture | Mystery Street | Right Cross | Kind Lady | The People Against O'Hara | It's a Big Country (with Clarence Brown, Don Hartman, Richard Thorpe, Charles Vidor, Don Weis and William A. Wellman) | The Girl in White | Jeopardy | Fast Company | Escape from Fort Bravo | Bad Day at Black Rock | Underwater! | The Scarlet Coat | Backlash | Gunfight at the O.K. Corral | The Law and Jake Wade | The Old Man and the Sea | Last Train from Gun Hill | Never So Few |
| 1960s | The Magnificent Seven | By Love Possessed | Sergeants 3 | A Girl Named Tamiko | The Great Escape | The Satan Bug | The Hallelujah Trail | Hour of the Gun | Ice Station Zebra | Marooned |
| 1970s | Joe Kidd | Chino | McQ | The Eagle Has Landed |
