Mystery Street

Mystery Street

Theatrical release poster
Directed by John Sturges
Produced by Frank E. Taylor
Screenplay by Sydney Boehm
Richard Brooks
Story by Leonard Spigelgass
Starring Ricardo Montalban
Sally Forrest
Bruce Bennett
Elsa Lanchester
Music by Rudolph G. Kopp
Cinematography John Alton
Edited by Ferris Webster
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release dates
  • July 28, 1950 (United States)
Running time
 93 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $730,000[1][2]
Box office $775,000[1]

Mystery Street is a 1950 black-and-white film noir directed by John Sturges with cinematography by cinematographer John Alton. The film features Ricardo Montalban, Bruce Bennett, and Elsa Lanchester.[3]

The MGM film was shot on location in Boston and Cape Cod; according to one Boston-based film critic, it was the first time Hollywood used Boston as a location.[4] Also featured are Harvard Medical School in Roxbury, Massachusetts and Harvard University in nearby Cambridge. The film's story earned Leonard Spigelgass a nomination as Best Story for the 23rd Academy Awards.

Plot

Blonde B-girl Vivian (played by Jan Sterling), is pregnant and tries to contact the father in order to persuade him to help her financially. He refuses to meet up with her and stops taking her phone calls. She goes to the bar where she works "The Grass Skirt" in Boston, and picks up a drunk (Marshall Thompson) so she can use his car to drive to Cape Cod where she can confront the father face to face. She drives with the car's 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 father of the child, who kills her rather than paying up or risking exposure of the affair to his wife and family. 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 (Sally Forrest), who at the time had been in hospital suffering from the loss of a pregnancy. Months later, the B-girl's skeleton is found half-buried in the sand 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 nosy landlady (Lanchester) attempts to blackmail the father of Vivian's child, whom she had been calling from her boarding house, going so far as to visit the wealthy married man and steal 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 identified 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, and later dies. Morales chases after but loses the killer. Morales finds a hidden baggage check in the landlady's room, which sends Morales racing to catch the killer before the murder weapon can be disposed of.

Cast

Reception

According to MGM records the film earned $429,000 domestically and $346,000 foreign, resulting in a loss of $284,000.[1]

Critical response

Time magazine called it a "low-budget melodrama without box-office stars or advance ballyhoo [that] does not pretend to do much more than tell a straightaway, logical story of scientific crime detection" but notes that "within such modest limits, Director John Sturges and Scripters Sydney Boehm and Richard Brooks have treated the picture with such taste and craftsmanship that it is just about perfect."[5] The New York Times called it "an adventure which, despite a low budget, is not low in taste or its attention to technical detail, backgrounds and plausibility" with a performance by Montalban that is "natural and unassuming."[6]

The staff at Ain't It Cool News characterized the film as a precursor to CSI-style police procedurals, with a Harvard Medical School professor providing the forensic science.[7]

Accolades

Nominated

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
  2. ↑ Glenn Lovell, Escape Artist: The Life and Films of John Sturges, University of Wisconsin Press, 2008 p55.
  3. ↑ Mystery Street at the American Film Institute Catalog.
  4. ↑ Book excerpt: Sherman, Paul. 'Mystery Street', book excerpt, March 30, 2008. Accessed: August 17, 2013.
  5. ↑ "The New Pictures". Time Magazine. August 7, 1950. Retrieved : August 17, 2013. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  6. ↑ "New Metro Study of Crime Detection". The New York Times. July 28, 1950. Retrieved : August 17, 2013. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  7. ↑ "A Movie A Day: Quint on Mystery Street (1950)". Ain't It Cool News. November 24, 2008. Retrieved : August 17, 2013. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)

External links