Mystery Street
| Mystery Street | |
|---|---|
 Mystery Street one-sheet movie poster |
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| 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 |
| Editing by | Ferris Webster |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) | July 27, 1950 (U.S. release) |
| Running time | 93 min. |
| Language | English |
Mystery Street (1950) is a black-and-white film noir directed by John Sturges with cinematography by famed lensman John Alton. The film stars Ricardo Montalban, Bruce Bennett, and Elsa Lanchester.
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.[1] 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.
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[edit] Plot
Blonde B-girl Vivian (played by Jan Sterling), working at "The Grass Skirt" in Boston talks a drunk (Marshall Thompson) in the bar into "borrowing" his car. She drives to Cape Cod 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 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 (Sally Forrest). Months later, the B-girl's skeleton 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 nosy landlady (Lanchester) attempts to blackmail a boyfriend Vivian used to call 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.
[edit] Featured cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Ricardo Montalban | Lieutenant Peter Morales |
| Sally Forrest | Grace Shanway |
| Bruce Bennett | Dr. McAdoo, of Harvard Medical School |
| Elsa Lanchester | Mrs. Smerrling, the landlady |
| Marshall Thompson | Henry Shanway, Grace's husband |
| Jan Sterling | Vivian Heldon, bar-girl and murder victim |
Bennett's character was modeled after a real-life Harvard professor of legal medicine named George Burgess Magrath, who received his medical degree from Harvard in 1898."[2]
[edit] Reception
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."[3] 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."[4]
A contributor to 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.[5]
[edit] References
- ^ Book excerpt: 'Mystery Street' by Paul Sherman
- ^ "Cinema Veritas". Harvard Medicine. Spring 2009. http://harvardmedicine.hms.harvard.edu/bulletin/spring2009/mysterystreet.php. Retrieved 2011-01-03.
- ^ "The New Pictures". Time. August 7, 1950. http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,812959,00.html. Retrieved 2011-01-03.
- ^ "New Metro Study of Crime Detection". The New York Times. July 28, 1950. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9E0DE5DC1F3AE532A2575BC2A9619C946192D6CF. Retrieved 2011-01-03.
- ^ "A Movie A Day: Quint on Mystery Street (1950)". Ain't It Cool News. November 24, 2008. http://www.aintitcool.com/node/39211. Retrieved 2011-01-03.
