Mystery Street

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, Sally Forrest, Bruce Bennett, Elsa Lanchester, and Marshall Thompson.[3]

Mystery Street
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJohn Sturges
Produced byFrank E. Taylor
Screenplay bySydney Boehm
Richard Brooks
Story byLeonard Spigelgass
StarringRicardo Montalban
Sally Forrest
Bruce Bennett
Elsa Lanchester
Marshall Thompson
Music byRudolph G. Kopp
CinematographyJohn Alton
Edited byFerris Webster
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • July 28, 1950 (1950-07-28) (United States)
Running time
93 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$730,000[1][2]
Box office$775,000[1]

The MGM film was shot on location in Boston and Cape Cod; according to one critic, it was "the first commercial feature to be predominantly shot" on location in Boston.[4] Also featured are Harvard Medical School in Roxbury, Massachusetts and Harvard University in nearby Cambridge. According to Frances Glessner Lee biographer Bruce Goldfarb, the story of the death of Irene Perry, in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, in 1940, as suggested by Glessner Lee (creator of The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death), was the basis of the film.[5] 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 to seek financial help. He refuses to meet and stops taking her calls. She goes to "The Grass Skirt" bar in Boston where she works 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.

Vivian drives with the car's owner drunk by her side. When the man realizes he's in Cape Cod miles from Boston, he demands to be taken back. Instead, she ditches him and steals the car. But the father of the child kills Vivian rather than pay up or risk exposure of the affair to his wife and family. He buries Vivian's body in the dunes and sinks the car in a pond.

A day later, the man reports his car stolen to his insurance but neglects to mention the blonde, not wanting to get in trouble with his wife (Sally Forrest), who had been hospitalized suffering from the loss of a pregnancy. Months later, the B-girl's skeleton is found half-buried on the beach. State Police Lt. Peter Moralas (Montalban), an overzealous and heartless police officer new to homicide division assigned to the District Attorney's Office in Barnstable, 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.

Moralas wants to know how she died. Mrs. Smerrling (Lanchester), a vile woman who is the owner of the boarding house where Vivian lived, visits James Harkley, the man Vivian had been calling from her boarding house, going so far as to steal the wealthy married man's gun during her visit. Moralas tracks down the stolen car from police records and questions Henry Shanway, the man Vivian was with the night she disappeared. Moralas eventually finds Shanway's car in the pond and he's identified in a police lineup. The innocent man is arrested and charged with the murder.

Dr. McAdoo discovers a bullet stuck in the car. Smerrling shows Harkley's gun to Jackie Elcott (Betsy Blair), a tenant in her building, who is familiar with firearms. Elcott removes the magazine, keeps the magazine, ensures the gun is unloaded and gives the gun back to Smerrling. Morales learns Smerrling has the gun. However, before he can question her, she attempts to blackmail Harkley for $20,000. She is knocked over the head and dies. Moralas chases but loses the killer. He comes across a hidden baggage check in the landlady's birdcage, which sends Moralas racing to catch the killer before the murder weapon can be disposed of. At the train station, he apprehends Harkley and takes him into custody. Morales phones Shanway's wife to tell her that her husband will soon be released. Mrs. Shanway answers Moralas with silence.

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."[6] 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."[7]

Accolades

Nominated

  • Academy Awards: Best Writing, Motion Picture Story, Leonard Spigelgass; 1951.

References
  1. 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. Goldfarb, Bruce (2020). 18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee & the Invention of Modern Forensics. Endeavour. pp. 202, 207. ISBN 9781913068042.
  6. "The New Pictures". Time. August 7, 1950. Retrieved August 15, 2017.
  7. "New Metro Study of Crime Detection". The New York Times. July 28, 1950. Retrieved August 15, 2017.
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