Mystery Street (1950)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

John Sturges

Writers:

Sydney Boehm (screenplay) and
Richard Brooks (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

28 July 1950 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Film-Noir | Drama

Plot:

A small town policeman is assisted by a Harvard professor when the skeletal remains of a pregnant prostitute turn up on a Massachusetts beach.

Plot Keywords:

B Girl | Skeleton | Boston | Prostitute | Harvard University

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Ricardo Montalban	...	Peter Moralas
Sally Forrest	...	Grace Shanway
Bruce Bennett	...	Dr. McAdoo
Elsa Lanchester	...	Mrs. Smerrling
Marshall Thompson	...	Henry Shanway
Jan Sterling	...	Vivian Heldon
Edmon Ryan	...	James Joshua Harkley
Betsy Blair	...	Jackie Elcott
Wally Maher	...	Tim Sharkey
Ralph Dumke	...	A Tattooist
Willard Waterman	...	A Mortician
Walter Burke	...	An Ornithologist
Don Shelton	...	A District Attorney

Also Known As:

Murder at Harvard

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #14285) | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Daily Variety had announced John Indrisano would appear in the film but there's no confirmation that he's in the final film.

Goofs:

Continuity: Length of the chain connecting phone book to wall phone in boarding house varies from scene to scene.

Quotes:

Vivian Heldon: What you need is fresh air.
Henry Shanway: Yeah. Yeah, open the window, huh?
Vivian Heldon: No, not here. Fresh air I couldn't get in here with a permit.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Mystery Street: Murder at Harvard (2007) (V)

Soundtrack:

Easy to Love

Superior Noir

MYSTERY STREET is a skilful blend of Film Noir and police forensic/procedural that makes effective use of authentic Boston locations, and boasts a fine natural performance from a young Ricardo Montalban.

`Fresh air couldn't get in here with a permit,' opines brassy Vivian Heldon (Jan Sterling), as she picks up a mark in The Grass Skirt, a sleazy bar (in a complex named Dreamland) with table lamps carved into the shape of hula-dancers whose grass skirts gyrate suggestively. Dumping the mark, she races off in his car to a rendezvous which ultimately sees her end up as nothing more than a bundle of bones in a plain cardboard box, grieved over by only a besotted tattooist.

After the girl's murder, Ricardo Montalban, as the young police detective attempting to piece together the negligible evidence, becomes the focus of the movie. Montalban gives an appealing performance under director John Sturges assured direction (in what was to be the first of many successful movies Sturges would make for MGM).

Although there are a few plot inconsistencies, they are not enough to upset one's enjoyment, and Sturges maintains a suitably dark atmosphere throughout, helped by a lack of any musical soundtrack, a device which helps to make the many scenes of greed and cruelty all the more believable. Elsa Lanchester stands out amongst a solid, professional cast as the victim's snooping, scheming landlady who attempts to benefit from her lodger's murder. I highly recommend this movie.