Mystery Street (1950)

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:

Beach | Boston | Skeleton | Prostitute | B Girl

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:

Frank Taylor's first production credit after a career as a literary editor at Random House.

Goofs:

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

Quotes:

Lieutenant Peter Morales: [to Dr. McAdoo] Professors work with their heads. Cops work with their feet.

Movie Connections:

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

Soundtrack:

Easy to Love

Stunningly Photographed "B" Mystery; Great Villain; Fine Cast and Values

This is an unusually-well-photographed detective film, starring Ricardo Montalban as a handsome and improbable young Boston detective. It has a first-rate villain, an interesting investigational format, some very good actors in minor parts and very fine B/W production values. The script was by Leonard Spigelglass, Sydney Boehm and Richard Brooks with first-rate direction by John Sturges. Rudolph G. Kopp did the music, Edwin Willis the sets with Ralph S. Hurst, Cedric Gibbons and Gabriel Scognamillo the art direction and John Alton the beautiful cinematography. In the unusually large cast besides Montalban as Pete Morales were Sally Forrest, Marshall Thompson, Elsa Lanchester, Edmon Ryan as the villain, Bruce Bennet as a forensics professor, Betsy Blair, Jan Sterling and many others. The storyline is actually fairly simple. A "B" girl being told to get lost by her rich married boyfriend has to hijack a car driven by a second man to get from Boston to Cape Cod. Months later, she turns up as a skeleton near Cape Cod. Working from clues with a forensics professor, Morales tries to free the innocent motorist she had hijacked from suspicion, prevent another killing and catch the guilty man. This is a very attractive and well-mounted production; Forrest is somewhat wasted as a housewife; but many people, Lanchester and Ryan especially, have small to large telling parts in this very good narrative. Not a great film but far-above-average in every respect.