Mystery Street


Mystery Street is a 1950 American black-and-white film noir featuring Ricardo Montalbán, Sally Forrest, Bruce Bennett, Elsa Lanchester and Marshall Thompson. Produced by MGM, it was directed by John Sturges with cinematography by John Alton.
The 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. Also featured are Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts and Harvard Yard 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, was the basis of the film. The story earned Leonard Spigelgass a nomination as Best Story for the 23rd Academy Awards.

Plot

Brassy blonde B-girl Vivian Heldon phones James Joshua Harkley, the married man she has been dating and tells him she's "in trouble". When he fails to show up at the Boston bar where she works, she picks up drunken Henry Shanway so she can drive his car to Cape Cod and confront Harkley. When Shanway realizes he's been driven 60 miles out of Boston, he demands that they go back, but Vivian ditches him and takes his car. She meets her reluctant beau Harkley who shoots her, buries her in the dunes, and sinks the car in a pond.
Shanway reports his car stolen, but claims it had been parked by the hospital where his wife Grace is recovering from a miscarriage. Months later, a skeleton is found on the beach. Massachusetts State Police Detective Peter Moralas is assigned to the case. Dr. McAdoo, a forensics specialist at Harvard Medical School, analyzes the skeleton, and Vivian, who had been reported missing by her friend and housemate Jackie Elcott, is eventually identified.
Instead of helping the police, Vivian's conniving landlady Mrs. Smerrling tracks down Harkley herself. He denies knowing Vivian and rebuffs Smerrling's blackmail attempt, but she manages to steal his gun. Shanway's car is recovered and he is identified by witnesses who saw him with Vivian the night she was killed. Smerrling says nothing about Harkley or his gun, and the innocent Shanway is charged with murder. Smerrling is about to put the gun in a bag, to check it at a nearby train station for safekeeping, when Jackie sees it. She is initially unaware of its significance but later reports it to Moralas.
Smerrling again tries to blackmail Harkley, but he threatens to kill her so she tells him where to find the gun. They are interrupted by Grace; Harkley panics, knocks out Smerrling, and flees as Moralas arrives. Smerrling dies but Moralas finds her baggage claim check. Harkley is arrested at the train station after a foot chase, and Shanway is exonerated.

Cast

Reception

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

Critical response

Time magazine called it a "low-budget melodrama without box-office stars or advance ballyhoo 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." 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 Ricardo Montalbán that is "natural and unassuming."

Honors

Nominated