Mystery Street

Plot synopsis:
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 miles from Boston, he demands to be taken back. Instead, she ditches him and steals the car. But the father of the child, James Harkley, kills Vivian rather than pay up or risk exposure of the affair to his wife and family. He buries Vivian's body and sinks the car in a pond.
A day later, the drunk reports the 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 a beach. State Police Lt. Peter Morales (Montalban), 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.
Morales wants to know how she died. Vivian's nosy landlady (Lanchester) attempts to blackmail Harkley, the man Vivian had been calling 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 Vivian was with the night she disappeared. Morales eventually finds Shanway's car 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. Morales then finds that the landlady has the gun, but not before she tries to blackmail Harkley for $20,000, is knocked over the head and dies. Morales chases but loses the killer. He comes across a hidden baggage check in the landlady's bird cage, which sends Morales 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. Shanway gets to be set free.

Tags: murder

Review:
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.
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.
It's mainly simply a crime story where we meet a bunch of characters responsible for a killing that took place.I thought the leading characters, played by Ricardo Montalban and Bruce Bennett, were upstaged by a couple of ladies, namely Elsa Lanchester and Jan Sterling, although the latter is killed off quickly.
By the way, if you liked Montalban in this kind of movie, check out "Border Incident," a noir he starred in the previous year.This particular story won't keep on edge because we know early on who is the murderer.
"Lt. Morales" (Montalban) gets valuable help from "Dr. McAdoo" (Bennett) is piecing the case together.It's "Mrs. Smerling" (Lanchester) who is the most fun to watch in this film.
As a result, viewers come away with a sense that the film is an ensemble piece when in fact it isn't.Jan Sterling is well cast as Vivian, a young, blonde hussy who is in trouble with the wrong people.
The look and feel is very 1940s, with scenes at a seedy rooming house, a tawdry bar called the Grass Skirt, and sleazy music to match.The main reason I chose to watch this film is because of the mystery genre and the casting of wonderful Elsa Lanchester.
CSI fans might laugh or find it charmingly quaint, but I don't recall any other "noir" type of films that I've seen from this era talk about forensic details to the extent that this film does.I won't spoil the movie, but there are two scenes I'd like to comment on:1) While Ricardo Montalban is searching the office of a snobby Cape Cod blue blood, the blue blood (Mr. Harkley) says to him, "The Harkleys have been here since before this land became known as the United States.
Jan Sterling, (Vivian Heldon),"Female on the Beach",'55 gave a great short supporting role and played a very important part in this nice Mystery Story!
It is partnered with "Act of Violence" on a "film noir" DVD which offers an excellent evening of entertainment from two lesser-known movies of that genre.Ricardo Montalban plays a Portuguese-American police detective trying to piece together the clues left behind by a skeleton found buried in the sand dunes near Hyannis, Massachusetts.
The rest of the cast is filled with great little cameo performances, most with one scene each in rapid-fire succession.So fans of classic police drama will find much to enjoy in "Mystery Street," a movie which certainly foreshadows current trends in that genre, and gives fine actors a great showcase for their talent.**** out of *****.
John Sturges' taut, tense thriller combines a documentary style (including location shooting in Boston) with intense performances, striking photography, and a fresh-for-its-time approach to its murder mystery plot.
When floozy Vivian Heldon (Jan Sterling as the anti-Judy Holliday :-) hijacks grieving father Henry Shanway's (Marshall Thompson) car to go shake down James Harkley (Edmon Ryan), the rich father of her baby-in-progress, she's next seen as a skeleton washed up on a Hyannis beach.
Lt. Pete Moralas (Ricardo Montalban) enlists the help of Harvard forensic criminologist Dr. McAdoo (an avuncular yet no-nonsense Bruce Bennett), and the results are as riveting as a good episode of one of the "CSI" series.
I liked the way the investigation and forensic evidence rang true while the story (Leonard Spigelgrass got an Oscar nomination) kept me on the edge of my seat with twists and turns, including a monkey wrench thrown into the works by the late Vivian's blackmail-minded landlady, Mrs. Smerrling (a delightfully sly Elsa Lanchester).
A grisly little entry in the police-procedural film noir sub-genre that stars a swarthy Ricardo Montalban as chief detective investigating the death of a mysterious girl (Jan Sterling) whose skeleton is found buried on a beach.
To that end, there are all sorts of little nasty details that come as a bit of a surprise in a film from this time period -- the foot of a skeleton poking out of a sand dune, a photo of a dead woman lying in a pool of blood, the tiny bones of an unborn baby being contained in an envelope -- and the film goes out of its way to emphasize the deadness of a dead human body (as Jan Sterling's body is being carried away from the car in which she was just shot, the murdered accidentally thunks her head against the car door).Sterling, despite the fact that she usually played caustic, cheap blondes, always had a winning quality for me, and I was somewhat bummed that she dies so early on.
"Mystery Street" might be revealing as to what makes a Sturges film what it is.I mean, there's the Mexican-American lead male, Ricardo Montalban, who is far more believable than, say, Humphrey Bogart.
The cast list is as long as your arm, but the leads – Ricardo Montalban, Sally Forrest (top-billed, despite her small role), Bruce Bennett (giving a rather off-hand performance), Elsa Lanchester (at her best!), and the well-cast Marshall Thompson – hardly qualify as box office draws.
In Boston, the prostitute Vivian Heldon (Jan Sterling) is pressed by Mrs. Smerrling (Elsa Lanchester), who is the greedy owner of the boarding house when she lives, to pay the rent of the room that is late.
Detective Peter Morales (Ricardo Montalban) is assigned to investigate the case without any clue; however the coroner Dr. McAdoo (Bruce Bennett) from Harvard gives technical support to Morales and he finds the identity of Vivian.
Will Detective Morales proceed his investigation and find the real killer?"Mystery Street" is an engaging film-noir directed by John Sturges.
It stars Ricardo Montalban, Sally Forrest, Bruce Bennett, Elsa Lanchester, Marshall Thompson & Jan Sterling.
The police, led by Montalban's Hispanic detective, Pete Morales, think they have their man when it emerges that she was seen leaving the Grass Skirt bar with a drunk Henry Shanway (Thompson).
However, aided by Dr. McAdoo at Harvard Medical School (Bennett), Morales starts to unravel the mystery and identity of the killer.Not the classic film noir piece that some DVD marketers want you to believe it is (strip away Alton's brilliant shades and shadow work and it's just a forensic based who done it), the film however triumphs on account of its wrong man premise and the interesting characters woven into the plot (Lanchester walks away with the movie as a devious and batty landlady).
The procedural aspect of the story is given weight by the forensic angle used (the CSI film noir tag that comes with the film is an apt one), while some social awareness is deftly slotted in via Morales' immigrant background.Good writing, visually impressive and paced with no little skill, Mystery Street is recommended to the mystery thriller fan.
Ricardo Montalban is a police detective, Lt. Morales, who thinks he's caught a murderer in "Mystery Street," a 1950 noir-ish B with an excellent cast that includes Elsa Lanchester, Sally Forrest, Bruce Bennett, Jan Sterling and Marshall Thompson.
As Grace Shanway, Henry's wife, Sally Forrest portrays the desperation of the situation, her grief over losing a baby, and her belief that her husband didn't kill anyone - but her doubt over whether or not he slept with the victim.This is a highly interesting film with some wonderful Boston and Harvard location shots and good performances.
Vivian was reported missing six months earlier by another boarder who resided in the same rooming house where Vivian was known to use the landlord's downstair hallway phone regularly to call her male companions.As this film was released in 1950 I was more than impressed with the manner in which the lead detective Peter Moralas (played by a young looking Ricardo Montalban) teamed up with Harvard University doctor/scientist named Dr. McAdoo (played by Bruce Bennett.
The film is a very good crime/drama/mystery with good acting and an intriguing plot filled with sex, greed, suspicion, blackmail, assault, and of course the earliest signs of how forensic science has assisted in determining the W5, who, what, why, when and where of a murder victim.This is a movie well worth seeing..
It bears some of the trademarks of the genre, such as the extremely moody and effective black & white lighting by John Alton.Ever charming Ricardo Montalban stars as Boston detective Pete Morales, working an interesting case.
So he calls upon Harvard forensic specialist Dr. McAdoo (Bruce Bennett), who determines that the person was a woman named Vivian Heldon (Jan Sterling), who as we saw from the prologue, met a bad end while desperately trying to get in touch with a particular man."Mystery Street" is quotable and enjoyable, and snappily paced.
It also gives fine showcases to its supporting cast: Bennett, a fun Elsa Lanchester in an amusing turn as an eccentric landlady, Marshall Thompson as an unfortunate sap who falls under suspicion due to his circumstances, Sally Forrest as the saps' agitated wife, Edmon Ryan as an upper class type, and Betsy Blair as an associate of the murder victim.
RICARDO MONTALBAN is thoroughly convincing as a detective who has to solve a baffling murder when a woman (JAN STERLING) disappears suddenly in Cape Cod. Turns out she was a prostitute, so there's a long list of possible suspects, the chief one being an innocent man (MARSHALL THOMPSON) who is wrongly accused of the crime.BRUCE BENNETT is effective as a professor at Harvard Medical School who is able to obtain some clues from the skeletal remains washed up on the beach.
And ELSA LANCHESTER just about walks off with any scene she's in as a batty landlady who turns out to be too greedy for her own good.With its shadowy, low-key lighting and film noir atmosphere, it's a fast-moving story well paced by John Sturgess who keeps the tale taut and tense enough throughout, only slowing a little toward the ending.Well worth watching, a surprisingly noirish melodrama full of gritty moments not usually found in the glossier sort of films MGM was more famous for..
Nevertheless a super film and well worth seeing with so many good performances, notably Ricardo Montalaban as the police officer in charge and a lovely turn by Elsa Lanchester, a bit laid back in her early scenes as the boozing landlady but when she starts to get into the action - wow!.
Mystery Street casts him as a police detective getting and solving a missing person case that turns into a homicide.The victim is Jan Sterling and she's seen in a brief and memorable prologue where she's a girl who gets around.
She catches on before the police do who the real killer is and it costs her dear.Some future Hollywood heavyweights were involved in the making of Mystery Street, it's an early film for director John Sturges who in a few years would be getting bigger budgets and writer Richard Brooks who would soon be directing.
But never a Studio to go Completely Dark, they attached the also Popular Docu-Style-Scientific/Technological Aspect and here's what Resulted.They had the Advantage of the Best Film-Noir Cinematographer in John Alton an Off-Beat Cast (Montalban, Lanchester, Sterling), and a Cracker-Jack Director in a Young John Sturgess.
John Sturges directed this interesting film that stars Ricardo Montalban as Lt. Pete Morales, a police detective from Boston who is investigating the death of a young woman, whose skeletal remains are found washed ashore on a Cape Cod Beach.
In order to identify them, he takes them to Harvard professor McAdoo(played by Bruce Bennett) who helps Morales with a positive ID, which leads to the arrest of a young man(played by Marshall Thompson) for her murder.
Montalban is good in unusual role for him, and film fascinating as an early example of forensics technology being used to solved crimes, which is quite popular on TV series today..
Can find little to fault here.Sally Forrest does to my tastes have far too little to do, although she does well with what she has a sketchy character and not enough screen time wastes her somewhat.Also found some of the back and forth is at times on the slightly fractured side.However, the performances are all strong, with Jan Sterling being well cast and Ricardo Montalban being a big pleasant surprise in a role one doesn't typically associate him with (of the films and roles seen of his this is from my perspective against type stuff and this is meant in a good way).
Still, Montalban's scene being talked down to by a privileged blue blood is pretty terrific.The story is generally solid, although the action in the last third feels a bit forced.A must-see for Lanchester fans, and worth watching for anyone who likes detective movies..
Ricardo Montalban as a serious and cold detective support by Havard's forensic Dr. McAdoo who joint the missing link...and finally Elsa Lanchester who is magnificent on a greedy and disguised unmarried woman or as she say's "not exactly"...all movie is around her...really a real star of this movie,great noir!!!.
Part noir, part docudrama, it features a brilliant, understated performance by the very talented Ricardo Montalban who plays a detective on Cape Cod who must investigate a murder.
Despite the wife's emotional outburst, Morales acts true to character: as a hardened detective, he stubbornly clings to the belief that the suspect is truly guilty.Meanwhile, Vivian's landlady, Mrs. Smerrling (played very nicely as a nasty eccentric by Else Lancester) discovers Vivian's connection to Harkley so she goes to Cape Cod and attempts to blackmail him.
Mystery Street-I had not heard of this movie until I purchased it as part of the excellent Film Noir boxset from Warner Brothers- volume 4-so far I have seen 5 of the movies from this set and I loved each one.This movie crams a film noir plot complete with femme fatale into the first 15 minutes-a solid paced and economically told story of a B-girl who wants to confront her upscale lover.Along the way she shanghai's the patsies' patsy- a near blind drunk hubby miserable over his wife's miscarriage and takes his car.Shot on location in Boston this film changes perspective the way some folks flip channels during a vice presidential debate.One scene we follow the police(including Ricardo Montalban) and then we see the shifty landlady(Elsa Lanchester) trying to blackmail a killer,etc.This movie is near perfect -except a Thin-Manish gathering of all of the main characters with a speech from the detective before the finale.The DVD has a 5 minute featurette and a commentary track by 2 film historians.
"Mystery Street" is a nice little "film noire" mystery from MGM and Director John Sturges.
Its a dark little film full of night scenes, dark shadows and strategic lighting....and it has not one, but two "femme fatales"."Femme Fatale" number one is Vivian Heldon (Jan Sterling) a prostitute whom we meet in a seedy Boston rooming house trying to phone a rich "boyfriend" in Hyannis, Mass.
'Mystery Street' is a solid drama, with some nice little 'film noir' touches.
The cop in charge, Lieutenant Pete Morales (Ricardo Montalban), calls on Dr. McAdoo (Bruce Bennett), a forensic scientist at Harvard, to help with identification.
Ricardo Montalban, Jan Sterling, and Elsa Lanchester all reside on "Mystery Street." Jan Sterling has a small but pivotal role in this exciting crime drama.
When she is killed, the killer ditches the car and several months later Sterling's skeleton is found along with the awfully wet car.Excellent detective work by cop Ricardo Montalban and as a Harvard professor turned sleuth Bennett leads to the arrest of Thompson, thus destroying his life with his wife, nicely played by Sally Forest.Elsa Lanchester steals the movie as a snoopy, vicious landlady, whose greed shall lead to her demise as well.Well done picture by showing how the real killer is caught at the end.
When she meets up with James Joshua Harkley (Edmon Ryan), he simply shoots her at point blank range, dumps her body in the ocean and her car in a nearby lake and then promptly leaves.Some months later, when part of a human skeleton is found on a beach at Cape Cod, Boston Police Lieutenant Peter Moralas (Ricardo Montalban) is assigned to the case and instructed to liaise with Dr McAdoo (Bruce Bennett) who works at Harvard's Department of Legal Medicine.
The locations are Boston and Cape Cod. The reason it has to be set around Boston is that a forensic physician from Harvard (Bruce Bennett) is brought into the plot to help solve the riddle of the victim's (Jan Sterling's) identity and the means of her murder.The lead detective is Ricardo Montalban and the plot focuses on him, but there is room for an abundance of supporting players, all of whom have important functions in the story -- Marshall Thompson as the unlucky schmuck who is arrested for the killing, Sally Forrest as his wife, Elsa Lanchester as a chuckling would-be blackmailer who pushes her prinked charm a little too far, Betsy Blair as the helpful friend of the victim, and Edmon Ryan as the haughty aristocrat who kills the pregnant B-girl Sterling to protect not just himself but his family but who doesn't get an ounce of sympathy from the script anyway.In fact, Montalban, the probing detective, doesn't show anybody any sympathy either.
Police Lt. Pete Morales (Ricardo Montalban) investigates with the help of Harvard forensic specialist Dr. McAdoo (Bruce Bennett).This starts very well.