User Reviews

This is a little seen gem, a cross between film noir and police procedural with a terrific script by former crime reporter Sydney Boehm and top-notch scenarist Richard Brooks. It revolves around the murder of a prostitute, vividly played by Jan Sterling. Very provocative material for the period, subtly handled (the girl is killed for trying to squeeze money for an abortion out of one of her affluent clients). The cast is uniformly excellent, and the cinematography, by legendary John Alton, is up to his sublimely shadowy standards. A must-see for fans

Don't miss out on this captivating picture! "Mystery Street" seamlessly combines elements of film noir and docudrama, showcasing a brilliant and understated performance by the exceptionally talented Ricardo Montalban in the role of a Cape Cod detective investigating a murder. The film's commitment to authenticity is evident through its on-location shooting in Cape Cod and Boston, lending a genuine atmosphere to the story. Renowned cinematographer John Alton, celebrated for his mastery of noir aesthetics, contributes to the film's visual brilliance. A closer look at the DVD commentary reveals the remarkable number of stunning shots present in this cinematic gem.

One of the unique aspects of "Mystery Street" is its departure from the conventional noir script. The narrative introduces Lieutenant Morales, the protagonist portrayed by Montalban, approximately 20 minutes into the story. Prior to that, the audience becomes acquainted with the circumstances surrounding the crime. In this expository sequence, we meet the victim, Vivian, a barmaid played by Jan Sterling. Vivian, pregnant with the child of Harkley, a respected married businessman on Cape Cod, seeks a meeting to secure financial support.

The plot takes an intriguing turn when Vivian assists Henry Shamway, an ordinary man drowning his sorrows after his wife's miscarriage, in moving his illegally parked car. Unbeknownst to Shamway, Vivian manipulates the situation and drives both of them towards Cape Cod while he remains inebriated. Just as Shamway begins to regain sobriety, Vivian tricks him into exiting the car momentarily, pretending to let him take the wheel, and leaves him stranded in the middle of nowhere.

In a shocking turn of events, Harkley cold-bloodedly murders Vivian by shooting her at point-blank range while she converses with him in Shamway's car. To further intensify the scene's impact, Harkley embraces and kisses the lifeless barmaid, deceiving two passing motorists into thinking everything is normal. Harkley proceeds to bury the body near the ocean, with the skeletal remains later discovered in a sand dune.

Montalban's portrayal of Lieutenant Morales distinguishes him from the archetypal noir detective. Not only does Morales hail from a non-American background, but he also maintains a composed and objective demeanor throughout his investigation. While Morales assumes the role of the film's protagonist, he avoids becoming the hapless male patsy frequently seen in noir films, and he remains unaffected by the allure of a femme fatale. Instead, it is Shamway, the unsuspecting victim, who falls prey to the conniving Vivian.

Lt. Morales enlists the assistance of the pathology department at the Harvard University Medical School, where viewers are treated to a riveting display of forensic investigation. Utilizing a slide projector, they skillfully match a picture of the skull with a missing person's photograph, showcasing a level of Crime Scene Investigation far ahead of its time. The forensic examination delves deeper as the investigators locate the submerged car where the murder took place, retrieve it from a pond, and trace the trajectory of the fatal bullet. However, it is only after Morales realizes that the victim was indeed murdered that Shamway's innocence is established.

One memorable scene unfolds as Morales interrogates Shamway's wife at their home, seeking information about canceled checks. The wife, expertly portrayed by Sally Forrest, gradually succumbs to mounting emotions with each canceled check, each one ostensibly tied to the preparations for their unborn child-an additional blow for the wife who has recently suffered the loss of their unborn baby and now faces her husband's arrest. Despite the wife's emotional outburst, Morales, unwavering in his role as a hardened detective, clings to the belief that the suspect is genuinely guilty.

Meanwhile, Vivian's eccentric landlady, Mrs. Smerrling, portrayed brilliantly by Else Lancaster, uncovers Vivian's association with Harkley and attempts to blackmail him. She obtains the murder weapon, which becomes crucial in the climactic sequence. After Morales acquires a search warrant for Harkley's residence and fails to locate the gun, Harkley realizes that Mrs. Smerrling has previously stolen it. He proceeds to visit her apartment and promptly strangles her.

"Mystery Street" resists sentimentalism, instead delivering a gripping narrative. When Shamway's wife arrives to speak with Mrs. Smerrling, she is attacked by Harkley just as Morales arrives on the scene. Morales finally recognizes Shamway as an innocent victim and painstakingly searches Mrs. Smerrling's apartment for the murder weapon. In a captivating scene, after an entire night of fruitless searching, Morales stumbles upon a key to a train station locker, coincidentally concealed at the bottom of Mrs. Smerrling's parrot's cage. Harkley, however, manages to retrieve Mrs. Smerrling's bag from the locker only to find himself trapped inside a railway car after a pursuit by Morales. As Harkley draws the gun, he discovers that the bullets have been removed by Jackie, Vivian's roommate, played by Betsy Blair, who herself experienced being blacklisted by the film industry in the early 1950s. Blair's return to film was facilitated by her husband, Gene Kelly, who threatened to leave MGM.

"Mystery Street" also tackles the subject of racial prejudice, evident in the scene where Harkley converses with Morales in his office. This encounter reveals Harkley's elitism and disdain for Morales due to his foreign background.

While "Mystery Street" showcases a commendable display of forensic investigation ahead of its time, it tends to idealize Harvard University as the ultimate authority in education. This portrayal may overlook the potential shortcomings and limitations that any institution, including Harvard, may possess. Nonetheless, when it comes to sheer entertainment value, "Mystery Street" unquestionably hits the mark. The film's remarkable emphasis on forensic science, ahead of its time, coupled with Ricardo Montalban's captivating performance as the authentic and dedicated investigating detective, ensures an unforgettable viewing experience.

Six months ago in Beacon Hill, Vivian Heldon (Jan Sterling) demands a meeting at "The Grass Skirt" but the man never shows. She finds a drunken Henry Shanway at the bar and pretends to help him. Instead she drives him to Cape Cod to confront her rich married boyfriend. Henry needs to get back to his wife in a hospital but she leaves him at the side of the road. The mystery boyfriend shoots Vivian dead and dumps the car into the waters. Later, a skeleton is found on the beach. Police Lt. Pete Morales (Ricardo Montalban) investigates with the help of Harvard forensic specialist Dr. McAdoo (Bruce Bennett).

This starts very well. Jan Sterling plays a great broad and her story is interesting. However the movie kills her off in 15 minutes and it turns into a dry boring CSI episode. It was probably interesting stuff in the old days but it's too stale to be interesting today. They don't have the bells and whistles yet. The police investigation is pretty stiff with Ricardo Montalban although it may have been progressive to have a non-white as the lead authority character.

'Mystery Street' is a solid drama, with some nice little 'film noir' touches. The script is knowingly cynical. "She called everybody 'honey'. I wonder if that meant she liked them," muses the detective.

It's nice to see Montalban so young and in a good early role. Jan Sterling nails 'trashy blonde' down in this role, as she would in the later 'Ace in the Hole' by Billy Wilder.

A truly bizarre moment occurs when the killer is caught carrying the lifeless body of the Sterling character out of her car by a passing motorist. For a moment, he must feign making love to the lifeless corpse to allay the onlooker's suspicions. I think even the great Sir Alfred Hitchcock would have appreciated a moment like that.

The forensics scenes are quite good for a 1950 movie, and rather graphic. The skull image superimposed over the face of Jan Sterling is unsettling, disturbing. Although never an exact science, the process of facial recognition to a skull goes on today and remains fascinating.

This movie is well worth a view.

"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. She scribbles his phone number on the wall near the phone. She then goes to a bar and tries again. Then she sees Henry Shanway (Marshall Thompson), a despondent man who's had one too many over his wife's loss of their baby and senses an easy mark when she learns he has a car.

She cons him into thinking that she is driving him home but drives to Hyannis to confront her lover. After dumping Shanway on the highway, Vivian proceeds to meet her lover. A shadowy figure steps up to the car, kills her then separately disposes of her body and the car.

Fast forward several months later when the skeletal remains of Vivian are found by a beachcomber (Walter Burke). He brings them to the gung ho Lt. Peter Morales (Ricardo Montalban) a Hispanic detective who has been assigned to the case. Morales brings the bones to Harvard forensic scientist Dr. McAdoo (Bruce Bennett) for analysis and identification.

Later Shanway's car is pulled from a lake and traced back to him. Morales suspects Shanway of the murder as all clues point to him in spite of his "I didn't do it" pleas. His wife Grace (Sally Forrest) also insists that he is innocent.

Enter "femme fatale" number two. Mrs Smerrling (Elsa Lanchester), the landlady of the rooming house has secret ambitions of her own. Taking the phone number left by Vivian she contacts Vivian's lover and goes to see him. suspecting him of the murder, she tries to blackmail him but is shown the door, but not before she manages to steal the murder weapon from the murderer's desk drawer.

Meanwhile, Shanway is charged with the crime. His wife Grace is forced to move out of their apartment because she is unable to pay the rent. Mrs. Smerrling has let the killer know that she has his gun and arranges a meeting with him where..............................................

Ricardo Montalban was used by MGM mainly in musicals but occasionally would get to do excellent little "B" unit dramas such as this one. He gets to play a Hispanic character in a predominately Irish area. His zeal for the case is suddenly cut back when he learns that he may have charged the wrong man and ruined the lives of an innocent family. Jan Sterling shines as the "B" girl in a brief role. But it is the veteran character actress Elsa Lanchester that steals the film. Her fidgety, nosy, scheming old biddy is a classic.

Bruce Bennett's forensic scientist was a relatively new character in film at this time. It is interesting to see how he pieces together the clues to the identification of the skeletal remains of the murder victim.

Also in the excellent cast are Betsy Blair, Edmund Ryan, Ralph Dumke and Willard Waterman.

John Sturges would soon graduate to "A" list films and enjoy a lengthy career.

When the body is found on the beach, no one knows except us who it is. We know it's a cheap, no-good call girl named Vivian Helton because we watched her, desperate for money, meet the man who owed her, and who shot her. Now she's not only lost her looks, she's lost her flesh. Sand and waves have left nothing but bones. The cop in charge, Lieutenant Pete Morales (Ricardo Montalban), calls on Dr. McAdoo (Bruce Bennett), a forensic scientist at Harvard, to help with identification. In the process of establishing sex, age, height and occupation (possible dancer, not probable call girl), we'll get a lesson in forensics that would do credit to Kay Scarpetta or the Skeleton Detective himself, Gideon Oliver.

Then the police learn Vivian Helton was pregnant. Pete Morales, working his first case in Boston, had earlier made up his mind that Vivian was murdered before there was evidence to establish this. Now he's determined to find the murderer. Morales is a good guy...smart, ambitious, cheerful, hard working. But when he decides someone is guilty, he's not about to change his mind. Before he gets things right, he'll get things wrong.

Along the way we'll meet Henry Shanway, the poor drunk sap who met Vivian at a bar while he was feeling sorry for himself. He let her move his yellow Ford from a no-parking zone. The next thing he knew they were on the Cape, where she tricked him out of the car so she could drive off and meet the man who will shoot her. We'll meet Henry's wife, too. There's Vivian's eccentric and venal landlady (played by Elsa Lanchester), who thinks she can pick up the blackmailing where Vivian left off. And, of course, there's the killer. Most importantly, perhaps, there's McAdoo. Turns out that with his knowledge of bones, bullet angles and logic, he's a better detective than anyone else.

The movie benefits from the moody cinematography of John Alton and the efficient direction of John Sturges, Sturges moved on to direct such successes as Last Train from Gun Hill, The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape and Ice Station Zebra. Mystery Street is a solid entry. It's not an A movie, but it's interesting, unsentimental, well made and shorter.

Jan Sterling is a pick up lady who is pregnant. When she calls the father, he blows her away in a secluded area. Problem is that Marshall Thompson is on a drunken binge following the death of his son during childbirth. Sterling lures Thompson into his car and then steals it. 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. This is film noir at its very best.

East coast prostitute steals a car from a man--soused, on account his wife is ill in the hospital--in order to get money from an acquaintance parked on an ocean road; she ends up shot dead, and the married man is arrested. Ricardo Montalban plays the police officer who dedicates himself to solving the case, even though it's out of his jurisdiction (one wonders about all the cases going unheeded in Montalban's own territory!). Director John Sturges brings atmosphere (and a tough noir-ish feel) to this script by Sydney Boehm and Richard Brooks, from Leonard Spigelgass' story, but it's never a very suspenseful crime flick, nor complex. Montalban (attempting an image change from romantic matinée idol to an extremely well-dressed, well-manicured cop) isn't very convincing. ** from ****