A group of postwar Hollywood directors gained career traction through medium and low-budget films noir: Anthony Mann, Richard Fleischer, Budd Boetticher, Jules Dassin, Edward Dmytryk, Joseph H. Lewis, Joseph Losey, Robert Parrish, Nicholas Ray, Robert Rossen … and former editor John Sturges, who braved tough competition at both Columbia and MGM, doing fine work and distinguishing himself by extracting good performances from his actors. Sturges scored extra points for diplomacy: he was one of the few directors who could secure the full cooperation of the ‘problematic’ star Spencer Tracy.
John Sturges’ biographer Glenn Lovell explains that MGM had reduced its roster of house directors by half. The benefit for Sturges was that he had less competition for the better projects. In his tryout film for Dore Schary, Sturges was given Mann’s cameraman-collaborator John Alton and a budget that could support some distant location shooting in Boston. He appears to have had enthusiastic help from a lively cast, mostly MGM contract players. One of the film’s writers was on the set a lot as well — Richard Brooks was getting ready to direct and wanted to observe. Mystery Street was a big step for Sturges — the first show that he felt he had personally shaped.
Enthusiastic reviewers were a big help too. Critics were impressed by Mystery Street’s focus on forensic detection. Some thought it had introduced police science to film audiences; RKO’s Tattooed Stranger featured similar police lab scenes a few months earlier. Given only a skeleton to work with, a Harvard professor not only determines that the victim was female, but that she was pregnant as well. Sidney Boehm and Richard Brooks’ tightly plotted script sees the investigation going in the wrong direction. The facts initially point to a young man who got drunk when his wife was in the hospital, and took a car ride with the wrong hot blonde.
As in the previous Side Street, MGM’s moralizing ‘Crime Does Not Pay’ attitude harps on the idea that straying from the straight and narrow is an invitation to chaos. But the noir undertow is stronger: the law comes very close to convicting the wrong man, and in 1950 Massachusetts still had capital punishment for first-degree murder.
Mystery Street has a standard pulp opening — the luckless blonde Vivian Heldon (Jan Sterling of Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole) is blasted with a pistol, point blank. A birdwatcher (Walter Burke) finds a skeleton on a lonely beach. Portuguese-American Detective Lt. Peter Moralas (Ricardo Montalban) * takes it to Harvard, where Dr. McAdoo (Bruce Bennett) uses science to establish facts. He determines that the skeleton belonged to a pregnant woman; a shattered rib indicates the impact of a bullet. A description of a car gives the victim a name and traces her back to Boston’s Henry Shanway (Marshall Thompson), a young married man who doesn’t tell the full truth when questioned. His attempt to conceal some shameful behavior inadvertently lands him a Murder One rap. His distraught wife Grace (Sally Forrest) can’t understand why several witnesses finger her husband. They include the murdered woman’s landlady, Mrs. Smerrling (Elsa Lanchester), who has her own theory of who killed Vivian. Instead of informing Lt. Moralas, Smerrling works on a side deal of her own.
With Henry locked up and a good case against him established, the Shanways think that they have been abandoned. Lt. Moralas shows little sympathy for Henry, yet pursues another loose end that reveals a second possible suspect. The combined effort of several people eventually turns the case upside down, leading to a desperate manhunt.
No, this is still film noir. Screenwriters Sydney Boehm and Richard Brooks are allowed to include sordid details not normally found in 1950 film fare. Two different pregnancies end sadly. Grace has just lost her baby in childbirth, and Vivian may not even have know she was pregnant — scientist McAdoo finds tiny bones along with her skeleton. Lt. Moralas does his best to put up with Mrs. Smirrling’s obvious lies and other witnesses’ ethnic slurs, but he can overreact as well. Confused and under pressure, Moralas accuses Grace Shanway of complicity in her husband’s escape attempt.
We like that the movie doesn’t excuse Henry Shanway as simply unlucky or misunderstood. It also doesn’t claim sainthood for his wife Grace. Thoroughly demoralized, she becomes openly hostile to Lt. Moralas, before bouncing back in support of her husband, in established noir tradition. Grace is aided by Vivian’s rooming house neighbor Jackie Elcott (Betsy Blair of Marty), a no-nonsense waitress. Jackie knows her way around automatic pistols because she was once the girlfriend of a Marine. ↓
On the other side of the law, audiences will find the actual killer easy to spot, but additional amusement comes via a sparkling, eccentric performance from Elsa Lanchester. Her alcoholic landlady dreams of financing a bright future through blackmail. When Montalban asks where her husband is, Lanchester’s eye-roll is worth five lines of funny dialogue.
Boston locations provide the realism that makes Mystery Street stand out. Walter Burke finds the skeleton on a broad beach in a scene that would be repeated almost verbatim in Steven Spielberg’s Jaws. We do wonder how that skeleton remained so intact and became so ‘clean’ after only a couple of months. Although we expect that justice will eventually triumph, Sturges gives Mystery Street a believable surface tension. It looks pretty bad for Henry Shanley when his car is pulled from a swamp Psycho– style, with the murdered woman’s personal effects found inside. But Bruce Bennett’s Harvard man demonstrates that C.S.I.-like science just as often exonerates suspects as proves them guilty.
The film was a big opportunity for actress Sally Forrest, a former dancer who had attracted attention with leading roles in Ida Lupino’s first directing efforts, Not Wanted and Never Fear. Marshall Thompson has the thankless role of the thoughtless husband who chooses the worst night ever to get drunk. Contributing a very strong performance is Ralph Dumke as a tattoo artist who berates the cops for not finding the killer. Favorite Ned Glass goes un-billed as a Harvard lab assistant with a good attitude. ↙ Not high on the cast list but doing much to make Mystery Street click is the excellent actor Edmon Ryan, following up on his fine work in MGM’s previous Side Street.
Initially I was put off this new release because I remember renting the twofer DVD many years ago & was not impressed. After reading our host’s enthusiastic review, I believe Farley Granger’s performance in Side Street may have been the culprit, it being nowhere near the level of Strangers On A Train. So it’s time to put Mystery Street in my want list. Cheers!!
Great review of one of my favorite films. I would say though it seems Vivian definitely knew she was pregnant, saying she was in a “jam” on the phone desperately trying to arrange a meeting with her married lover.
Tom … that makes sense, thanks!