Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Manthast Absolutely amazing

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

classicsoncall I can really appreciate a film I've never heard of when it delivers an intriguing story with compelling characters. Elsa Lanchester is positively off the rails here as a scheming, money obsessed landlady who has the temerity to attempt blackmail on a guy who's already killed someone, and she knows it! How she couldn't figure out that he might try to kill her just as handily kind of escapes me, but I guess she only saw the dollar signs. Funny, but I had the same impression of the pharmacist in "The Two Mrs. Carroll's" when he tried to put the screws to Humphrey Bogart. Not a smart move.If you didn't know who Detective Moralas was starting out, his familiar appearance might have driven you crazy while the story progressed. This is probably the earliest film I've seen Ricardo Montalban in and he did a nice job here as the Boston homicide cop. If nothing else, the story line reveals the excruciating detail that forensic investigation requires to catch a murderer. I don't really watch TV shows like CSI so maybe I'm not in tune to modern police methods much, but for an early story dealing with the science, it took one through a lot of twists and turns to find the killer.There was one remarkable element in the story that I got a bit of a chuckle out of having nothing to do with the movie per se, but with Mrs. Shanway's (Sally Forrest) stay at the hospital when she had the miscarriage. One of the receipts she produced for Moralas was a forty eight dollar hospital bill. I was born the same year this film came out, and believe it or not, my mother saved the hospital bill as well. Lest you think the amount they came up with here was made up for the movie, I can confirm that my own delivery was a bargain at sixty dollars!

Scott LeBrun Accurately described by many as "C.S.I. style noir", the mystery-procedural "Mystery Street" is cracking entertainment for devotees of the noir genre. It's also ahead of its time for its approach to solving a case of murder. 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. A skeleton is found buried under beach sand, and Morales must first find out who the person is. 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 gets points for its casting of Montalban in the lead role, and he's highly watchable as our hero. 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. Lanchester ends up walking away with the film.John Sturges directed, and he's in fine form, working from a script by Sydney Boehm and Richard Brooks. This is the kind of story where savvy viewers pretty much figure it all out early on, and thus wait for our hero to play catch-up. At least, he's a reasonably smart guy, if somewhat stubbornly fixated on his red herring, so one doesn't much mind.Well made and engrossing for an hour and a half.Eight out of 10.

LeonLouisRicci By 1950 MGM started to think that there might be something to these RKO, etc.,Dark Brooding Crime Movies and there might be a Buck to be made. 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. So the result was an Excellent Film-Noir Hybrid with the Noir Elements Standing Out as Usual. The Opening Third is a Night-Time, Sleazy Club, B-Girl Extravaganza.After that the Movie pretty much settles down quite a bit with some Outstanding Flourishes. The Noir Wavers somewhat but always regains its Center and it all ends up being quite an Enjoyable Movie with much to Recommend. A Fine Job all around.

secondtake Mystery Street (1950)There are so many charming and sharply seen moments in this movie, and a plot that's strong and curious, you wonder why it doesn't quite pull together and zoom. Director John Sturges is neither a legend nor as slouch, one of those really competent directors who made some pretty famous films. "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. But we prefer Bogart? Maybe because Montalban is so everyday, not a star, just wonderfully convincing as one of us. (He has a great line, probably added just for him, about being fully an American even though his family has only been in the country for less than a hundred years.) The story starts with a real bang, and with the crisp, edgy acting of Jan Sterling, and a couple of fast twists. It never gets dull, even if it levels out (it makes a potential mistake by letting us know fairly early on who the killer is, and then doesn't make this killer much of the plot until the very end). And there are other great roles, particularly the landlady, played by the incomparable Elsa Lanchester.And check out the locale--not L.A., not even New York, but Boston area location shooting. And some great field work on Cape Cod. The whole feel of the movie is just outside the usual stuff, you know, the escape to the Mexican border or up into the California mountains, it makes it worth watching just for that. The photography is not extroverted, but it's really smart, tightly seen stuff, by John Alton, a Hollywood Veteran who later did the "Big Combo" and "Lonelyhearts."Most of us don't watch films for all the insider stuff, or even just to salivate over the photography, as I tend to do, so we are back to the functional if not quite riveting story, held up by a handful of great performances. Better than CSI.