KnotStronger
This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.
FirstWitch
A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.
Erica Derrick
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
Claudio Carvalho
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. She calls her wealthy lover and schedules a meeting with him at "The Grass Skirt", where she works. However he never appears and Vivian hijacks the drunken client Henry Shanway (Marshall Thompson) and drives his car to Cape Cod. She stops at a diner and calls her lover again to meet him in a spot. When Henry awakes, Vivian lures him and leaves him on the road. When Vivian meets her lover, he kills her with a 45 mm, hides her body and dumps the car in a lake. A couple of months later, her skeleton is found near the beach. 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. His further investigation leads him to Henry that lied to justify the hijack of his car to his wife Grace Shanway (Sally Forrest) and to the insurance company. Now Henry becomes the prime suspect and only his wife believe in his words. Will Detective Morales proceed his investigation and find the real killer?"Mystery Street" is an engaging film-noir directed by John Sturges. Ricardo Montalban is excellent in the role of a relentless detective that finds a suspect with all the evidences pointing to him but continues seeking out the real killer. However Elsa Lanchester steals the show in the role of a greedy and despicable woman. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "A Noite de 23 de Maio" ("The Night of May 23rd)
lampic
Sometimes movies don't have to be earth-shaking, it is enough they are such escapism and good fun, "Mystery Street" is one of them.It is a cutest little b&w movie from 1950. shot without big budget or biggest stars - final results, however, are first-class entertainment, good old fashioned crime story with police inspectors, unsolved crime, shadows, blackmail and even scientistic help from Harvard Medical School. Looking back, it could hardly been improved even with bigger budget - for this story we don't need big explosions, expensive costumes or cars, everything goes smoothly just like some detective novel.Main protagonist here is Ricardo Montalbán ( young and photogenic Mexican actor) in a role of young policeman doing his research on skeleton recently found. For this case he is assisted by Harvard doctor who easily identifies body of a victim as young woman in her early 20es, probably blonde, probably dancer. Searching for every young woman who might disappear around that time, Montalbán eventually discover her identity and the house where she lived - story than gets complicated because wrong guy gets arrested and more he protests and lies, more he sinks into trouble. Although we have some good acting here, the best of all is a role of nosy landlady who can't help but sniff around for some potential financial award for herself - its no one else but legendary "Bride of Frankestein" Elsa Lanchester and she is brilliant. Every scene with her is a pure joy and effortless acting, she is simply perfect as silly, greedy old woman who don't realize in what danger she puts herself poking her nose in serious crime. It is a pure old fashioned crime movie and I was surprised how much I enjoyed it, since its rarely mentioned today.
Neil Doyle
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. SALLY FORREST is fine as the accused man's wife who never believes he could have committed the crime but isn't sure about his infidelity. 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.
JLRMovieReviews
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. The best films in film noir make the movie's style the star over all actors, and this is one such example. Ricardo is very memorable and sexy, and Elsa has a scene-stealing role as a landlady, but this centers on the investigation of a murder and is compelling all the way. In fact, it plays like a forensic show on TV today, with Bruce Bennett studying the skeletal remains of the victim. Sounds a little creepy and unsettling, doesn't it? Well, it's very matter of fact about the every-day life of Ricardo and what he does as a cop. Each person he meets is an individual, but to him it's just another day and another case on "Mystery Street."
