Charles Herold (cherold) This procedural is notable for a focus on forensics before that was a thing and for a solid script. But mainly it's notable for its women. The always-fascinating Elsa Lanchester is absolutely wonderful as a scheming landlady. Jan Sterling does well as a brassy bleached blonde while Sally Forrest, as sweet, unfortunate wife, has a terrific scene in which she blows up, in a defeated desperate way, at a cop.The men are a bit less interesting. While I like Marshal Thompson as Sally's hubby, the other main men strike me as a bit too generic in that way that was common in the 1960s. 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.

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.

jadedalex '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.

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.