Mystery Street - Warner Archive Collection

The title is pretty lame, but the movie is awfully good. Mystery Street is a straightforward yet stylish and engrossing film noir that deftly mixes tension and intrigue with an inside look at the scientific aspects of criminal investigation. Directed by a then-unknown John Sturges, the film moves along at a brisk clip and contains an array of fine performances by several up-and-coming actors.

The titular mystery concerns the disappearance of Vivian Heldon (Jan Sterling), a sassy, sexy Boston bar girl who picks up hapless, drunken Henry Shanway (Marshall Thompson), who's drowning his sorrows over his wife's hospitalization following a miscarriage. Desperate to get to Cape Cod and confront the man who dallied with her and got her pregnant, Vivian hoodwinks Henry into letting her hijack him and - more importantly - his car. Once on the cape, she ditches Henry on the side of a deserted country road, then tracks down and chews out her "boyfriend." Moments later, he kills her.

Henry files a stolen car report and doesn't tell his wife Grace (Sally Forrest) about his wild night with Vivian, but when Vivian's skeleton is found a couple of months later buried in the sand and police detective Peter Moralas (Ricardo Montalban) and forensics expert Dr. McAdoo (Bruce Bennett) begin investigating, all the circumstantial evidence points to Henry, who quickly becomes the primary suspect and is later charged with murder. Despite Henry's lies about his whereabouts that night, Grace believes her husband is innocent and goes on a crusade to prove it.

Set in Boston and shot in and around Harvard University (where Dr. McAdoo works) and on Cape Cod, Mystery Street makes great use of its locations, especially during an exciting climactic chase sequence. The authentic backdrops and emphasis on medical science as an investigative tool heighten the sense of realism that pervades the film and make Mystery Street feel more substantive than similar genre entries. The tight, literate screenplay by Sydney Boehm (The Big Heat) and Richard Brooks, who would direct his first feature the very same year, mixes snappy dialogue with a layered narrative that somehow maintains tension even during the drier procedural scenes. (The original story by Leonard Spigelgass is so good it earned an Oscar nomination.) The script also contains some clever twists and even addresses socially relevant themes like insidious racism as characters react to Moralas' Portuguese heritage.

Mystery Street showcases the burgeoning talent of Sturges, who would begin his rise to prominence after this picture. He's aided heavily by cinematographer extraordinaire John Alton, a master noir photographer who seduces us with scads of elegantly constructed and executed shots that enhance the film's mood, atmosphere, and artistry. In lesser hands, Mystery Street could easily be a forgettable, by-the-numbers noir, but Sturges and Alton make it special. I was not familiar with Mystery Street before this viewing, which in retrospect surprises me, because it's such a well-made and absorbing movie. Why it doesn't enjoy a loftier reputation and more renown is puzzling.

The acting is top-notch, too. Though Montalban is best remembered today for introducing the classic Christmas tune "Baby, It's Cold Outside" in Neptune's Daughter and starring in the hit 1970s TV series Fantasy Island, his dramatic work at the beginning of his career should not be overlooked. He's very good here, projecting strength, charm, empathy, and just the right amount of intensity as he slowly comes to realize he might have arrested the wrong man. The always underrated Thompson is excellent as the earnest husband caught in a terrifying web, and Forrest asserts herself well as his loyal spouse who forgives his mistakes and fights to free him.

Sterling enlivens every film in which she appears, and she's terrific as the doomed Vivian. Betsy Blair makes an impression as her soft-spoken, sympathetic friend and the always serious, square-jawed Bennett (who played Bert opposite Joan Crawford's Mildred Pierce) is perfectly cast as the introverted academic, but it's the inimitable Elsa Lanchester who steals the show as the eccentric, cunning, opportunistic Mrs. Smerrling, the landlady of the rooming house where Vivian lives. Mrs. Smerrling hopes to make a buck off of Vivian's disappearance, and her devious efforts both thicken the plot and lead to its exciting climax.

If you're an Alfred Hitchcock fan, you'll surely find at least one element of Mystery Street fascinating. Just like Norman Bates in Psycho, the killer disposes of Vivian's car in a murky swamp, and just like the final shot of Psycho, a tow truck later drags the muddy car out of the muck. The shots are not identical, but similar enough to instantly make the connection. Because Mystery Street was produced a decade before Psycho, the question is did Hitchcock copy Sturges or are the similarities merely a coincidence?

We'll probably never know the answer, but what we do know is Mystery Street remains a solid, thrilling, and very satisfying film noir that's much more accomplished and classy than its pedestrian - okay, boring - title might suggest. Though it's overshadowed by such Sturges classics as Bad Day at Black Rock, The Magnificent Seven, and The Great Escape, Mystery Street is a fine representation of the director's talent and an entertaining noir exercise. No mystery there.

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray
Mystery Street arrives on Blu-ray packaged in a standard case. Video codec is 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 and audio is DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono. Once the disc is inserted into the player, the static menu without music immediately pops up; no previews or promos precede it.

Any film with John Alton's name on it boasts superior cinematography, and Mystery Street is no exception. Thankfully, Warner Archive honors Alton's dazzling work with a knockout 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 transfer struck from a new 4K scan of the best surviving preservation elements. Faint grain preserves the feel of celluloid and provides just enough texture to enhance the nefarious goings on, while excellent clarity and contrast bring out fine details in costumes and decor and immerse us in the Boston and Cape Cod locations. Rich, dense blacks, crisp whites, and a healthy grayscale produce a lush image that's punctuated by superb shadow delineation and a fair amount of depth. The sharp close-ups also impress and no print damage disrupts the spell cast by this high-quality presentation. I don't own the 2007 DVD, but there's no way it can rival this beautiful transfer.

Another stellar audio transfer from Warner Archive brings additional tension and atmosphere to the film. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track outputs clear, nuanced sound that draws us into the action and provides a few jolts. Bold effects like gunshots, ringing phones, and loud chirps from a bird strongly resonate, while subtleties like footsteps and street noise enhance the noirish mood. A wide dynamic scale gives the music score plenty of room to breathe, all the dialogue is well prioritized and easy to comprehend, and any age-related surface noise has been eliminated.

Both the audio commentary and retrospective featurette from the 2007 DVD have been ported over to this Blu-ray release. Warner Archive adds a couple of cartoons and the film's original trailer.

• Audio Commentary by film historians Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward
• Featurette: "Murder at Harvard" (SD, 5 minutes) - This 2007 featurette examines the origins of the movie's plot, its noir elements, the location shooting, and the beautiful cinematography by John Alton. In addition to remarks by film scholars and critics, Alton himself appears in a brief archival interview.
• Vintage Cartoons: Little Quacker and Tom and Jerry in the Hollywood Bowl (HD, 14 minutes) - Two Tom and Jerry cartoons, both beautifully remastered in HD, add some madcap humor to the disc. In Little Quacker, a baby duckling teams up with Jerry to foil Tom's attempts to eat him, while in Tom and Jerry in the Hollywood Bowl Tom the maestro conducts the orchestra at the iconic concert venue, but when Jerry tries to muscle in a violent competition for supremacy ensues.
• Theatrical Trailer (SD, 2 minutes) - The film's original preview completes the extras package.

The title may be bland, but Mystery Street is anything but. This little-known film noir delivers on a variety of levels, thanks largely to John Sturges' expert direction, John Alton's gorgeous cinematography, and an array of fine performances. Warner Archive's beautiful transfer struck from a new 4K scan of the best surviving preservation elements, robust audio, and a nice supplemental package make a trip down Mystery Street well worthwhile. Highly Recommended.