Mystery Street

Ricardo Montalban is the leading man in this noir-influenced police procedural directed with style and panache by the great John Sturges. This M-G-M production unwinds the tale of a wealthy, married, socially prominent Bostonian, a woman of loose morals pregnant with his child, the hapless bar patron she seduces so she can steal a car ... and the female skeleton that washes ashore on Cape Cod sometime later. Enter Lieutenant Peter Morales (Montalban), the detective assigned to the case. With few leads and little evidence, Morales finds an ally in Harvard-based forensic criminologist Dr. McAdoo (Bruce Bennett) to help find the murderer. Striking cinematography from the legendary John Alton, and the exceptional screenplay by Sydney Boehm and Richard Brooks (based on a story by Leonard Spigelgass) make Mystery Street a taut, dark exciting thriller.

• crime
• film noir