Mystery Street

A crime film set in Boston. Bones are found on a beach. The body has lain there a long time; no papers, no clothes, and no idea who it was. Morales is from homicide. A detective of Portuguese descent; there are people in the town who do not trust him, and he runs the file alone. He has nothing. Then he goes to the medical school. Doctor McAdoo is a forensic specialist. From the bones he works out age, height, sex and time of death; then he rebuilds the face from the skull. From there the film is a story about establishing an identity. Missing person records, dental records, a car registration and a boarding house. Who the victim was is found. Then the wrong man is arrested. There is a landlady. Smerrling works out what has happened and tries blackmail; that decision is the film's turning point. What the narrative is interested in is not murder but method: the film shows step by step how forensic work is done and presents it not as a spectacle but as dull laboratory labour. For its genre it is an early example. It is counted among the first attempts in cinema at a crime narrative centred on scientific examination. It was shot in real locations. The streets of Boston, the harbour, university buildings and the Cape Cod shore are used directly. The character of Morales is unusual for its period. The narrative gives his origin not as a problem but as a fact. Ricardo Montalban, Sally Forrest, Bruce Bennett and Elsa Lanchester are in the cast. John Sturges directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes classical crime films and forensic narratives. Who it is not for: anyone looking for depth of character; the film explains its method in eighty-five minutes and spends no time introducing anyone.