Mystery Junction (1951)

Overrated

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Larry Gordon wakes up on board a train journey, to an adoring fan of his crime writing Miss Owens. The pair hear a loud scream and set off to investigate, whilst searching the train the pair stumble upon two detectives who are holding dangerous prisoner Steve Harding, who is awaiting trial for murder. Later a body is discovered, and with the horrendous weather stopping the train, Larry concludes that the killer must be a passenger on the train.I waited with anticipation to see this film, being a huge whodunit fan, this seemed in theory to fit the bill. Very much a B movie, although from the point of view of filming, production values etc. it looks very slick, very nicely made in fact. The acting is pretty good, Sydney Tafler and Barbara Murray are the standouts, both excellent in truth. I think the film attempted to cross genres, the typical British whodunit, close setting, quirky suspects, and it also tried to import some of the gangster genre that had been popular, towards the end there's a big shoot out scene, which seems oddly placed. The plot loses it a little, becoming a little messy.It didn't satisfy me from the point of view of a whodunit, as to be honest I couldn't have cared, but in many other ways it's a solid movie, not a classic, but watchable. 6/10

Director: MICHAEL McCARTHY. Script: Michael McCarthy. Photography: Bob Lapresle. Film editor: Geoffrey Muller. Art director: George Haslam. Music: Michael Sarsfield. Camera operator: Leo Rogers. Make- up: Jack Craig. Hair styles: Jane Seymour. Set continuity: Biddy Chrystal. Production manager: George Mills. Assistant director: Ted Holliday. Sound re-recording: Dick Smith, Ronald Abbott. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: William H. Williams.A Merton Park Studios Production, released in the U.K. by Anglo Amalgamated: 26 July 1952 (sic). London trade show: September 1951. Not copyrighted or theatrically released in the U.S.A. Probably released in Australia by British Empire Films, but no record of a release date. 6,050 feet. 67 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Miss Owens is immensely excited when she recognizes her traveling companion as the author of a detective story she is reading. She demands to know how he sets about writing a thriller and Larry outlines for her a plot involving people on the train.Petersen and Constable Blake are escorting Steve Harding to his trial for murder; Harding causes trouble and when the train is held up by snow, and the passengers are together in the waiting room, he seizes a gun and holds them up, but is unable to escape through the snow. During the night Petersen and the stationmaster are murdered.COMMENT: It's hard to decide which is the worst feature of this film — the doggedly clichéd and totally uninteresting variation on the it-was-all-a-dream plot, acted out by stodgy characters in a couple of cramped sets; the patently second-rate cast (even Barbara Murray makes little impression); or the dull, lifelessly uninvolving direction; or the tiresome, endlessly see-sawing dialogue. True, there's a tiny bit of action and the movie would probably cut down to a passably entertaining two-reeler (despite its poor performances). But, padded out to feature length, it's an unqualified bore.

While on a train travelling through a snow storm, detective novel author Sydney Tafler is autographing one of his novels for Christine Silver. When he starts to explain to her the process of writing a detective novel, they hear a scream, coming from outside, and when they look around, they find fresh snow near the exit. They decide to alarm the train guard but he's been sapped and mugged. After poking around some more, they find police detective Ewen Solon is on the train, accompanying criminal Martin Benson to an important court appearance. Solon's partner has disappeared, and he believes whoever mugged the guard must've thrown his partner off the train. He orders everybody from their coach off the train at the next stop. But when the train leaves again, the group find themselves trapped inside the train station waiting room as the snow storm has blocked all the roads. While they are waiting for the weather to improve, the phone line is cut, and soon after an unknown person shoots Solon, giving Benson a chance to take control of the situation. Tafler however believes the bullet was meant for Benson, and he manages to convince him of it. Benson orders Tafler to flush out the killer...Only mildly noir-ish, this murder mystery yarn is a beautiful mix of Agatha Christie meets Alfred Hitchcock (in his British period). The stranded group also has several women including a gorgeous Barbara Murray as a showgirl hitching a ride on the train and Pearl Cameron as Benson's gun moll. Tafler is (again!) great here, in a less shady role, but he pulls off the quick-thinking author really well. The man is simply a joy to watch. Benson is not far behind. Tafler, Benson and Murray carry the movie, but the cast does a great job overall.The movie moves at a brisk pace, it lasts just over an hour, and while it's almost a two-acter, one half on the train, one half in the waiting room, it never fails to entertain. It's got a lot of dialogue, but also a lot of tension and suspense. Tafler does a good job of making Benson wary of his own men (as well as his gun moll) while Benson is ruthless and not above killing to make a point. As the movie progresses all the different relationships between the characters come to the surface, including why the killer attempted to, indeed, kill Benson.Director (and writer) Michael McCarthy and DoP Robert LaPresle already worked with Tafler and Benson on 'Assassin For Hire', which is a nicely made movie. But this is the superior movie. It doesn't have the shadowy look of the former, but it is such a well-made and 'effortless' movie, it really surprised me. Great stuff. Recommended! 8/10

It's actually a British film. We think at the beginning of an Agatha Christie story, or something like Alfred Hitchcock's LADY VANISHES, a suspense aboard a train. A sort of closed theatre topic. And it is. But not in the way we may expect. It turns to have some kind of American point of view, in the middle of the film. It is more interesting than the films made in the early talkies, boring at the most. Of course, this feature is much talkative, we could not wait for action or gunfights.I don't know the director, maybe he made some stuff for TV later. Well, let's be generous, it's not a bad programmer. I won't describe the exact story and spoil you the film, even if I could with a warning.