Mystère à Mexico

There's not much of one -- a mystery, that is -- but that's S.O.P for these programmers that run a longish hour. But Robert Wise keeps things brisk and watchable, which isn't to be sneezed at. It's about an insurance investigator (William Lundigan) who follows a suspect (Jacqueline White) south of the border while trying to solve a jewelry theft. The whole shebang was filmed in the studios in Mexico City, with a largely native cast; among them is Ricardo Cortez, a big Latin heart-throb from the earliest talkies (when he was often paired with Bebe Daniels).

This seems a bit of a comedown for Wise, who the previous year had helmed the excellent noir Born to Kill, starring Clare Trevor and Lawrence Tierney, and for that film we can almost forgive him for The Sound of Music, many years later.

MYSTERY IN MEXICO is a unique film from 1948. The unique points are as follows: 1. It was shot in Mexico with great locations. 2. An earlier directing effort from two time Academy Award winning director Robert Wise. 3.I liked how the Mexican Police were portrayed as helpful and saving the day instead of always the usual stigma of being corrupt. The movie begins with an Insurance Investigator given the assignment of finding a missing investigator in Mexico who may or may not have stolen a valuable necklace. On a collision course, the missing investigators sister played by Jacqueline White is followed by Steve Hastings the insurance investigator played by William Lundigan. They team up to find the brother and necklace and they have many adventures and encounters leading up to the climax of the film. This film would be perfect for a remake because so few have seen this original film. It could be improved by taking out the obnoxious behavior of the Steve Hastings character at the beginning of the movie. His banter at Jacqueline White on the plane headed for Mexico made me want to have him maced or tazed. He calms down into a normal person after that and gives a good performance.

I am not a great fan of this movie, despite it is a RKO product. But mystery topics have always bored me to death. It is short, rare and from a great director whose it is always interesting to watch the movies. Typical B movie with second rank actors and with also an atmosphere that you could purchase only in forties films: settings, music, camera work, actor's play, topics. Robert Wise will do better for RKO pictures with BORN TO KILL, GAME OF DEATH, THE BODY SNATCHER and many more short features made for Howard Hughe's company. Another future great director began with RKO: Richard Flesicher. And I also forgot Mark Robson.

William Lundigan complained about always being given and accepting lousy parts;it was not always true : "follow me quietly" by Richard Fleischer he made the following year is a really good thriller and he had a truly great director.

In "mystery in Mexico " he 's got Robert Wise !Wise retained flair for film noir ("the captive city" "odds against tomorrow" and "the set -up");it shows in the very first sequence and in the Mexican family's house in the final scenes;the rest of the movie ,unfortunately,fluctuates between comedy (Lundigan and the supporting cast do not seem to take the story seriously;Jacqueline White has different ways to give "short cuts" );and we don't care about the necklace (probably bought in a dime store).

All in all,this is pretty entertaining stuff if you do not ask too much and the actors have a certain spontaneity,particularly the lead himself.

Not much to this. William Lundigan plays Steve Hastings, an insurance inspector checking into the theft of a diamond necklace in "Mystery in Mexico" from 1948. The film also stars Jacqueline White and Ricardo Cortez.

The first suspect in the case is actually an insurance investigatorGlenn Ames (Walter Reed) for the same company - it looks like he has taken off with the goods. Steve follows Ames' sister (White) to Mexico. They suspect she might be in cahoots with him.

Here's the thing - Steve Hastings is obnoxious. For a man who is trying to keep track of a woman by befriending her, he does a lousy job with his sexist attitude. In old films, sometimes the more wolf-like a man is, the better is chances are - go figure. I just saw another film, "Career Woman" where the male character was even worse and got the girl in the end.

At 66 minutes, the film has a lot of dead space. Finally, towards the end, there's a murder. Big yawn. Lundigan is very attractive and in my opinion deserved better. Jacqueline White was lovely and feisty. Ricardo Cortez' leading man and A movie days were over. He would eventually return to Wall Street, where he had once worked as a runner. He did very well, too.