Mystery in Mexico

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.

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.

Insurance investigator Steve Hastings is sent to track down missing agent Glen Ames in Mexico and a $200k neckless. He follows Ames' sister Victoria to Mexico City and insinuates into her life.

Lundigan is playing the lead with an off-putting amount of cheese. It's so deliberate that it doesn't make sense. He's more likely to drive Victoria away and that seems to be what's going on. Normally, she would be avoiding him like the plague. Quite frankly, she should call the cops on him. The character actually requires him to be charming. This is charm in the cheesy movie way. In addition, Carlos makes no sense. He's just a driver who comes in to help Steve whenever it's needed. He just shows up. It's obvious that he's hiding something. A better way to situate the character is for Steve to hire him right off the bat as his driver. Or else he's just always hanging around Steve who is too clueless to notice. What I do like is the noir style and the exoticism of Mexico. I really like that the two leads hardly speak a word of Spanish. They are fish out of water. The story is functional as noir crime mystery except I really hated Lundigan's opening performance. It's so cheesy that it destroyed the noir feel. It took awhile to reclaim the style.

William Lundigan had been in hollywood for ten years by the time this rolled around. he's Steve, who has been hired to track down what happened to his co-worker and the missing jewels down in mexico. on the plane, he bumps into Victoria (Jacqueline White), and makes a terrible first impression. and now the story line has switched, and now we're following Victoria as she enters what seems to be a haunted house. the script moves rather slowly and linearly. and.. .all of a sudden, its over, very abruptly. directed by Robert Wise. won Oscars for Sound of Music and West Side Story! according to the opening credits, parts of the film were actually filmed at a studio in mexico city. it's ok. a shortie from RKO studios.

This is quite a decent little crime thriller that starts with what looks like a burglar being shot. Turns out, though, that the victim was an insurance investigator and "Hastings" (William Lundigan) is now despatched to Mexico to find out just what happened to him. In trying to piece things together, he encounters the sister of the missing man. "Victoria" (Jacqueline White) is also trying to track down her missing brother. Quite what she sees in him is anyone's guess - he's actually quite an odious fellow - but click they do and are soon on the case of the rather obvious villain of the piece. This film is probably only notable as a project from Robert Wise but it doesn't hang about and though the plot does follow the usual tram lines a little too readily, there's a lively effort here from White and it passes an hour easily enough.