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.

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.

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.

"Mystery in Mexico" is a pretty good crime film. However, it does suffer from a few writing difficulties....the worst of which occurs near the beginning of the film. An insurance investigator (William Lundigan) is looking for another insurance investigator who has gone missing...and possibly with a $200,000 necklace! The only possible lead is the missing man's sister--who is suddenly bound for Mexico. So he heads to Mexico as well and 'just happens to meet her' on the way to the plane. Now here is a serious problem with the film...he behaves like a boorish pig...sexually harassing the heck out of her during the trip. It's supposed to be some sort of 'meet cute'...but it comes off in 2019 as a guy who needs a sock in the nose. And, later in the film, she inexplicably falls for him!!

So how do I still give the film a 6? Well, the mystery is pretty good and it has a few nice twists. Plus, it's really neat that RKO actually filmed the movie in Mexico...and seeing the countryside and Mexico City was very nice and made it all seem real. Worth seeing....but some folks might really be annoyed by Lundigan's style! My, how times have changed...and in this case, for the better.

By the way, this film also features Ricardo Cortez as a Mexican guy. Well, truth be told, Cortez was really about as Mexican as Chow Mein! He was actually Jacob Krantz, born to Jewish Parents in New York City. Back in the 1920s, there was a Latino leading man craze--with Valentino the biggest star in the world. The studios wanted to capitalize on this and re-christened Krantz 'Ricardo Cortez'...and for many years fans thought he was Mexican. In fact, he didn't even speak Spanish and I was surprised to hear him speaking a bit in the film...though it also didn't sound all that authentic.

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.