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Mystery in Mexico
1948 |
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For four months, Wise was sent South of the Border (his first experience living out of the country) to work with an almost exclusively Mexican crew. With exteriors for the film shot in and around Mexico City and Cuernavaca, and interiors filmed in RKO's Mexico City studios, the film was not cheaper to make on foreign soil. According to Wise: "The studio wanted to know if it could make more reasonably priced movies in Mexico, and it turned out not to be so."* |
As he removes a diamond necklace
from the safe of the
Versailles nightclub in Mexico City, a bartender is accosted
by gun-wielding men,
who shoot at him as he flees with the jewels. Later, in
Los Angeles, insurance
investigator Steve Hastings discusses the theft with Powers,
his boss, and
learns that the bartender is actually fellow detective Glenn
Ames, who was
 sent to Mexico to track down the stolen necklace. Concerned
that Glenn may
be double-crossing the company, Powers assigns Steve to follow
Glenn's sister
Victoria, a singer who has booked a flight to Mexico.
At the airport, Steve
flirts with the attractive Victoria and, during the flight to
Mexico, tries
to gather information from her about Glenn. Victoria, however,
resists
Steve's advances and is reticent to talk about Glenn.
After Victoria falls
asleep, Steve searches her belongings and finds a telegram from
Glenn,
directing her to a certain address in Mexico City. Once landed,
Victoria
gives Steve a calculated kiss goodbye, then tries to rid herself
of him by
rushing off in a taxi. Steve, however, follows close behind
in a cab driven
by accomodating taxi driver Carlos. The address from the
telegram belongs to
a deserted villa, and as Victoria wanders from room to room,
she becomes
increasingly nervous. Just as Victoria is about to panic
with fear, Steve
surprises her. Grateful for Steve's timely intrusion,
Victoria sends him to
search the study. There Steve is attacked by two men, but is
soon rescued by
the vigilant Carlos, who shoots after the men and brings the
police. At the
police station, Steve reveals his mission to the local chief,
who agrees that
Victoria should be watched. Still playing the part of
the ardent admirer,
Steve registers her in a hotel room next to his, then makes
a date with her
for later that evening. After learning that the telegram
was sent from the
Versailles club, Steve discovers that Victoria is not in her
hotel room.
Concerned, Steve searches for Victoria, then heads for the Versailles
with
Carlos. To Steve's surprise, Victoria is there singing,
having just been
hired by club owner Joe Norcross. From a tense conversation
he has with
Benny, a bartender who knew Glenn, Steve deduces that Norcross
is involved in
Glenn's disappearance. Unable to talk freely with Benny,
Steve decides to
escort the unsuspecting Victoria to a garden party at Norcross'
country
estate, where Benny has been hired to tend bar. Upon arriving,
however,
Steve and Victoria learn that Benny has just been killed in
an automobile
accident. Suspicious, Steve questions Norcross' jealous
girl friend, Dolores
Fernandez, who is the club's regular singer, and finds himself
becoming
jealous of Norcross' attentions to Victoria. Anxious to upset
Norcross,
Dolores openly kisses Steve, who is then rebuffed by an equally
jealous
Victoria. Steve drives the angry Victoria back to the
hotel and finally
confesses his mission to her. After Victoria bids Steve a curt
goodbye,
Carlos, who has been waiting for her return, telephones Norcross.
A Norcross
spy, Carlos then intercepts Pancho Gomez, a peasant boy who
is delivering a
package to Victoria, and learns of Glenn's whereabouts. The
boy takes
Victoria and Carlos to his family's farm house, where Glenn
has been
recuperating from a gunshot wound he suffered while fleeing
from the club.
Carlos calls Norcross at the club just as Steve is questioning
him about
Benny. As Carlos tells Norcross where Glenn is hiding,
Steve listens in on
an extension, but is quickly knocked out by Norcross' men.
Steve awakens at
the farm house, where Norcross is holding Victoria prisoner
and is torturing
Glenn to reveal the whereabouts of the stolen jewels.
Glenn refuses to talk,
but communicates silently to Steve that the necklace is inside
a doll owned
by Pancho's little sister Floracita. To stall, Steve convinces
Norcross that
the jewels are in the package that Pancho delivered to the hotel,
and
Norcross sends Carlos to retrieve them. Just after Carlos
returns
empty-handed, Norcross sees Floracita playing with the necklace
and starts to
grab it when Luis Otero, a local policeman assigned to watch
Victoria, bursts
in and shoots Norcross. After a shootout with the police, the
rest of the
gang is apprehended, and Glenn is cleared of all suspicion.
By pretending
that Dolores wants to hire him, Steve then tricks Victoria into
agreeing to a
quick wedding. From the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
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 66 min. RKO Radio Pictures;
Distributed by: RKO Radio Pictures;
Directed by: Robert Wise;
Produced by: Sid Rogell;
Screenplay by: Lawrence Kimble;
Edited by: Samuel E. Beetley;
Director of Photography: Jack Draper;
Music by: Paul Sawtell;
Production Design by: Gunther Gerzso;
Sound by: JosÈ B. Carles;
Gowns by: ReniÈ;.
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William Lundigan (Steve Hastings), Jacqueline
White (Victoria Ames), Ricardo Cortez (Joe Norcross), Tony Barrett
(Carlos),
Jacqueline Dalya (Dolores Fernandez), Walter Reed (Glenn
Ames),
JosÈ Torvay (Swigart), Jaime JimÈnez (Pancho
Gomez), Antonio
Frausto (Mr. Gomez), Dolores Camerillo (Mrs. Gomez),
Eduardo Casado
(Commandant Rodriguez), Thalia Draper (Floracita Gomez),
Carlos
Muzquiz (Luis Otero), Armando Silvestre (Benny),
Freddie Romero
(Jose), Alfonso Jimenez (Lopez, driver), Conchita
Gentil Arcos
(Benny's mother), Lilia Plancarte (Benny's sister),
Suzi Crandall
(Airline hostess), Marilyn Mercer (Airline hostess),
and William
Forrest (Powers)
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