ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

Fans of the popular TV crime drama “Bones” will wonder if “Mystery Street’s” fascinating story about forensic medicine and its ability to solve crimes was the inspiration for that hit TV series.

Police detective Ricardo Montalbán teams up with Harvard forensic medicine expert Bruce Bennett to solve a year-old crime with nothing to go on but the clean white bones of a young woman.

Together they catch the murderer by using methods exactly like those in the long-running TV drama, but without the help of computers and all the high-tech advantages of the 21st century.

The number of similarities between the movie and the series are remarkable, right down to the “bone table” with the skeleton all laid out in anatomical order, along with the two main characters examining a recovered car from the bottom of a lake and then using science to determine where the bullet is embedded in the floor board.

Marshall Thompson (It! The Terror from Beyond Space) is the man who is falsely accused of murder, and Sally Forrest is his distraught wife. Elsa Lanchester plays yet another flaky older woman.

The movie wasn't a financial success, but it certainly should have been.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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IMDB has several interesting trivia items for this production — Iincluding one I submitted yesterday and then used as the text for my post above. Today I was delighted when !saw that it had been approved.
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~ The concept of a forensic procedural is common in the 21st century, but was brand new when this movie was made. To cap it off, the hero was played by a Hispanic actor, Ricardo Montalban, who was a big star in Mexico, but who had been mostly cast in Hollywood flicks as a Latin lover before this picture.

Note from me: I was amused by the fact that the poster shows the lovely Sally Forrest snuggled up cheek-to-cheek with Ricardo Montalban, while Marshal Thompson's face is smaller and on the opposite side.

In the movie, Sally is the wife of Marshall, NOT Ricardo!

~ This film failed at the box office, resulting in a loss to MGM of $284,000 according to studio records.

Note from me: Consider this sad fact in lieu of the next item.

~ Mystery Street received an Oscar nomination for Best Screen Story.

Note from me: And yet, it did poorly at the box office. Go figure, eh?

~ Marshall Thompson was often a lead actor in B pictures done in black and white, but did not get the same roles in color pictures due to his fiery red hair.

Note from me: Hollywood snubbed the poor man because he was a redhead? Weird. Actually, I surprised when I found out that Kenneth Toby (The Thiing from Another World had red hair!

~ Fans of the popular TV crime drama "Bones" will wonder if "Mystery Street's" fascinating story about forensic medicine and its ability to solve crimes was the inspiration for that hit TV series.

Police detective Ricardo Montalbán teams up with Harvard forensic medicine expert Bruce Bennett to solve a year-old crime with nothing to go on but the clean white bones of a young woman. Together they catch the murderer by using methods exactly like those in the long-running TV drama, but without the help of computers and all the high-tech advantages of the 21st century.

The number of similarities between the movie and the series are remarkable, right down to the "bone table" with the skeleton all laid out in anatomical order, along with the two main characters examining a recovered car from the bottom of a lake and then using science to determine where the bullet is embedded in the floor board.

Note from me: Boy, that's great writing! (Oh, wait . . . that one is by me. )
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)