This week’s mystery movie was the 1956 Twentieth Century-Fox film 23 Paces to Baker Street, with Van Johnson, Vera Miles, Cecil Parker, Patricia Laffan, Maurice Denham, Estelle Winwood, Liam Redmond, Isobel Elsom, Martin Benson, Natalie Norwick and Terence de Marney.

Screenplay by Nigel Balchin.

Based on a novel by Philip MacDonald.

Music by Leigh Harline, conducted by Lionel Newman.

Photography by Milton Krasner.

Art direction by Lyle R. Wheeler and Maurice Ransford.

Set decorations by Walter M. Scott and Fay Babcock.

Special photographic effects by Ray Kellogg.

Edited by James B. Clark.

Executive wardrobe designer Charles LeMaire.

Costumes by Travilla.

Orchestration by Maurice de Packh.

Assistant director Eddie Bernoudy.

Makeup by Ben Nye.

Hairstyles by Helen Turpin.

Sound by Bernard Freericks and Harry M. Leonard.

CinemaScope lenses by Bausch and Lomb.

Color by De Luxe.

Color consultant Leonard Doss.

Produced by Henry Ephron.

Directed by Henry Hathaway.

Further information about 23 Paces to Baker Street is available from the AFI Catalog.

23 Paces to Baker Street is available on DVD from Critics’ Choice Video.

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After going through the trades, I decided to let Van Johnson out of Mystery Movie Jail with 23 Paces to Baker Street. It’s an entertaining film, apparently adapted as a knockoff of Rear Window (in the original novel, Warrant for X, the lead character, Sheldon Garrett, isn’t blind). We have Van Johnson as the leading man with a disability (blind instead of James Stewart’s broken leg), a love interest (Vera Miles instead of Grace Kelly) and a colorful assistant (Cecil Parker in lieu of Thelma Ritter). Johnson (as Phillip Hannon) overhears a suspicious conversation and the movie is off and striding quickly, rather than running).

I’m going to guess that Bosley Crowther did not approve of such goings-on.

He does not (The New York Times, May 19, 1956):

A clever idea is the basis for 23 Paces to Baker Street, a Twentieth Century-Fox mystery drama, which came to Loew’s State yesterday. It is that a keen and careful blind man should lead the halt — which is to say, the police — in ferreting out and foiling a plot for a particularly noxious crime.

All that our hero has to go on is an ominous conversation he hears in a London pub between a mysterious man and woman, whom, of course — because being blind — he cannot see. But he is a trained dramatic author, so he remembers every word he overhears ….

The basic idea here is all right, but we cannot help feel the police are quite justified, on the evidence, in remaining completely unalarmed. For the smidgens of conversation that we are made privy to at the start might be the dialogue of two people arguing about who’s going to walk the dog. They certainly would not arouse this listener to begin making like a high-powered sleuth.

As a consequence, a large part of this picture is curiously casual and slow, as Van Johnson, the blind man, bores the mischief out of everybody with his hazy suspicions.

For Monday, we have two mysterious persons. Another person has, alas, been blotted out due to insufficient mysteriousness.

Update: For Friday, adding our mysterious leading man.

Update: This is Van Johnson overhearing a conversation. (No spoilers as to who they are).

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For Tuesday, we have a mysterious woman.

Update: This is Isobel Elsom.

Brain Trust roll call: Sheila (mystery movie, mysterious silhouettes and mystery person blocked due to insufficient mysteriousness) and Jenny M. (mystery movie and mystery person blocked due to insufficient mysteriousness).

For “Hm Wednesday,” we have a mystery woman, a mysterious companion and a mystery dog.

Update: This is Natalie Norwick, left, and Queenie Leonard.

Brain Trust roll call: B.J. Merholz (mystery movie and Tuesday’s mystery woman) and Sheila (Tuesday’s mystery woman).

For “Aha Thursday,” we have this mystery woman and her unfocused companion.

Update: This is Patricia Laffan and Cecil Parker.

We also have this mystery woman.

Update: This is Estelle Winwood.

Brain Trust roll call: Howard Mandelbaum (Tuesday’s mystery woman).

And for Friday, we have our mysterious leads.

Update: This is Vera Miles and Van Johnson.

Brain Trust roll call: Mary Mallory (mystery movie, Monday’s mysterious man blocked out due to insufficient mysteriousness, Tuesday’s mystery woman, Wednesday’s mystery woman No. 1, Thursday’s mystery guests), Incredible Inman (mystery movie, Thursday’s mystery man in the background and mystery woman No. 2), Robert Morrissey (mystery movie and Thursday’s mystery women), Sylvia E. (mystery movie and all mystery guests), L.C. (mystery movie and mysterious cast) and Blackwing Jenny (mystery movie and Thursday’s mystery woman No. 2).