This week’s mystery movie has been the 1950 MGM picture “Two Weeks – With Love,” with Jane Powell, Ricardo Montalban, Louis Calhern, Ann Harding, Phyllis Kirk, Carleton Carpenter, Debbie Reynolds, Clinton Sundberg. The screenplay was by John Larkin and Dorothy Kingsley from a story by Larkin, musical direction was by Georgie Stoll, musical numbers staged by Busby Berkeley, orchestrations by Leo Arnaud and vocal arrangements by Saul Chaplin. Photography was by Alfred Gilks, art direction by Cedric Gibbons and Preston Ames, set decorations by Edwin B. Willis and Richard A. Pefferie, women’s costumes by Helen Rose, men’s costumes by Walter Plunkett, hairstyles by Sydney Guilaroff and makeup by William J. Tuttle. The producer was Jack Cummings and the director was Roy Rowland.

The movie is available from Amazon.com in several DVD sets.

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This week’s surprisingly difficult mystery movie has been the 1948 Warner Bros. picture “Smart Girls Don’t Talk,” with Virginia Mayo, Bruce Bennett, Robert Hutton, Tom D’Andrea, Richard Rober, Helen Wescott and Richard Benedict.

It was written by William Sackheim, photographed by Ted McCord, with art direction by Stanley Fleischer, dialogue direction by John Maxwell, set decoration by William Wallace, special effects by Robert Burks, makeup by Perc Westmore, orchestrations by Leonid Raab, music by David Buttolph and produced by Saul Elkins. The movie was directed by Richard Bare.

The DVD is available from Warner Archive for $21.99.

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This week’s mystery movie has been the 1962 MGM picture “Billy Rose’s Jumbo,” with Doris Day, Stephen Boyd, Jimmy Durante and Martha Raye, Dean Jagger, Joseph Waring, Lynn Wood, Charles Watts, James Chandler, Robert Burton, Wilson Wood, Norman Leavitt, Grady Sutton, Ron Henon, The Carlisles, The Pedrolas, The Wazzans, The Hannefords, Billy Barton, Corky Cristiani, Victor Julian, Richard Berg, Joe Monahan, Miss Lani, Adolph Dubsky, Pat Anthony, Janos Prohaska and The Barbettes.

The film was based on the musical produced by Billy Rose at the New York Hippodrome, with a book by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, and music and lyrics by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. The music was supervised and conducted by George Stoll. The film was photographed by William H. Daniels in Panavision and MetroColor, with art direction by George W. Davis and Preston Ames, and set decoration by Henry Grace and Hugh Hunt. Costumes by Morton Haack, hairstyles by Sydney Guilaroff, makeup by William Tuttle and circus acts coordinated by Al Dobritch.  The second unit director was Busby Berkeley. The screenplay was by Sidney Sheldon. The film was produced by Joe Pasternak and Martin Melcher, and directed by Charles Walters.

Historical notes: Durante appeared in the 1935 stage version as a press agent and was recast as the circus owner for the film. This was Raye’s first film since “Monsieur Verdoux” and Day’s last movie musical.

“Billy Rose’s Jumbo” is available on DVD from Amazon.

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This week’s mystery movie (and sadly, a fairly poor print) has been the 1939 British film “Spy in Black,” the debut of “the Archers”: director Michael Powell and writer Emeric Pressburger. It featured Conrad Veidt, Sebastian Shaw and Valerie Hobson, with Marius Goring, June Duprez, Athole Stewart, Agnes Laughlan, Helen Haye, Cyril Raymond, George Summers, Hay Petrie, Grant Sutherland, Robert Rendel, Mary Morris, Margaret Moffatt, Kenneth Warrington and our mystery guest from last week, Torin Thatcher.

The movie was produced by Irving Asher, based on a story by J. Storer Clouston, screenplay by Pressburger and scenario by Roland Pertwee. The supervising art director was Vincent Korda, with art direction by Frederick Pusey, photography by Bernard Browne, music by Miklos Rozsa and musical direction by Muir Mathieson.

The DVD is available from a number of sources on Amazon and Amazon UK. The Valerie Hobson Collection (out of print, apparently) supposedly has a sharp transfer of the film, judging by reviews on Amazon.

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This week’s mystery movie has been the 1952 Columbia picture “Affair in Trinidad,” with Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, Alexander Scourby, Valerie Bettis, Torin Thatcher, Howard Wendell, Karel Stepanek, George Voskovec, Steven Geray, Walter Kohler, Juanita Moore. The screenplay was by Oscar Saul and James Gunn, from a story by Virginia Van Upp and Bernie Giler,  photography by Joseph Walker, art direction by Walter Holscher, set decoration by William Kiernan. The movie was produced and directed by Vincent Sherman. Dances for Miss Hayworth created by Valerie Bettis.

The DVD was released in Sony’s Martini Movies collection and  is available from Amazon.com.

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The two weeks’ mystery movie has been the 1945 Warner Bros. film “Roughly Speaking,” with Rosalind Russell, Jack Carson, Robert Hutton, Jean Sullivan, Donald Woods, Alan Hale, Andrea King, Ann Doran, Mona Freeman, Robert Arthur, Ray Collins, John Qualen, Kathleen Lockhart and Ann Todd. The screenplay was by Louise Randall Pierson from her book. The film was photographed by Joseph Walker, with art direction by Robert Haas, set decorations by George James Hopkins, dialogue direction by Frederick de Cordova, wardrobe by Leah Rhodes, Russell’s gowns by Travis Banton, music arrangements by Hugo Friedhofer, musical direction by Leo F. Forbstein, music by Max Steiner, produced by Henry Blanke and directed by Michael Curtiz.

It is available on DVD from Warner Archive for $17.99.

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This week’s mystery movie has been the 1932 MGM film “The Beast of the City,” with Walter Huston, Jean Harlow, Wallace Ford, Jean Hersholt, Dorothy Peterson, Tully Marshall, John Miljan, Emmett Corrigan, Warner Richmond, Sandy Roth and J. Carroll Naish, and directed by Charles Brabin. It was a Cosmopolitan production, from a story by W.R. Burnett, with photography by Norbert Brodine.

I hadn’t planned to do another pre-code so soon, but this was too good to pass up.

“The Beast of the City” is available from Warner Archive for $17.99.

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This week’s mystery movie has been the 1952 RKO film “Blackbeard, the Pirate,” with Robert “Yarr” Newton, Linda Darnell, William Bendix, Keith Andes, Torin Thatcher, Irene Ryan, Alan Mowbray, Richard Egan, Skelton Knaggs, Dick Wessel, Anthony Caruso, Jack Lambert, Noel Drayton and Pat Flaherty.

The screenplay was by Alan LeMay from a story by DeVallon Scott, with music by Victor Young, photography by William E. Snyder, art direction by Albert S. D’Agostino and Jack Okey, set decorations by Darrell Silvera and John Sturtevant, costumes by Michael Woulfe, musical direction by C. Bakaleinikoff and makeup by Mel Berns. Dialogue direction was by Hal A. “Yarr” Long. The movie was produced by Edmund Grainger and directed by Raoul Walsh.

It is available on DVD from multiple sources.

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