This week’s mystery movie has been the 1961 MGM picture “Ada,” starring Susan Hayward, Dean Martin, Wilfrid Hyde White, Ralph Meeker, Martin Balsam, Frank Maxwell, Connie Sawyer, Ford Rainey, Charles Watts, Larry Gates, Robert S. Simon and William Zuckert. Music was by Bronislau Kaper.

It was photographed with Panavision lenses in CinemaScope and Metrocolor by Joseph Ruttenberg.

The screenplay was by Arthur Sheekman and William Driskill from Wirt Williams’ novel “Ada Dallas.” An Avon Productions Chalamar Picture, the movie was directed by Daniel Mann.

A Feb. 12, 1961, article in the New York Times described filming certain scenes inside the California Capitol, and said it was the first time filming had been allowed inside the building.

Daily Variety (July 26, 1961) called it “a far-fetched story rescued by sharp dialogue.” The movie opened in Los Angeles on Aug. 17, 1961, and received a lukewarm review from Times critic Philip K. Scheuer, who said: “On the screen, it is a tall tale, hard to believe, a kind of ‘Elmer Gantry transferred from the religious to the political arena, from soul-saving to spoils-saving.”

“Ada” opened in New York on Aug. 25, 1961, but apparently was not reviewed in the New York Times.

Footnote: Ford Rainey is the father of Variety reporter (and former Los Angeles Times colleague) James Rainey.

The movie is available from Warner Archive for $19.49.

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This week’s mystery movie has been the 1946 picture “Cloak and Dagger,” starring Gary Cooper, Robert Alda, Vladimir Sokoloff, J. Edward Bromberg, Marjorie Hoshelle and Ludwig Stossel, and introducing Lilli Palmer.  The screenplay was by Albert Maltz and Ring Lardner Jr., from a story by Boris Ingster and John Larkin, “suggested by the book by” Corey Ford and Alastair MacBain. The movie was directed by Fritz Lang.

Released by Warner Bros., the movie was the first production by Milton Sperling’s United States Pictures Inc. and was the first of five independent films he originally planned for 1946.

The New York Times’ Bosley Crowther wrote (Oct. 5, 1946) that the film “is highly suspenseful in a slick cinematic style. Apart from the realm of realities, it is fast entertainment on the screen.”

And yet he quibbled with the plot: The filmmakers “loaded the whole thing down with the baldest and most familiar of the spy-thriller cliches.”

The film opened in Los Angeles on Oct. 11, 1946, at the Wiltern, and the Warners Hollywood and Downtown.  Writing in the Los Angeles Times on Oct. 12, 1946, critic Edwin Schallert said it was almost a documentary, calling it “a thrilling adventure narrative that simultaneously is illumined by good strong highlights in the dialogue.”

“Cloak and Dagger” was suggested as a mystery movie by Earl Boebert and set off an unusual quest to defeat Google’s image search function. For some curious reason, much of the film turns up on Google’s image search —  at least in some circumstances. Earl did extensive research on why he and I were getting different results from Google. The simple explanation is that Google personalizes my results as “a movie guy” and customizes his results something else. Cloak and Dagger indeed!

The movie is available from Amazon.

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This week’s mystery movie has been the 1952 MGM picture “Above and Beyond,” starring Robert Taylor and Eleanor Parker, with James Whitmore, Larry Keating, Larry Gates, Marilyn Erskine, Stephen Dunne, Robert Burton and Hayden Rorke. The screenplay was by Melvin Frank, Norman Panama and Beirne Lay Jr. from a story by Beirne Lay Jr. The music was by Hugo Friedhofer and conducted by Andre Previn. “Above and Beyond” was produced and directed by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama.

“Above and Beyond” is available from Warner Archive for $12.49.

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