''Mystery Junction'' is a 1951 British

crime film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

directed by Michael McCarthy and starring

Sydney Tafler Sydney Tafler (31 July 1916 – 8 November 1979) was an English actor who after having started his career on stage, was best remembered for numerous appearances in films and television from the 1940s to the 1970s. Personal life Tafler was bor ...

and

Barbara Murray Barbara Ann Murray (27 September 1929 – 20 May 2014) was an English actress. Murray was most active in the 1940s and 1950s as a fresh-faced leading lady in many British films such as ''Passport to Pimlico'' (1949) and ''Meet Mr. Lucifer'' (19 ...

.Mystery Junction (1951)
at

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

The screenplay concerns a writer who narrates a crime story for a fellow passenger on a train journey.

Plot

A middle-aged woman, Miss Owens, recognises her fellow train passenger, mystery writer Larry Gordon, from a photograph on the cover of one of his books she is reading. Telling him she is a big fan of his books, she asks him how he gets his ideas for his stories, so he agrees to tell her..... Suddenly they hear a scream. They discover that a train door has been opened and snow blown in. Gordon and Miss Owens visit all the passengers in the railway carriage. One of them is Steve Harding, handcuffed to police officer Peterson, who has a gun. Harding is to appear in court the next day, charged with the murder of a young woman. The other passengers are a broker, an engineer, a woman and a young man. All of them, in one way or another, are linked with Harding. They then discover that the train guard has been assaulted and knocked out by an assailant who took his uniform coat and posed as him. Two female stowaways, actresses out of work and short of money, are found hiding in the guard's van. With another police officer, who was also escorting Harding, missing, it is concluded that the scream they heard likely came from him when he was thrown from the train by an accomplice of Harding's. All these passengers leave the train at a junction station to join a connecting service, but they find that train has been cancelled because of the snowy conditions. Taking shelter in the station waiting room, the lighting fails and in the darkness officer Peterson is shot and killed, enabling Harding to be released by accomplices and they attempt to make an escape through the snowy darkness, but conditions force them to return. Knowing that the train had been cancelled, other police arrive to provide support to officer Peterson, and the involvement of the other passengers is revealed. A confrontation leads to the shooting of Harding and also the killer of Peterson, who had accidentally shot him in the darkness when trying to shoot Harding. The scene fades back to Gordon ending his story idea to Miss Owens.

Cast

– Larry Gordon *

– Pat Dawn *

Patricia Owens Patricia Molly Owens (January 17, 1925 – August 31, 2000) was a Canadian-born American actress, working in Hollywood. She appeared in about 40 films and 10 television episodes in a career lasting from 1943 to 1968. Early work Owens moved ...

– Mabel Dawn * Martin Benson – Steve Harding *

Christine Silver Christine Silver (17 December 1883 – 23 November 1960) was a British stage, film and television actress, and a playwright. Early life Christine Isie Silver was born in 1883 (some sources give 1884), in London, the daughter of Arthur Silver a ...

– Miss Owens * Philip Dale – Elliot Fisher * Pearl Cameron – Helen Mason *

John Salew John Rylett Salew (1902 (some sources state 1 January 1897)14 September 1961) was an English stage film and TV actor. Salew made the transition from stage to films in 1939, and according to Allmovie, "the manpower shortage during WWII enabled ...

– John Martin * Denis Webb – Inspector Clarke * David Davies – Benson * Charles Irwin – Hooker

References

External links

* 1951 films British crime films Films directed by Michael McCarthy 1951 crime films British black-and-white films 1950s English-language films 1950s British films {{1950s-UK-film-stub