#when network folded i picked up quite a few things I'd been holding out on but i actually already owned and had seen this quota quickie

[mariocki]

A young Barbara Murray stars as travelling theatrical artiste Pat Dawn, getting mixed up in murder and intrigue in Mystery Junction (1951)

[thisbluespirit]

#fave spotting#barbara murray#the power game#lady pamela wilder#mystery junction#b movie#1951#british cinema#sydney tafler#michael mccarthy#panels <3#when network folded i picked up quite a few things I'd been holding out on but i actually already owned and had seen this quota quickie#crime movie; nevertheless‚ fool that i am‚ i found a blu ray copy cheap online and made the upgrade bc... well bc Babs that's why#truthfully her character doesn't have a huge amount to do beyond being Sydney Tafler's love interest (another factor was my love of Syd)#but she does it beautifully. McCarthy doesn't give her a single closeup (fool!!!) but she does get one great scene in which she explains#her knowledge of the villain of the film‚ recounting the harrowing fate of a young friend of hers (it's one of the best scenes in the film)#troublingly tho.... no hats. was this pre hats? did Babs develop a hat fixation only later? or was it bc she was still a young actor at#this point‚ she didn't feel confident in demanding an array of hats be set at her dressing room door every day (as i have chosen to imagine#was the case later in her career). she wasn't quite a newcomer at this point (she'd had a notable role in 1949's Passport to Pimlico) but#safe to say she wasn't quite a Star star yet (she shares top billing with Tafler here but this is in every sense a minor picture on a#shoestring budget; no reflection on McCarthy‚ an imaginative and talented writer director who might have been destined for bigger things#had he not died prematurely at the end of the decade)#anyway she's here and she's lovely and she gives rotten Martin Benson a piece of her mind despite the gun in his hand#good for you Babs! <3

A young Barbara Murray stars as travelling theatrical artiste Pat Dawn, getting mixed up in murder and intrigue in Mystery Junction (1951)