The flatly titled Mystery in Mexico (1948) benefits from its location shooting, but unfortunately suffers from a poor screenplay which gives off the feeling of having been knocked together over a weekend. Slipshod screenplays drive me batty, even in low-budget productions, because (a) the time to fix things is before the cameras roll, and (b) it doesn’t generally cost much extra to get the writing right. The control over that part of the process is greater than over any other. If it ain’t on the page it ain’t on the stage, you know?

The appealing William Lundigan is made to play annoying as heck here, and it just doesn’t sit well on him.

His co-star Jacqueline White, who got out of movies a few years later, is still alive at age 101. (Don, has she ever done the noir festival circuit or been interviewed by TCM?)