SAVING OFFICER RYAN

You know, under other circumstances I feel we could have— Oh well. Maybe in the next life. Back off pigs or she's dead!

This poster for Mary Ryan, Detective is a collage of photos touched up by an artist, and the result certainly did its job—it made us want to watch the film. We did that last night and saw a crime drama in which Marsha Hunt plays a cop who goes undercover as a prison inmate in order to unmask a jewel theft ring. As part of her prep she’s taught some lingo and how to pick pockets, and uses the latter instruction to make criminals go starry-eyed over her skillset. Once she gets the info she needs in prison, she’s released and maneuvers her way to the top of the theft ring, ending up on a farm where the head crook is a countrified old gent with an ingenious method for smuggling jewels.

Naturally, Hunt’s undercover role drags her in deeper than she or her superiors would like, as she disappears entirely from sight, inducing panic in her department. But she’ll come out okay—a safe ending is part of the package with mid-century crime flicks. The only question is how exactly the conclusion will play out. The poster should give you a hint. There’s nothing outstanding about this film, but there are also no major missteps. For a b-movie that’s called unmitigated success. After a special premiere in New York City in November 1949, Mary Ryan, Detective went into general release today in 1950. We have some production photos below, and you can see one more at this link.

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

1937—Carothers Patents Nylon

Wallace H. Carothers, an American chemist, inventor and the leader of organic chemistry at DuPont Corporation, receives a patent for a silk substitute fabric called nylon. Carothers was a depressive who for years carried a cyanide capsule on a watch chain in case he wanted to commit suicide, but his genius helped produce other polymers such as neoprene and polyester. He eventually did take cyanide—not in pill form, but dissolved in lemon juice—resulting in his death in late 1937.

1933—Franklin Roosevelt Survives Assassination Attempt

In Miami, Florida, Giuseppe Zangara attempts to shoot President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, but is restrained by a crowd and, in the course of firing five wild shots, hits five people, including Chicago, Illinois Mayor Anton J. Cermak, who dies of his wounds three weeks later. Zangara is quickly tried and sentenced to eighty years in jail for attempted murder, but is later convicted of murder when Cermak dies. Zangara is sentenced to death and executed in Florida’s electric chair.

1929—Seven Men Shot Dead in Chicago

Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone’s South Side gang, are machine gunned to death in Chicago, Illinois, in an event that would become known as the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Because two of the shooters were dressed as police officers, it was initially thought that police might have been responsible, but an investigation soon proved the killings were gang related. The slaughter exceeded anything yet seen in the United States at that time.

1935—Jury Finds Hauptmann Guilty

A jury in Flemington, New Jersey finds Bruno Hauptmann guilty of the 1932 kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby, the son of Charles Lindbergh. Hauptmann is sentenced to death and executed in 1936. For decades, his widow Anna, fights to have his named cleared, claiming that Hauptmann did not commit the crime, and was instead a victim of prosecutorial misconduct, but her claims are ultimately dismissed in 1984 after the U.S. Supreme Court refuses to address the case.

Cover art by Roswell Keller for the 1948 Pocket Books edition of Ramona Stewart's Desert Town.
Rare Argentinian cover art for The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells.

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