Siddhesh Joshi (Editor)

Scent of Mystery

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Director
  
Jack Cardiff

Screenplay
  
Gerald Kersh

Country
  
United States

6.3/10
IMDb

Genre
  
Mystery

Duration
  

Language
  
English

Scent of Mystery movie poster
Release date
  
1960 (1960)

Writer
  
Kelley Roos (story), William Roos

Music director
  
Mario Nascimbene, Harold Adamson

Cast
  
Denholm Elliott
(Oliver Larker),
Peter Lorre
(Smiley),
Beverly Bentley
(The Decoy Sally),
Paul Lukas
(Baron Saradin),
Liam Redmond
(Johnny Gin),
Leo McKern
(Tommy Kennedy)

Similar movies
  
Peter Lorre appears in Scent of Mystery and Mr Moto in Danger Island

Tagline
  
Now Cinerama takes you on a manhunta suspense hunt-a thrill hunt-across an exotic world of excitement!

An Englishman (Denholm Elliott) and a cabby (Peter Lorre) try to save an heiress from murder in Spain.

Contents

Scent of Mystery movie scenes

Scent of Mystery is a 1960 mystery film that featured the one and only use of Smell-O-Vision, a system that timed odors to points in the films plot. It was the first film in which aromas were integral to the story, providing important details to the audience. It was produced by Mike Todd, Jr., who in conjunction with his father Mike Todd had produced such spectacles as This is Cinerama and Around the World in Eighty Days.

An Englishman (Denholm Elliott) and a cabby (Peter Lorre) try to save an heiress from murder in Spain.

Plot

A mystery novelist, played by Denholm Elliott, discovers a plan to murder an American heiress, played by Elizabeth Taylor in an uncredited role, while on vacation in Spain. He enlists the help of a taxi driver, played by Peter Lorre, to travel across the Spanish countryside in order to thwart the crime. Some scenes were designed to highlight the Smell-O-Visions capabilities. In one, wine casks fall off a wagon and roll down a hill, smashing against a wall, at which point a grape scent was released. Other scenes were accompanied by aromas that revealed key points to the audience. The assassin was identified by the smell of a smoking pipe, for example.

The screenplay was adapted from the 1947 novel Ghost of a Chance by Kelley Roos, the pen name of husband and wife mystery writers Audrey Kelley and William Roos. The novel was set in locations in New York City. Kelley Roos also wrote a 1959 paperback novelization of the screenplay, reset in Spain.

Smell-O-Vision

  • Scent of Mystery was developed specifically with Smell-O-Vision in mind. Although Scent of Mystery was not the first film to be accompanied by aromas, it was the most technologically advanced. Ads for the film proclaimed: "First they moved (1895)! Then they talked (1927)! Now they smell!" Todd, who was a bit of a showman, engaged in such hyperbole as, "I hope its the kind of picture they call a scentsation!" He also got help from newspaper columnists such as Earl Wilson, who lauded the system, saying Smell-O-Vision "can produce anything from skunk to perfume, and remove it instantly." New York Times writer Richard Nason believed it was a major advance in filmmaking. As such, expectations for the film were great.
  • The film opened in three specially equipped theaters in February, 1960, in New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Unfortunately, the mechanism did not work properly. According to Variety, aromas were released with a distracting hissing noise and audience members in the balcony complained that the scents reached them several seconds after the action was shown on the screen. In other parts of the theater, the odors were too faint, causing audience members to sniff loudly in an attempt to catch the scent.
  • Technical adjustments by the manufacturers of Smell-O-Vision solved these problems, but by then it was too late. Negative reviews, in conjunction with word of mouth, caused the film to fail miserably. Comedian Henny Youngman quipped, "I didnt understand the picture. I had a cold." Todd did not produce another film until 1979s The Bell Jar, which was also his last film.
  • The film was eventually retitled as Holiday in Spain and re-released, sans odors. However, as The Daily Telegraph described it, "the film acquired a baffling, almost surreal quality, since there was no reason why, for example, a loaf of bread should be lifted from the oven and thrust into the camera for what seemed to be an unconscionably long time."
  • Scent of Mystery was aired once on television by MTV and syndicated on local TV stations in the 1980s, in conjunction with a convenience store promotion that offered scratch and sniff cards that viewers were to use to recreate the theater experience.

    • Similar Movies

    Peter Lorre appears in Scent of Mystery and Mr Moto in Danger Island. The Bishop Murder Case (1930). The Preview Murder Mystery (1936). Calling Philo Vance (1940). Peter Lorre appears in Scent of Mystery and Mr Moto Takes a Vacation.

    Soundtrack

    The soundtrack was recently re-released on CD. It features the score composed by Mario Nascimbene and two songs from the film sung by Eddie Fisher.

    Blu Ray is coming of Holiday in Spain in November 2014. Lots of extras included.

    References

    Scent of Mystery Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA

    Scent of Mystery IMDbScent of Mystery themoviedb.org