MGM Starts Shooting Crime Movie

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayor shot its first Harvard scenes for "Mystery Street" yesterday, but the process clogged up the Yard for over four hours and still isn't complete.

All morning and early afternoon 15 members of MGM's production crew and 25 College student "extras" waited for the sun to stay out long enough for prolonged shooting. After taking incompletely four of the six scheduled Yard and Law School scenes, directors and cameramen finally gave up the fight at 2:40 p.m. and agreed to try again today.

Five Yard and Cambridge policemen had their hands full yesterday controlling the onlookers--sometimes over 500 strong. "Way back" shouts of Lieut. Matthew Tooey usually evoked a little more than "push 'em back" chant from the flocking spectators.

A Varied Group

Not only were passing students delighted with the proceedings, but so were Life and newspaper photographers, the University Hall secretarial staff, and a trained dog who tried to earn himself a screen test before Assistant Director Sid Sidman. To keep the people happy while waiting for the sun, Thayer Hall freshmen offered an impromptu program of amplified Al Jolson songs and Dwight Fiske records.

The big attraction for two independent sets of Cambridge High and Latin bobby-soxers was lead actor Ricardo Montalban. Suddenly discovering that Montalban was the one who sang "Baby It's Cold Outside" to Esther Williams in a recent MGM aquashow, the teenagers twice held up shooting with autograph battles.