The Caribbean Mystery

The Caribbean Mystery (1945)

Killers on the loose!

The Caribbean Mystery is a remake of Mr. Moto on Danger Island (1939)-which in turn was a remake of Murder in Trinidad. James Dunn stars as Mr. Smith, a Columbo-like Brooklyn detective who pops up on a tropical island to track down some missing geologists.

Date of release
1945-06-01
TMDB
6.7 / 10 (3)
Runtime
1h 5m
Genres
Crime, Drama, Mystery
Director
Robert D. Webb

Casting

Interesting facts

The Caribbean Mystery is a 1945 American film noir mystery film which marked the directorial debut of Robert D. Webb. It is the third film adaptation of the 1933 novel Murder in Trinidad by John W. Vandercook to be produced by 20th Century Fox. Starring James Dunn, Sheila Ryan, and Edward Ryan. the plot finds a Brooklyn detective summoned to a Caribbean island to solve the disappearance of eight geologists who had visited an alligator-infested swamp. The lead role was rewritten especially for Dunn after his successful film comeback in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), also produced by 20th Century Fox.

Production

The Caribbean Mystery was the third film adaptation of the 1933 novel Murder in Trinidad by John W. Vandercook to be produced by 20th Century Fox. The previous versions were 1934's Murder in Trinidad and 1939's Mr. Moto in Danger Island.

The Caribbean Mystery was produced under the working titles Zombies of the Swamp and The Voodoo Mystery. It was the directorial debut for Robert D. Webb, formerly an assistant director at 20th Century Fox.

The original script had a lead character named Wyeth, with Reed Hadley slated to play the role. However, studio executives had the role rewritten for James Dunn after seeing the latter's comeback performance in the 1945 film A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. The character was renamed Smith and characterized as a wise-cracking detective from Brooklyn to capitalize on Dunn's association with the latter film.

According to an Associated Press report, a 350 lb (160 kg) alligator named Ben was used in the swamp scenes. This marked the 435th film appearance for the reptile, which began appearing in films in 1909, reportedly at the age of 214. The alligator, trained by Tom Reed, earned $100 a day (equivalent to $1,788 in 2025) for its services.

Filming took place from mid-January to mid-February 1945.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended