Scent of Mystery

Scent of Mystery
A film poster bearing the film's new title: Holiday in Spain
Directed by	Jack Cardiff
Produced by	Mike Todd, Jr.
Screenplay by	Gerald Kersh
Based on	Ghost of a Chance by Kelley Roos
Starring	Denholm Elliott Peter Lorre Elizabeth Taylor
Music by	Harold Adamson Mario Nascimbene Jordan Ramin
Cinematography	John von Kotze
Edited by	James E. Newcom
Release date	1960 (1960)
Running time	125 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

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 film's 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.

The film was also released in Cinerama under the title Holiday in Spain, re-edited without Smell-O-Vision.

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-Vision's 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.

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 it's 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.