The Blue Mountains Mystery

The Blue Mountains Mystery
Hotel guests including Billy Williams (left) and Majorie Osborne examine the supposedly dead Henry Tracey (John Faulkner).
Directed by	Raymond Longford Lottie Lyell
Produced by	Dan Carroll E.J. Carroll
Written by	Raymond Longford Lottie Lyell
Based on	novel The Mount Marunga Mystery by Harrison Owen
Starring	Marjorie Osborne John Faulkner
Cinematography	Arthur Higgins
Edited by	Lottie Lyell
Distributed by	Southern Cross Picture Productions
Release date	5 November 1921
Running time	6,000 feet
Country	Australia
Language	Silent film English intertitles
Budget	₤4,000

The Blue Mountains Mystery is a lost 1921 Australian silent film directed by Raymond Longford and co-directed by Lottie Lyell. The film was derived from the 1919 novel The Mount Marunga Mystery by Harrison Owen. It is considered a lost film.

The Blue Mountains Mystery involves the alleged murder of a wealthy businessman, Henry Tracey, and the eventual discovery that the victim was an underworld look-alike impersonator. The main suspects are Tracey's ward, Pauline, Mrs Tracey, and Pauline's boyfriend, Hector, and his rival, Richard Maxim.

Eventually the supposedly dead Henry Tracey reappears and announces that he had been kidnapped. The corpse was Stephen Rodder, a man with a strong resemblance to Tracey.

The movie was mostly filmed in Katoomba, the Blue Mountains and Sydney Harbour, with some studio work at the Carrolls' Palmerston studio in Sydney. The Carrington Hotel and Hydro-Majestic Hotel were featured. Shooting took an unusually long time to complete, in part because of the location work involved.

Marjorie Osborne was a fashion consultant to the Sydney store of Farmer's, and wife of a wealthy land-owner, Henry Hill Osborne. She unsuccessfully attempted a Hollywood career after making this film.

It was Longford's third production for E.J. Carroll and the first in which Lyell received a formal co-direction credit. According to the book Australian Cinema: The First 80 Years by Graham Shirley and Brian Adams, the film cost almost double that of The Sentimental Bloke (1919).

The film was popular at the box office in Australia.

Although now lost, at the time of its release The Blue Mountains Mystery fared well in the United Kingdom, South America and the United States upon its initial release. The London Bioscope wrote of The Blue Mountains Mystery: " …by its restrained acting, shows the force which a story gains in the telling. As a consequence, suspense is held throughout". The reviewer of the Los Angeles Times said the film "will keep you on the edge of your seat to the last fade out."