Yes indeed. If the air is being recirculated, the vent temp should get down to about 40 or 41 F. If it goes below that, it also indicates a problem.

What is the outside temp when you get it down to 49?

Since you do not get airflow with the system off that means that the system may not be stuck in fresh air mode. I would check all the vac pods anyway. The car is old enough that there could easily be one or more leaking from age.

Let us know what you find.