You won't be disappointed!

So much average

Fresh and Exciting

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Now this the way to start a long running mystery series! Superb in every way, this B thriller introduces Chester Morris in the role of the already popular pulp novel series, a precursor to film noir, filled with shadowy locations, sinister men and mysterious women. Like other series, it didn't get any better (often a lot worse), and by the time the writers threw in the towel or moved it to radio and eventually TV, it was showing its age. But back to the beginning, long after the sophistication of Nick and Nora, and just as America was heading to war. Audiences really needed villains to hiss, and the antiheroes like Boston Blackie, the Saint, the Falcon, the Shadow, the Whistler and a few others who were actually given names, not adjectives.Already notorious with the police for alleged crimes, Blackie is on the run for two murders, one committed on a cruise ship, the other in the tunnel of love. Being there makes him automatically guilty in the eyes of the law, and when Rita Hayworth lookalike Rochelle Hudson ends up accompanying him, he finds an all too convenient accomplice. Together, they truly are dynamite, but like another popular film detective, the Lone Wolf, he's better off on his own, giving a ton of starlets the opportunity to get their feet wet in leading roles. With Richard Lane as the perplexed lieutenant desperately trying to find something on him, this moves at a speedy space, making me looking forward to what comes up next.

Now if THAT wasn't a novelty, especially in the 40s, in the middle of the Production Code reign (which EXPLICITLY says: "The treatment of crimes against the law must not... make criminals seem heroic and justified"!): Columbia Pictures took the hero of Jack Boyle's stories from the 1910s - 'Boston Blackie', a jewel thief and safe cracker! - and made him the protagonist of a whole series of 14 movies; a bigger number than quite popular and utterly decent 'Ellery Queen' or the highly moralistic 'Whistler' stories ever reached.And from the first movie on, this safe cracker hero, thanks to Chester Morris' wonderful, charming as well as cheeky and clever performance, but also to the way the script models him, certainly IS heroic, and has the audience's FULL sympathy despite his illegal 'hobby' that has made him widely known to the police - he's even got something like a feud-friendship with Inspector Faraday.Well, the reason his 'petty crimes' are forgivable is that, when it comes to CAPITAL crime, Boston Blackie becomes a REAL help for the police: because he's not only enormously smart and quick, but he also knows magical tricks and a lot of other things the average cop has got no idea of.So, in this case, he himself becomes a murder suspect, and at the same time has to clear himself, to escape the assaults of the real murder gang AND to blow up a spy ring! With him is his friend and 'colleague' called 'the Runt', and a beautiful young lady whose car he 'hijacked' while fleeing from the gangsters - and sometimes with him, sometimes against him is Inspector Faraday...You just CAN'T help loving this cheeky, wisecracking, smart rogue, and feel the suspense throughout the movie where he is almost constantly on the run from someone; this wonderful movie, full of excitement and fun, is the beginning of a wonderful film series of which you shouldn't miss a single one!

These unprepossessing and inexpensive detective entertainments appeared on the screen in droves during the 30s and 40s. The lead characters ranged from the street wise (Michael Shayne) through the somewhat dandified (Philo Vance) to the exotic (Charlie Chan). They were ground out like franchise hamburgers, with similar plots and many of the same characters, and they must have kept the writers, crew, and actors steadily employed.Boston Blackie is typical. Blackie, played by Chester Morris, is an ex safe cracker who helps out the police while maintaining the properly ambivalent relationship with Inspector Faraday. Blackie has the usual comic sidekick, here called "Runt." There is usually a young woman swept up in the plot, whose identity varied from one film to the next.On the social scale, Blackie registers as High Prole. Chester Morris always has his lips compressed. He has a jutting jaw. He's of modest height and walks in quick strides, swinging his brief arms vigorously, his chest puffed out. He could hardly be a Fancy Dan but the script gives him mock-eloquent locution. Who's trying to kill him? "Oh, just some former acquaintances." The plot isn't really worth describing in any detail. Something to do with an unidentified mob trying to steal "the new Navy bombsight." The mob is probably German but this was shot before Germany declared war on us so naming the heavies was noch verboten.The studio setting include a kind of interesting carnival or amusement park, probably meant to be suggestive of Coney Island, since the story is set in New York. There are some modestly exciting moments but no brutality -- just the occasional clip on the jaw, the screeching car pursuing the screeching car, the dart in the back of the neck. I kind of enjoyed the mechanical man, although at times it was hard to tell him from the other actors.The genre ended around 1950 when similar mystery stories, often based on the same characters and starring the same performers, began to appear on weekly television.

Meet Boston Blackie (1941) ** 1/2 (out of 4) First entry into Columbia's Boston Blackie series with Chester Morris. In this film, the ex-thief tries to track down a group of spies hiding out in Coney Island. This was a pleasant enough little film with some nice laughs and decent action. With my first viewing of the series Morris struck me as merely good but nothing great ala some of the other crime series like Holmes, Chan and Moto. There were some very good moments and the film got better as it went along but there were a few too many "cheap way out" moments where pieces of the mystery are put together and they seemed too easy. Richard Lane is also very good as the Inspector who never believes Boston has gone straight. Directed by Robert Florey.