Boston Blackie Goes Hollywood

What makes a series last?

Here's a film that is in the middle of a remarkably successful franchise. One wonders what in the formula worked so well.

I think in this case it was the focus on sidekicks. Our two main characters are a "reformed" master thief, the Blackie, and a senior police chief who always chases him and whom reluctantly ends collaboratively up solving some crime. Ho hum so far.

Each of these guys has a sidekick. Each sidekick is incompetent, in fact utterly dependent on his alpha dog. Overall, Blackie's team is suave and the police team gets the worst of pranks. But its the dynamics of the pairs that I think gave this formula its success. There's something about defining a loyal admirer and placing him on screen. Its a funny sort of narrative shift where some small element of ourselves are placed on screen. As they admire the character, we do too, a bit more intensely. To make it more admirable (pun here) we have to have a sidekick who we knowingly do not identify with, someone at the far end of competence.

In other films of this era, the comic main at the bottom of the stack would be a black man. But that wouldn't work for this recipe, because the audience is presumed to be white and the mechanism based on subliminal identification. You'll still see this in cop buddy movies and many teen movies.

Other than this minor thrill, of seeing a perfect and inexpensive formula at work, this is a waste of time.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

Boston Blackie and sidekick Runt as they're about to go to Florida on a vacation get a transcontinental call from their good friend, playboy Lloyd Corrigan. Get $60,000.00 from a safe in his apartment and bring it to California. Corrigan has a couple of hoods pointing guns at him as he makes this call and of course Chester Morris thinks something is up. So Morris and George Stone get the money and make the trip with NYC cops trailing them because they think he's involved in a nice jewel heist also having taken place in California.

Columbia was doing both the Boston Blackie and Lone Wolf series at the same time and the plots were pretty interchangeable. Both retired master criminals, both with helpful sidekicks, both living good and no visible means of support, and both with cops constantly questioning them every time some notorious crime breaks at which they're always innocent. My own theory is that they lived off the proceeds of their previous criminal lives, the money having been laundered clean and untraceable. Just what were Blackie and the Runt vacationing from?

In this Lloyd Corrigan who's a good hearted and empty headed soul with too much money to burn always finds someone to help him burn it, usually of the female variety. That was Corrigan's function in all the Blackie films he did. Columbia starlet Constance Worth fulfills the function here, she's a poor man's Rita Hayworth.

Corrigan does have himself peripherally involved in the stealing of a legendary jewel, it's up to Morris and Stone to get him out of the jackpot if they can just shake loose from NYPD's not so finest Richard Lane and Walter Sande. They do it as usual with aplomb.

This one is a nicely paced Blackie entry that also features an up and coming Forrest Tucker as one of the hoods. This is a good one for a potential Blackie fan to be introduced to.

"Boston Blackie Goes Hollywood" is another entry into the 14-film BB series. Boston Blackie doesn't exactly go Hollywood; I guess the producers wanted a snazzy name. These series - Blackie, The Saint, The Falcon, Nick Carter all follow a formula - the hero is an amateur detective, a smooth fellow who has flirted with the dark side of the law who usually has a sidekick and always has an officer of the law either angry with him or after him.

This time Blackie is in trouble with the law - as usual - because as an ex-jewel thief, he comes under suspicion every time there's a heist. This time it's the Monterey diamond, even though Blackie is in New York.

Then his good friend Arthur Manleder (Lloyd Corrigan) calls from Los Angeles, and he's in trouble and in need of $60,000 out of his safe. Of course the police enter Manleder's apartment just as Blackie is making a large withdrawal from said safe. The Boston Blackie police are completely moronic so Blackie and his short friend Runt (George E. Stone) are always able to get away, often in diabolically funny ways. This time is no different.

What distinguishes these various series is the personality of the actors, which makes telling The Falcon and The Saint apart since George Sanders played both. Boston Blackie is the most amusing, starring the personable and well-tailored Chester Morris. The scripts have very witty dialogue - better than the others, in my opinion - and it's delivered well by Morris who has grace and cool under fire.

I find these movies very enjoyable. Look for a young Forrest Tucker and also Lloyd Bridges, who has a small role.

This has got to be one of the weaker entries in the "Boston Blackie" series with CHESTER MORRIS and GEORGE E. STONE on the lam from Inspector Farraday and his Keystone Cops who are hot on their trail because they think Blackie can lead them to a missing diamond.

The gag with "The Runt" playing a boy genius is rather unfunny and totally implausible, but the film aims for light-hearted touches throughout, only occasionally succeeding. LLOYD CORRIGAN is Blackie's friend being held hostage by a band of crooks, including FORREST TUCKER in a minor role.

RICHARD LANE is again Inspector Farraday, but it's the same old business of him getting thrown for a loop by Blackie's wild schemes to throw him off guard. Nothing new here and none of it is more than routine formula stuff. Furthermore, the title is misleading if you expect the story to take place anywhere near Sunset Blvd.

Still, Chester Morris fans should get a kick out of his "Blackie" role.

Boston Blackie Goes Hollywood (1942)

*** (out of 4)

Forth film in Columbia's series finds Blackie (Chester Morris) trying to get $60,000 to California so that a friend can pay off a mob holding him hostage. As usual, Inspector Farraday (Richard Lane) thinks Blackie has stolen a priceless diamond and is hot on his trail. Unlike the previous film, this one here thankfully gets the laughs back on target and delivers a pretty good entry that fans of detective films should really enjoy. Once again Morris is very comfortable in his role and by now it seems like he could play it with his eyes closed. The supporting players are all good but again, the main highlight are all the laughs that this entry has. There's a wonderful segment at the end with Blackie and the bad guy fighting in an elevator shaft that has a dash of slapstick, which is really funny. There isn't much of a mystery going on but the 68-minute running time flies by. Forrest Tucker has a small role and if you look fast you can see Lloyd Bridges. Also of note, the word Hollywood is never even mentioned in the film.