The Chance of a Lifetime

This Blackie entry is more of a flag waver than the previous five, but it's ingenious for all that. Blackie gets the conditional parole and release of chosen prisoners for them to help the War effort by labouring in one of Arthur's factories. They have to be good, but as usual there is one black sheep - who gets immediately mixed up in a shooting over a stolen USD 60,000 stash. Blackie himself takes the blame for to divert Farraday away from spoiling his pet project. And so begins another chase: Inspector Farraday and Sergeant Matthews after Boston Blackie and the Runt after Nails Blanton (the real baddie, not Blackie's man).

Jumbo Madigan plays a pivotal role in this outing so pay attention! The scenes with the two elderly and gentle female Municipal Cleaning Technicians was a farcical intrusion worthy of Monogram, but they had to get in to the police station to get back the stolen money as bait for Nails. The bit where Blackie and the Runt escape from a locked and door-less apartment leaving his 11 men and Arthur behind is delicious. The print quality is pretty awful in places, someone at the TV station in the 50's was scissor-happy.

But overall, slightly different and worthwhile.

This time, "Boston" (Chester Morris) comes up with a proposal to the Governor that would allow some trusted prisoners to come and work in a factory to assist with the war effort. He agrees that they can live at his apartment but before long is embroiled in a plan to prove that "Dooley" (Erik Rolf) was set up for a murder he didn't commit. Unusually, "Insp. Faraday" (Richard Lane) is in on the plot to use "Blackie" as bait for the real criminal - well, him and $60,000 - and using some sleight of hand and his gang of well-meaning convicts lays a trap for... This doesn't hang about, is tightly cast with series regulars and with a more solid story than many of the other outings for an on form Morris, it passes an hour with a few red herrings and a precarious window-dangled confession at the end.

Most all of the 1940s Columbia "Boston Blackie" films starring Chester Morris are worth watching. This entry has Blackie vouching for some convicts (remember, Blackie himself is a reformed ex-con), trying to get them early releases so they can work in factories aiding the war effort. A judge agrees, and lets them out to begin work. Obviously, things do not work out as planned...

Morris's personal charm and colorful acting style always help the film along, and his sidekick The Runt and his antagonists from the police force return from the earlier entries in the series. It's a fast moving 65 minutes, and like any of the b-movie directorial efforts of William Castle at Columbia in the 1940s, it features a number of clever visuals and plot contrivances. Also, the film is NOT a traditional murder mystery, but I don't want to give anything away, so you'll have to see it yourself. Definitely worth finding for fans of b-movie detective films. And it's always great to see Douglas Fowley as a gangster again!

"Your logic is simply hypnotic" says a "dumb copper" to Boston Blackie in The Chance of a Lifetime. I can't help but feel the logic of William Castle's directing follows in turn. Castle certainly developed his stylistic system and method of directing across his career, but this early entry characterizes his lack more than anything else (a lack he wold make up for in time). Diegetic space is constructed through shot scale cut-ins for an otherwise static camera. Later, Castle would develop his system with more mobile framing and angular contrapuntal direction (Ohmart in the Emergo scene in Haunted Hill is captured in a multiple of angular shots). In The Chance, the camera is positioned with frontality as the dominant. When groups of characters are framed, they huddle symmetrically staged in front of the camera lens creating balanced tableaux. The staging and blocking does not have the oblique quality prominent in later Castle films. The story itself involves Blackie's proposed plan to the state's Governor to parole ex-cons in order to aid in munitions manufacturing for the war. Recidivism and risk assessment are the name of the game as Blackie gets tangled up in the loose ends of an old crime of one of the paroled cons. There is good suspense and characterization but at times the acting is stilted while the dialogue is a little on-the-nose. As is characteristic of Castle "B" status films, plot contrivances abound. An earlier reviewer seemed to express that the contrivances are an asset or perhaps aid, while I cannot agree. The "cigarette gag" and "secret panel" gag have the lameness that makes narrative progress move forward with an awkward gait. The buffoonery of the police was an issue with the critics upon release as far as it concerns the status quo. For me, the portrayal of the police as stooges gets tired and leads to the story dragging somewhat (others may disagree). The ending involves confessions under extreme duress and although neat, are also an element of convenience at service for the production and not the audience. The flaws in directing would be repeated several times by Castle as he worked slowly to develop a more sound stylistic system.

I hope writer Jack Boyle got some of the money that was made off his man "Boston Blackie"... there were TONS of films made with that character. Chester Morris was probably the best known. In this chapter, Blackie is the chaperone for some work release prisoners, and one escapes to dig up some stolen dough. Things go haywire, as they always do, and the caper is on! Blackie has to track down the guy who knows the truth, but the police are after HIM, so he has to stay one step ahead. The usual antics, and boy, the cops were silly back then. The story kind of goes all over the place, but its okay. And it's only a 65 minute shortie. Currently showing on Turner Classics. My favorite line in here is when the desk clerk sees the guy with the beard, and says "Hey, you with the chin drapes!" Most of it is pretty average, and for the last five minutes, the fistfight takes place in the dark... rather pointless. meh. Directed by William Castle, known for low budget yet fairly successful films.