La sorpresa en la noche

Boston Blackie movies have some strengths -- mostly in that the pacing is swift and the hero is cheerfully unfazed in even the worst circumstances. But the plotting is frequently atrocious, and the unrelenting comic bits often kill the pacing (if the plot happens to be atypically good) or are just unfunny and inappropriate.

This one involves Blackie chasing an escapee from the asylum (Steve Cochran in a really poor performance) who has become fixated on beautiful Nina Foch (who puts in a nice, rather subtle acting job). Inspector Farraday, of course, believes Blackie has gone homicidal maniac (he at least has some evidence in this one for that), and is incompetently trying to jail him as Blackie goes after the real killer. The plot has possibilities, but any time any real tension gets going, we a get a not funny comedy routine. It doesn't seem like anyone at Columbia understood that, in a movie about a pursuit of a really dangerous maniac, cute little comedy scenes about hiding an inconvenient body from the inspector disrupt any willing suspension of disbelief. (One just concludes our clever hero is an idiot -- deadly for a film like this.)

This one is not worth the time. For a well plotted episode of this series, see Alias Boston Blackie.

Boston Blackie's out to stop an escaped maniac on a killing spree. That is if Blackie can keep from being arrested by moronic Inspector Farraday, who has the wrong suspect as usual. Farraday couldn't find his rear end with both hands and a flashlight.

Decent Boston Blackie movie where the series' reliably entertaining regular cast gets better than average support from the likes of Nina Foch, Steve Cochran, and adorable Iris Adrian. Despite dark subject matter, they still find time for some ill-conceived humor. One disappointing part of this movie was the offensive blackface gag where Blackie and Runt disguise themselves as black cleaning women to elude Farraday. This is the third time in the series Blackie uses this ruse. Even if you find it funny (I don't), it's tired and repetitive by this point.

Someone is killing women and framing Blackie in "Boston Blackie's Rendezvous" starring Chester Morris, George E. Stone, Richard Lane, Steve Cochran, and Nina Foch.

Blackie is appealed to in the middle of the night by a man whose brother has escaped from the asylum. The man, Jimmy Cook (Steve Cochran) shows up at Blackie's later and refuses to turn himself in. He starts killing, picking up a woman at a Dime a Dance joint and then moving on to someone else who works there. He writes poetic letters to these women, so when he shows up at Sally Brown's (Foch) place, she's looking forward to meeting him.

Chester Morris is always very good as Blackie - relaxed and funny, and George E. Stone makes a good if scared sidekick. And they both drive Inspector Farraday (Lane) nuts.

However, this script left something to be desired. First of all, Blackie and the Runt go looking in their building for Cook disguised as black maids, complete with white lips like they were doing a minstrel show. That type of thing is cringe-worthy today.

Also, the Foch character is suspicious of Blackie, thinking he's the killer, lets in Cochran and buys his whole line, even accompanying him to his place. She was definitely one sandwich short of a picnic.

The film moves along quickly, with handsome Steve Cochran leaving much to be desired in an early performance, relying basically on making faces. Nina Foch was lovely, but her character wasn't fleshed out very well.

Okay entry into the series.

Rendezvous was a harder entry in the Blackie series (9/14), dealing with a cunning escaped lunatic who strangles women as easy as breathing. The loony was played by wide eyed and breathless tough cookie Steve Cochran, who managed to pin a murder onto Blackie and Runt, who have Farraday and Matthews after them as usual.

Some neat detective moments trying to track down the woman he was really after. The worst thing about the film to me is the pointless murder of the hotel chambermaid - we knew he was a bad hat to be avoided anyway without that - and afterwards her body was the subject of a short comedy routine! Harder, like I said.

But as to be expected, lots of witty repartee between the main protagonists make it another good b picture to watch in the best Boston Blackie mould.

Boston Blackie's friend Arthur needs help: his insane nephew Jimmy has escaped from the asylum and who knows what he may do! Agreeing to help track down Jimmy, Blackie is soon mixed up in—yes, a murder, and yes, Blackie's old friendly nemesis Inspector Farraday is right there to pin the crime on Blackie.

Steve Cochran is appropriately creepy as the lunatic, and through many uncomfortable moments he peeks around corners and lurks in hallways while other characters obliviously look in the wrong places and for the wrong person. Even Blackie misses him narrowly a couple of times while we in the audience want to shout out at him—"Hey! Blackie! No, not there, he's going out the back!"

It's a tense mystery; for one thing, the gratuitous and random nature of the two murders make for a less "comfortable" viewing experience than a more typical who-done-it where you may not know the killer's identity but you do know that he or she has a "logical" reason for killing and therefore a more exclusive hit list. Of course, there's comic relief here and there, but the humor this time around frequently falls flat—the Runt's scaredy-cat antics, for example, come across as mostly idiotic rather than hilarious or even pleasantly silly.

Nina Foch is good in a role where she spends most of her time on screen trying to size up whether she's talking to a friend or a stalker. Chester Morris and Richard Lane are steady as always as Blackie and Farraday.

Still plenty of charm and confidence provided by Morris, and so Blackie fans like me won't want to miss this one; but I have to say it's not the series' finest hour.