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Boston Blackie is in top form in "Confessions of Boston Blackie," a 1941 entry into the popular series that stars Chester Morris, George E. Stone, Richard Lane, Charles Winninger and Harriet Hilliard (aka Harriet Nelson).

Nelson plays Diane Parrish, who has given the wrong people an enormous statue to auction, not knowing that they copy the piece and auction the fake instead. At the auction, she realizes it's not the original statue, and chaos reigns, during which a man is killed - and of course Blackie (Morris) who had pulled his gun, is accused.

The statue has a piece that comes off in the back, and it's used to hide the dead body. Of course Blackie's wealthy friend Lloyd Corrigan (Winninger) buys the fake one for $200.

This film is grand fun, with Faraday (Lane) as bumbling as ever, Blackie getting away from him in no time. George E. Stone is funny as the runt, Blackie's sidekick. Playing Blackie himself, Chester Morris is handsome, demonstrating the character's good humor and relaxed manner with his great line deliveries.

There's a subplot here of an old flame of Blackie's showing up and trying to blackmail him. But we all know that Blackie gets around.

"Confessions of Boston Blackie," directed by Edward Dmytryk, is zany and keeps you hopping.

Excellent stuff: Blackie at an art auction spots someone about to shoot someone so shoots first. Naturally he's (wrongly) blamed for the murder of the second someone, and so becomes a fugitive from Inspector Farraday again.

Under the noses of the cops the murderer disposes of the body in an ingenious way, but the chase is on to recover the corpse when they all realise the bullet will pinpoint the real murderer and clear Blackie. During this double chase there's time for plenty of the usual comedy repartee between Blackie, Farraday and Runt (first outing by George E. Stone), also a little bit of romance too. And Blackie's rich friend, Arthur (Lloyd Corrigan) also makes his first appearance, trying to out-bumble Charles Winninger.

Standard 57 minute Blackie outing, well worth watching to the converted.

No wonder Chester Morris as Blackie is smiling so slyly through this film - he's the smartest guy in the room!. A group of art thieves are taking legitimate works of art to auction, making replicas, and then selling the replica and keeping the original. This time, though, the owner of the work up for auction gets suspicious in the middle of the auction, stands up, and declares there is something wrong. One of the bad guys thinks the simple thing to do - knowing there are cops in the audience - is shoot the owner! Blackie,also in the audience, is conveniently armed and shoots at the shooter. His shot causes the original bad guy to miss and shoot his own partner through the heart.

Of course the cops don't look any further than Blackie, but he easily gets away. The bottom line of this fast paced Boston Blackie entry is the police apparently can't count shots or do geometry or they would have known Blackie could not have fired all of those shots at those angles from where he was, don't even notice the body of the auctioneer for a good while, and never stop and ask themselves WHY would Blackie shoot at all of these people.

Now let's turn our attention to the IQ of the art thieves. They make hollowed out statue replicas that anyone that knows art could spot in 10 seconds, install secret panels in their statues which is a big tipoff that this is not an original, and insist on having their art studio in what is obviously an underground death trap under the right circumstances - it wouldn't take OSHA to spot the hazard here. And if their goal is to ultimately steal the original, why not just do that in the first place rather than stage this elaborate ruse with poorly made replicas?

So why watch this theatre of the absurd? Mainly because of the wit and wisdom of Chester Morris as Boston Blackie plus it's just plain fun. On the lighter side we get to see Blackies's sidekick, the runt, attempt to evict an amazon who claims to be Blackie's wife from Blackie's apartment. Recommended for the fun of it all.

Boston Blackie attends an art auction; the curator is shot dead; Inspector Farraday spots Blackie with his gun out and jumps to the obvious conclusion; the real killer sneaks the dead body into the hollow body of the life sized statue being auctioned. Oh, and the owner selling off her valuable statue is attractive Harriet Hilliard. Mystery and adventure ensue.

Fun bits: Lloyd Corrigan as Blackie's rich friend Arthur has amusing difficulties with a pair of handcuffs. Joan Woodbury has a juicy minor role as a woman from Blackie's past (an episode whose details are delightfully vague) who has a ball trashing Blackie's living room while George Stone as the Runt watches helplessly. And poor Billy Benedict is hilarious as an ice cream man whose costume is "borrowed"—twice!—by Blackie in need of a disguise.

Also, watching the statue movers transport that large statue from place to place—always keeping it in a standing up position—I couldn't help but think what short work Abbott and Costello would have made of such a job.

It's a fun hour with no lulls.

Once you've got into that 'Boston Blackie' movie series, you just can't stop - they're so wonderfully funny, just plain 'murder entertainment' with vanishing corpses, car chases, and Blackie and the police (in particular Inspector Faraday) in turn working together and against each other to solve the most crazy murder mysteries. Probably that's EXACTLY what the audience wanted during the War: just plain entertainment to get away from the cruel reality for a short while...

This time, Blackie, trying to save a young lady's life, again becomes a murder suspect. The body (with the bullet in it that would prove Blackie's innocence) vanishes, the police chase Blackie, Blackie chases the corpse, the forgers chase the corpse AND Blackie - and finally the whole lot of them end up in a locked vault three stories below the ground and have no idea how to get out of there...

This hilarious adventure, just like all the 'Boston Blackie' movies, just NEVER gets dated - they're in black&white, you can tell from the clothes, the hairstyles, the cars that they were made in the forties... But are there any crime adventures today - complete with color, special effects and all - that are as entertaining as this great stuff that's more than 70 years old??

This is my second look at a Boston Blackie adventure-mystery and it reminds me of the old Superman TV series in that most things that happen in here are totally implausible. There are more holes than in the proverbial slice of swiss cheese. The humor is very dated and corny, too - yet - it's still fun to watch in many parts. Credit for that goes to the filmmakers who made this short (a little over an hour) and fast-moving.

I also enjoyed seeing Harriet Hilliard who went on to big fame in the United States as the "Harriet" Nelson in the "Ozzie and Harriet" TV show. As "Diane Parrish," she's a cutie and a sweet thing, as she played in other roles such as "Follow The Fleet" with Fred Astaire.

Storywise, it's the similar Blackie story (I assume) in which "Inspector Faraday" (Richard Lane) collars our smug hero for a murder he didn't commit, and then stupidly loses him several times. We also have Blackie's dim-witted helper "Runt" (George E. Stone) and we have a millionaire in here who is unrealistically portrayed as dumb like Runt. He was played by a familiar actor to TV watchers in the '50s and '60s: Lloyd Corrigan. The name might not mean anything but when you see his face and hear is voice, he's very familiar.

This is fast-action "B" movie action and comedy that is fun but beware: it's so dated it can look really stupid. Frankly, I thought the first movie was better.

This time Blackie is suspected of being the murderer of an art dealer at an auction attended by Inspector Farraday. Blackie has to spend the rest of the movie exonerating himself of the crime and discovering what happened to the missing body of the art dealer.

Female interest is provided by HARRIET HILLIARD, wife of "Ozzie" Nelson(the bandleader), who was making a few rather unimpressive appearances in films around this time. She's interested in purchasing a statue of Julius Caesar. Blackie is up to his same old shenanigans in throwing Farraday off his trail and proving that he's not guilty of a murder he never committed.

Interesting plot has to do with the missing body of the dead man and how it was accomplished with a phony statue. The story follows the usual Boston Blackie formula and this one is not quite on the same level with the first Blackie film. Still, for detective fans, it manages to move briskly within its short running time.

The only way currently to see an old Boston Blackie movie is to buy a copy that has been copied off television somewhere, sometime. I think they are priceless. I bought this one off eBay. You can't use them to study law or police procedures and usually they have a spot or two that defies chemistry or physics or even common sense. But they are always fun. Just fun. No reality. I think this one was great. I especially like the scene where the radio was reporting on Boston Blackie's escape. And the newspaper headlines. I really wish the studios would release these on tape or DVD.

Love these low budget films that were produced during the 1940's and by a great producer, Edward Dmytryk who created many of these Boston Blackie films. Chester Morris,(Boston Blackie) gets himself involved with Harriet Hillard, (Diane Parrish) who has put up a valuable statue for an art auction which is run by a crooked organization of hoods who copy great treasures of art and sell the phony reproductions. There is a man who gets murdered and his body is hidden in a statue with a secret door on the back. Richard Lane, (Inspector Farraday) is always after Boston Blackie for stealing a pearl and also gets himself running around in circles trying to find something to arrest Boston Blackie and his sidekick George E. Stone, (The Runt). In this film, Harriet Hillard is the wife of Ozzie Nelson who made famous their favorite TV Show.

A common thing among B pictures is that several will have a title that has nothing to do with the film. In the case of Confessions Of Boston Blackie, Chester Morris didn't confess to anything that I recall.

In fact in this second Boston Blackie feature Morris is trying desperately to get out from under a murder rap. His playboy friend Lloyd Corrigan invites him to an art auction and during the course of it Morris foils an apparent heist, but in the process the owner of the gallery is shot. And the cops in the person of Inspector Richard Lane as always think that the famous crook and confidence man has done the deed. Throughout the entire series Morris was never able to convince the cops he'd gone straight.

There are two women of note in the cast. Sultry Joan Woodbury has picked this time to reenter Morris's life and he who bailed her out of a tight spot learns the meaning of the word 'no good deed goes unpunished' as Morris holds him up for blackmail dough.

Secondly Harriet Hilliard plays a rich woman who is putting up an ancient Roman larger than life statue for auction which is the Hitchcockian McGuffin of the piece. I wish they had given Hilliard a song to sing, she had a wonderful voice which later TV viewers didn't get to hear on Ozzie And Harriet.

This Boston Blackie film could have been better, there was a little too much slapstick comedy which was then followed by a very real danger that the cops, Blackie, and the crooks are all in at once. Columbia would tighten the series up later.

After a period of amazing experimentation in the 30s, the detective genre settled into a few tracks. One of these consisted of series films with previously well known characters, usually from radio. Some actually pretended to have a mystery, while others like this did not. The main appeal was supposed to be in the characters and their traits.

Boston Blackie's character is one of the more endearing, which allowed the extremely low budget production room to continue.

Blackie is a successful thief, one of those charming, superclever types that appeared in the 20s and early 30s. Blackie stole because the rich deserved it, pure and simple, not out of selfish greed, and in fact his story always mentions how he gave the proceeds to the starving. He was one of the inventions we created during the last period where the difference in the wealthy and poor was immense.

By this time (1941) he had been reinvented. Now he was a retired thief, with his cleverness turned to solving crimes the police were too dumb to understand. Along the way, the police (always the same guy) would suspect Blackie of the crime. So in addition to outwitting the criminals — which was ordinary in such movies — he had to more severely and embarrassingly outwit the police. That's the added piece here.

His two sidekicks are runt, a Runyon-esquire character, and Arthur, a rich but clueless playboy. Arthur is important because he anchors the political reinvention handily. He always has enough money which is freely available for Blackie's escapades.

I've only seen a couple of these, but this has something a bit extraordinary. Quite independent of any story element or need, we have a thread inserted. One of Blackie's affairs has resurfaced, a tall tough redheaded moll, who claims to be married to him and wants money... "or else."

Its a strange episode, obviously inserted to tell us something about Blackie that is expected to build his appeal and thus the franchise. He's a wisecracking guy clever guy who (almost) never resorts to violence. He's slick and chatty. But we get the idea here that in the bedroom he can master this wild amazon. Because in the US, we were deep in the stupid prurient code, there had to be this amazingly indirect way of telling us this.

I suppose its important, and that it worked. Blackie lasted for 15 films.

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

A murder is committed at an art auction and Boston Blackie (Chester Morris) is accused of the crime. Blackie must elude Inspector Farraday (Richard Lane) while trying to catch the real killer and prove his innocence. Second in the Boston Blackie series from Columbia introduces two recurring characters for the series: Inspector Farraday's sidekick Sgt. Matthews (Walter Sande) and Blackie's friend Arthur Manleder (Lloyd Corrigan). Speaking of sidekicks, Blackie's pal Runt is played for the first time by George E. Stone, who would go on to play the role in eleven more films. Also in the cast are lovely actresses Joan Woodbury and Harriet Hilliard. Fast pace and lots of action and humor make this a highly entertaining entry in the series.

I never heard of Boston Blackie but there was a Roku channel devoted to him so I figured why not give it a try?

This is the first I've streamed so far.

The quality leaves a lot to be desired -- I believe that's do to the bandwidth of the print which must be low cuz it digitizes a lot.

But that not withstanding, this is a surprisingly good film. Snappy dialog and it keeps moving forward at a really nice pace.

The story line is a little hokey but who cares?

Amidst the auction of a full sized statue - worth some $50,000 - a man is killed! Unfortunately for our hero, who mistakenly returned fire in a room full of people, he is the number one target for "Insp. Farraday" (Richard Lane) and his nice-but-dim cohort "Matthews" (Walter Sande). The next hour sees the quick-tongued Chester Morris and "The Runt" (George E. Stone) trying to prove his innocence and apprehend the true culprits - and that involves a secret hideout, quite a conspiracy and an unique method of disposing of a corpse! Harriet Nelson provides the glamour but not a great deal more as "Diane" and the whole thing gradually reaches a degree of preposterousness that wouldn't pose a solving problem for a five year old child. There was never any jeopardy with these, but this one really does take the biscuit on the daftness front and I enjoyed it.

CONFESSIONS OF BOSTON BLACKIE is apparently part of a long-running series of film noir comedies featuring the eponymous character. I must have missed them because this is one that very much left me cold. Our titular hero is embroiled in a scam that sees him wrongfully accused of a crime he didn't commit and fighting to clear his name while exposing the true wrongdoers. Very much business as usual for this genre, then, and nothing particularly stands out about this one. The large cast go through the motions, the hero relies on his wits and brawn to escape emperillment, and there's absolutely nothing that hasn't been done in a hundred others.

Confessions of Boston Blackie (1941)

*** (out of 4)

Second film in the series has the ex-thief (Chester Morris) trying to track down some murderers who are also in the fake sculpture business. This here was directed by Edward Dmytryk and is a highly entertaining little gem. Morris is a lot better this time out and the screenplay gives him much better lines and a much better mystery. The film has some wonderful supporting players, all of which add plenty of laughs. Richard Lane returns as the Inspector and has great chemistry with Morris.

"Confessions Of Boston Blackie" is listed as 65 minutes long but seems much longer. I think that is because it continually breaks the Law of Outlandish Improbabilities too often, resulting in a movie that is lame and tedious. The main flaw is that it tries (unsuccessfully) to combine mystery with humor, a trait common to pre-war mystery movies, but here the attempt is an absolute flop. Compounding the problem is the fact that the murderer is known as soon as the murder is committed, which eliminates any mystery the picture could claim.The result is a potboiler which will keep you looking at your watch, waiting for the 65 minutes to expire. Not worth rehashing the plot, and the law mentioned above is invoked often and stretches the viewers patience and credibility boundaries.

In truth, much of the subject matter, as well as the styles and customs - not to mention much of the dialogue - is embedded in the 1940's. This is ordinarily not a problem, but a great deal of the humor is also from the 40's, much of which falls flat and slows the proceedings down. The result is an unsatisfactory mystery/comedy which may not have been considered good when it first came out.