Boston Blackie Goes Hollywood

Lloyd Corrigan gets himself in trouble in Los Angeles. He asks Chester Morris to bring him $60,000 from his wall safe. Morris cracks it easily enough, but inspector Richard Lane and his stooge, Walter Sande, sees him doing it. They arrest Morris and stooge George E. Stone, who escape, and then the two pairs of men play tag with each other to LA. There they discover Corrigan is being hoodwinked by a bunch of crooks who are ready to double-cross each other.

Michael Gordon's first feature as director is by no means a classic. However, with a script filled with funny incidents, fast pacing, performers who understand comedy, and characters smart enough to get the drop on the others on occasion, the stern chase is a long one, but a funny one. Some of the players are rather wasted in the haste to get from one gag to the next, but in the end, virtue, such as it is, is triumphant, the good guys win, and the bad guys are hauled offstage in handcuffs. Which is what we come for.

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.

It's more like "Blackie Goes to a Hotel in Los Angeles", rather than Blackie Goes Hollywood. Didn't get much of a Hollywood impression from this film. The pace is fast, it is a well edited movie, but the script here is just not quite up to the usual high "Blackie" quality. Also, some of the physical stuff (in and out of doorways, up and down stairs, etc.) is directed rather poorly, but is performed with a lot of energy and verve by the cast.

Chester Morris is watchable with his usual good acting as Blackie. Richard Lane and Walter Sande do a great job as the bumbling police. Constance Worth is attractively untrustworthy as the girl involved.

The ensemble cast keeps this watchable and it moves along briskly, overcoming the weak script.

I'm not too sure "Blackie" (Chester Morris) had his head screwed on the right way when he agreed to take $60,000 in cash from the safe of his pal "Manleder" (Lloyd Corrigan) and travel with the "Runt" (George E. Stone) to deliver it to him in Hollywood. No sooner is the cash in his pocket than "Insp. Farraday" (Richard Lane) and the dim-witted "Matthews" (Ralph Dunn) collar him for theft. This time, though, "Farraday" has a plan. He reckons that "Blackie" might have some ideas about the recently stolen Monterey diamond and by letting him escape and following him, he hopes to track it down. Meantime, as luck would have it his wealthy pal has hooked up with "Gloria" (Constance Worth) who was wearing the diamond when it was pinched and who is now offering to retrieve it for, yep, $60,000! What now ensues is an almost slapstick series of escapades as nobody is quite sure who has the stone, the money, or who is trying to double cross whom. The bumbling Corrigan reminded me a little of Nigel Bruce here, and there's decent effort from William Wright as the aptly monikered "Slick" to keep this entertaining and worth a watch for an hour.

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.