Meet Boston Blackie

In the opening film of the Boston Blackie series, Chester Morris as Blackie and his pal Charles Wagenheim as the Runt are back from a long European vacation. Ready to greet them is his old nemesis, Inspector Farraday of the NYPD, still looking to pin some robberies on the smooth talking and very clever conman/jewel thief.

But homicide is not something Blackie does and when a dead body turns up in his stateroom, he's got himself in a real jam. As always there's a mysterious beautiful woman involved and Blackie trails her to Coney Island where she winds up good and dead. As Blackie escapes the men who killed her, another female turns up and helps him out as well.

Chester Morris who received an Oscar nomination in the early days of sound for his role in Alibi had gone down considerably in the Hollywood pecking order since then. The Boston Blackie character gave him a lease on life until television came along where he almost exclusively appeared until he died in 1970.

Blackie was one smooth talking charmer, but if you looked hard you could see he didn't come from any privileged background. He was clever and street smart and Meet Boston Blackie established his character who would do several films right into the Fifties. The Boston Blackie films weren't done on blockbuster budgets, but they were fast and entertaining and depended on Morris's charm which never failed.

What Blackie got himself caught up in was an espionage ring operating out of Coney Island. But of course all was righted in the end.

It had to be, Morris was signed for several more films.

This was my first look at this old-time crime "series," if you will, of hour-long tales starring Chester Morris as "Boston Blackie." I don't know enough about the character, since this was my first look, to make many comments on him but Morris reminds me a bit, with his smugness, of William Powell playing "Nick Charles" of "The Thin Man" movie fame.

In a nutshell, I found this movie surprisingly fast-paced and entertaining. I hope they all are similar to this with interesting characters and a good mix of crime, snappy dialog that includes humor, nice-looking "dames," chase scenes and the like. Yes, it's dated but that's okay for the most part although some scenes you shake your head with the implausibility. At the end, Blackie makes a throw that a Major Leauge baseball pitcher couldn't make, but despite the credibility it was a short, fun story that doesn't drag.

Rochelle Hudson filled the bill as the female lead. I remember her from a Shirley Temple film or two. Richard Lane was a bit odd as "Inspecor Faraday." He kept saying - or hinting - that he cared about Blackie but but at the same time he kept trying to put him in the electric chair. Some friend!

Overall, enjoyable, and I hope I see many of the 13 others in the series is they are as fast- paced as this one.

Now if THAT wasn't a novelty, especially in the 40s, in the middle of the Production Code reign (which EXPLICITLY says: "The treatment of crimes against the law must not... make criminals seem heroic and justified"!): Columbia Pictures took the hero of Jack Boyle's stories from the 1910s - 'Boston Blackie', a jewel thief and safe cracker! - and made him the protagonist of a whole series of 14 movies; a bigger number than quite popular and utterly decent 'Ellery Queen' or the highly moralistic 'Whistler' stories ever reached.

And from the first movie on, this safe cracker hero, thanks to Chester Morris' wonderful, charming as well as cheeky and clever performance, but also to the way the script models him, certainly IS heroic, and has the audience's FULL sympathy despite his illegal 'hobby' that has made him widely known to the police - he's even got something like a feud-friendship with Inspector Faraday.

Well, the reason his 'petty crimes' are forgivable is that, when it comes to CAPITAL crime, Boston Blackie becomes a REAL help for the police: because he's not only enormously smart and quick, but he also knows magical tricks and a lot of other things the average cop has got no idea of.

So, in this case, he himself becomes a murder suspect, and at the same time has to clear himself, to escape the assaults of the real murder gang AND to blow up a spy ring! With him is his friend and 'colleague' called 'the Runt', and a beautiful young lady whose car he 'hijacked' while fleeing from the gangsters - and sometimes with him, sometimes against him is Inspector Faraday...

You just CAN'T help loving this cheeky, wisecracking, smart rogue, and feel the suspense throughout the movie where he is almost constantly on the run from someone; this wonderful movie, full of excitement and fun, is the beginning of a wonderful film series of which you shouldn't miss a single one!

Returning to America from Europe via ocean liner, notorious jewel thief Boston Blackie (Chester Morris) gets mixed up with a murder, a spy ring, and someone called The Mechanical Man. The first of Columbia's Boston Blackie series of B detective movies. I say detective because, despite Blackie being a jewel thief, he spends every movie solving crimes and helping people out. Usually he's the one accused of the crime and in order to prove his innocence, he must figure out the real culprits. Richard Lane plays Inspector Faraday, the cop forever on Blackie's trail who likes him despite their being on opposite sides of the law. Charles Wagenheim plays Blackie's sidekick Runt. George E. Stone would play the role later and was much better-suited for the part than Wagenheim. Rochelle Hudson and Constance Worth provide the pretty in this first film. The Blackie series always had lovely actresses. Fun start to a great series.

I actually like some of the later Boston Blackie films better than this one, but it is a good enough opener to the series. Chester Morris usually played a hard-boiled tough guy whether he was portraying an actual criminal or just a remorseless cheating husband as he was in "The Divorcée". As Blackie he shows a good bit of finesse and range - he admits he was a thief, and apparently one that has never really been caught, but now he's going straight. He's tough when he has to be, he's a friend when he can be, a ladie's man when he gets the opportunity, and honest if possible. He is even trusted by Inspector Faraday, his nemesis, to not run away if he promises that.

This opener to the series has a patriotic theme, with Blackie's chivalry on board an ocean liner leading to the infiltration of a nest of spies. Made shortly before the beginning of World War II, a conflict that most people saw coming, movies with patriotism and spies were common up to two years before Pearl Harbor. I didn't find the story or Blackie's romantic lead particularly interesting, but I love watching Chester Morris at work here. Plus the other characters are fun too.

In particular, Charles Wagenheim as "the runt" manages to be Blackie's trusty if not very helpful associate who is reliable comic relief without becoming whiny or annoying. Inspector Farraday is no Keystone Cop, but I would think after the first half dozen times Blackie solves the crime, gift wraps the criminals, and hand delivers them to the precinct door, Farraday might begin to believe Blackie had changed.

Highly recommended as an entertaining vehicle for an underrated actor - Chester Morris.