The Chance of a Lifetime

Chance of a Lifetime, The (1943)

*** (out of 4)

William Castle made his directorial debut in this sixth film in the Boston Blackie series. This time out Blackie (Chester Morris) gets ten convicts out of prison to work in a factory for the war relief. One of the convicts end up killing a man in self defense but this is enough to get all ten thrown back in prison so instead Blackie takes the blame but breaks away from Captain Farraday (Richard Lane) to find the real bad guy. Castle's direction is a little bland but the screenplay is full of wonderful gags and nice action, which makes this one of the better films I've seen in the series. Once again Morris delivers a wonderful character and I've really enjoyed this character enough to say it's probably my favorite of all these detective/mystery type films. The interplay between Morris and Lane is as fast and sharp as ever and the supporting cast playing the convicts make good.

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.

Inspector Farraday seems nastier than usual in this Boston Blackie picture. Sure, Blackie is used to Farraday hounding him constantly, but now Farraday is out to pounce on Blackie's new convict reclamation project. The project is for the war effort, of course: Blackie has lined up jobs for ten early parolees at a tool and die works, and the convicts are talented welders and craftsmen, their skills much in demand in 1943. Farraday is having none of it, and lurks on the edges of the project, looking for the slightest slip-up. Come on, Inspector, show a little patriotism!

The mystery plot here is solid and the action is fast-moving, though overall the film is perhaps not quite as sharp or quick-hitting as some in the Blackie series. Still, there's disguises (Blackie and the Runt as cleaning ladies, one of whom needs a shave); tight squeezes (Blackie and the Runt on a dumbwaiter); and poor detective Matthews taking insults (Farraday to his officers: "You cover the fire escape, you take the service entrance, and I'll go in the front way alone." Matthews: "Alone! Hey, chief, I'll be with you." Farraday: "It's the same thing.").

Some hilarious newspaper headlines chronicle Farraday's attempts to capture and hold Blackie and a wad of $60,000 that everyone is concerned with.

Good entertainment for us Blackie fans. Chester Morris, as always, is smooth and steady.

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!

It's another Boston Blackie movie with Chester Morris doing a good deed by getting some cons out of prison -- on parole to work at skilled trades in Lloyd Corrigan's war plant. But while Corrigan is playing Schindler, one of them, Erik Rolfe, uses the opportunity to collect the $60,000 in cash from the job that sent him upstate. His wife, Jeanne Bates, wants him to turn it over to the police, so that all of these men can go straight. However, the two crooks who were in on the job with him, want their cuts. In the struggle, Rolfe grabs one of their guns and that man is dead. The other, Douglas Fowley, flees. Morris shows up at this point and sends Rolfe to the job. He and George E. Stone are taking the corpse to his apartment, when Morris' frenemy, Inspector Richard Lane shows up, and Morris is on the hook for the murder and the money.

It's William Castle's first feature as director, and there's lots of gruesome Runyonesque situations. Morris keeps things moving along, as he did in all his movies. He had been Oscar-nominated in 1930, and spent a long stretch at MGM, but he was aging out of the juvenile roles. In this period he was under contract with Columbia, whence this movie came, and appearing in Pine-Thomas Bs over at Paramount. For my taste, he's always worth watching, but the quality of his vehicles continued to decline. Although he continued to work on the big and little screens, it was more as a major supporting player than a star, through his death in 1970 at the age of 69.