Alias Boston Blackie

When Larry Parks uses a Christmas show at the penitentiary to cover his escape, show arranger Boston Blackie (Chester Morris) needs to prove his own innocence -- and to explain how neither he nor Parks had anything do with a murder.

It's a typically fast-paced episode in the Columbia series, with the usual cast of character actors: Adele Mara as Parks' sister, George E. Stone as Blackie's assistant, Richard Lane as the police inspector, and Lloyd Corrigan, Paul Fix, and Cy Kendall rounding out the cast.

Blackie was created by Jack Boyle after he had spent time for kiting checks. A fix-up novel from the short stories was a success in 1918, and there were eleven silent films from 1918 through 1927, with performers like Lionel Barrymore, Bert Lytell and Walter Long playing the safecracker. Columbia revived the series in 1941, starring Chester Morris. In them, Blackie is a reformed crook who keeps having to help out pals and prove his own innocence. He also starred in a summer replacement radio show in 1944. There was a TV show from ZIV in the 1950s, and a graphic novel in 2002.

A nice entry in the series (3/14) set at Christmas time, with a frenetic and tortuously multi-layered chase sequence in the middle.

Again, Blackie is implicated in a crime even though innocent, ultimately resulting in Farraday assuming his guilt. Framed Larry Parks as con has broken out on a murderous revenge mission, dragging his demure sister (Adele Mara) plus Blackie, Runt and of course cops Farraday and Matthews all into the vortex. Some witty lines and situations later we have a dead body in a hotel room to mull over - a corpse that is rather recklessly treated throughout! The dreamy looking sister proves of use to Blackie, crime-solving-wise, and is more than wallpaper in here. The character Jumbo Madigan makes his first lugubrious appearance as the know-it-all fence.

As with a lot of the Morris Blackies, I sometimes wish they could have been even only 5 minutes longer, it's all taken at such a breakneck speed that it can leave you as bit puzzled at times working it all out. But I love it!

Chester Morris really found a home in his role as Boston Blackie, the former jewel thief who has turned over a new leaf but still has Inspector Faraday always believing him to be the perpetrator of every crime Blackie is within ten square miles of.

Usually, the first film in a series is the best and then it is often downhill from there. I didn't care a great deal for the plot of the first Boston Blackie film, but by this third one the series had really hit its stride. This time Boston Blackie is taking a theatrical troupe to entertain the convicts on Christmas Eve. One of the girls in the troupe is the sister of a wrongly convicted man (Larry Parks) who wants nothing more than to escape and wreak revenge on the two thieves that set him up for a fifteen year stretch in the big house. Of course, when the man escapes, Faraday believes Blackie is behind it all.

There's good action, a pretty good mystery, interesting characters, and of course Chester Morris at his dapper witty best as Boston Blackie along with his faithful sidekick The Runt (George E. Stone).

The one mystery that is never solved - and maybe I just missed it - is how Boston Blackie now makes a living. He seems to have plenty of money, dresses well, and lives in a well-furnished spacious apartment, yet no mention is ever made of his current occupation. No wonder Faraday is suspicious. But I digress. Great entertainment for lovers of the fast-paced crime films of the 40's.

The accent is more on comedy than mystery in Alias Boston Blackie, as Chester Morris spends more time making fools of the local law enforcement than in actually solving the case. For the 67 minute running time of Alias Boston Blackie, Morris only spends about 10 minutes or so toward the end in actually apprehending the criminal.

Morris and his valet George Stone are taking a trip to prison with a revue show as a Christmas treat for the inmates, many of which Morris did some time with. In the revue is show girl Adele Mara who has a brother, Larry Parks, among the inmates.

What she doesn't know is that Parks is planning to use the show to crash out and settle with the two guys that framed him for a robbery. When he makes it, Blackie's watchful nemesis Inspector Richard Lane assumes as he always does that Morris had something to do with it.

So Morris has to clear himself and in doing so help Parks find his quarry. That's made even more complicated by one of the two showing up dead in a hotel room.

But before Boston Blackie can get to work he has to constantly avoid the police who seem to have graduated from the Keystone Academy. In fact Lane's partner Walter Sande is the second dumbest detective in the world, only exceeded by William Bendix in Who Done It. The way that Morris keeps constantly making a fool of Sande, you can almost feel sorry for the poor slob.

The pace is quick in Alias Boston Blackie with this definitely being one of the funnier of that mystery series.

Its just entertainment and was meant to be just that. I give it a solid "7" vote because is accomplishes what it sets out to do- it entertains you and will hold your attention. No lofty pretensions, no Oscar awards were expected here.

Sit back and watch, be entertained, its fast and cute in a well-edited, quick sort of way.

The cops are always hard-working, but a step behind Blackie. Richard Lane is good in the Insp. Farraday role, and Walter Sande is great as a thick-headed cop who is easy to outwit.

It should be noted that this film is very well edited, very professionally acted by an ensemble cast, and is a pro piece of work all around. Yet it doesn't take itself seriously at all. Therefore, it couldn't possibly put off anyone, and anyone can enjoy this film for what it is- light entertainment.

Chester Morris was very talented at delivering a strong, energetic lead actor presence while maintaining a sort of good-natured wink in his eye. Fine actor who you could watch all day, yet you would never really tire of his act.