A Close Call for Boston Blackie

Chester Morris is "Boston Blackie" in this 1946 entry into the series. The Boston Blackie series is far superior to many others which seem to have less humor and move a lot more slowly. In this film, Blackie helps out a former girlfriend whose husband is recently out of prison - she's afraid he's going to kill her and their baby. Then the husband is murdered and Blackie is blamed, and he finds out his ex-girl has been using him as part of a plot to shake down her father-in-law for money so that she will give him the baby. Except it's not his grandchild; the child has been borrowed from a crook who has been cut into the scheme. It's up to Blackie to figure out all of this, keep a step ahead of Farraday and the baby out of the wrong hands.

"A Close Call for Boston Blackie" has a lot of humor in it as well as delightful performances from Morris, George E. Stone as The Runt and Claire Carlton as Mamie, The Runt's girlfriend. Viewers will also recognize Kathryn Card, who played Lucy Ricardo's mother and always called Ricky Mickey, at the apartment house reception desk. All and all, quite entertaining.

The plot involves a kidnapped baby, a ransom, extortion, murder and all the usual ingredients that are mishandled by the police on the trail of a crooked lady (LYNN MERRICK) and her criminal pals responsible for all the trouble.

All the trouble, of course, is pinned on Boston Blackie, CHESTER MORRIS in his usual "old man" disguise, who wouldn't fool anybody--but, hey, this is a movie. He poses as the man willing to pay ransom money to get the baby back and it works, in time for a snappy ending.

The baby is a cute little boy, well-behaved on camera most of the time and given numerous close-ups as he peers back and forth at the grown-ups handling him. Inspector Farraday and his dumb sergeant are more bumbling than ever while the accent is on comedy relief more than mystery.

Summing up: Entertaining, but fluffy entry in the Blackie series, strictly routine.

Blackie and the Runt rescue a woman (Lynn Merrick) who's been attacked in the street right in front of their building. They carry in the unconscious woman, who is quickly identified as Gerry Peyton, one of Blackie's old flames. Nothing much new so far, but when they open the bedroom door we see the main twist that this series entry has to offer: a baby!

Rather quickly, the rest of the plot is set into motion—Gerry's husband, a gunshot from around the corner of a doorway, some doubts about the identity of the baby and the honesty of Gerry. (Honestly, it's funny that Blackie and the Runt aren't suspicious of Lynn Merrick right away, since she just played a character pulling a similar deception on them in Boston Blackie Booked on Suspicion!)

If you're familiar with the Boston Blackie series, you'll easily guess who is accused of the first murder and also who does the accusing. Yes, Inspector Farraday is—as always—shocked that Blackie has stooped to murder, but after all, Blackie did have a good motive and was caught with the body in his apartment. He must be guilty!

Blackie and the Runt, Farraday and his sidekick Matthews are all in good form. The story's nothing special but it moves fast. Blackie once again disguises himself as an old man…and in a nice touch, Matthews turns up in the same disguise! (Blackie and Farraday had the same idea, it seems.)

Easygoing fun that's all wrapped up in exactly an hour.

Every time we think that after so many hilarious and varied adventures, the writers of the 'Boston Blackie' movie series must be running out of ideas sometime, they surprise us with something ENTIRELY new: this time, the story seems to revolve around one of Blackie's romances at first, and when the husband of the girl Blackie was 'sweet on', just released from jail, is found dead in Blackie's apartment, Inspector Faraday comes to the conclusion that, while he's learned by now that Blackie wouldn't kill anybody for diamonds or money and neither is he a deranged strangler - for a woman he MIGHT commit murder...

But the case very soon becomes a lot more complicated: there's a 'borrowed' baby involved that the 'Runt' and his girlfriend Mamie try to hide in the most impossible places (a very talented baby, by the way - literally a BORN actor!), while Blackie once more is at the same time on the run from the police and after the real murderer... Another VERY entertaining and surprising entry in this wonderful series of 40s crime-comedy mix!

Boston Blackie is led astray by a dame. The dame in this case being an ex-girlfriend of his played by beautiful Lynn Merrick. There's a baby, an extortion plot, and the inevitable murder charge for Blackie. One of these days Inspector Farraday might get the right suspect if he actually stopped to consider someone, ANYONE, besides Blackie! An enjoyable entry in the Boston Blackie series with lots of comedy. Blackie once again disguises himself as an old man. At least he doesn't wear blackface this time. Chester Morris, Richard Lane, and George E. Stone are all good as usual. Claire Carleton is fun as Runt's girlfriend Mamie. The baby is cute. Certainly not the best Boston Blackie movie but hard to dislike.