After Midnight with Boston Blackie

This low budget film with the usual cast of characters has Chester Morris, as Boston Blackie coming to the aid of an ex-con buddy who he got to know while serving in the State Penn. His buddy is being released and has some diamonds hidden my his previous business investments and is afraid his old gang will want the diamonds and kill him. Ann Savage, "Detore" is the ex-con's daughter and she wants to look after him and seeks Boston Blackie's help. Richard Lane, Inspector Farraday is still out to handcuff and arrest Blackie for breaking into a locker containing the diamonds. There is train rides and plenty of car chases and Boston Blackie even impersonates an African American in order to disguise himself from Cy Kendall the top gangster. If you like these sequels, you will love this film which runs very smoothly and is enjoyable.

"After Midnight with Boston Blackie" is another fun entry into the Boston Blackie series, starring Chester Morris and George E. Stone. An old man, Diamond Ed Barnaby (Walter Baldwin) is freed from prison and intends to give some stolen diamonds to his daughter (Betty Barnaby). However, his old gang wants them. His troubled daughter appeals to involved with the police and proves himself smarter. Meanwhile, The Runt's marriage to one Dixie Rose Blossom (Jan Buckingham) keeps being delayed, and friend Arthur Manleder (Lloyd Corrigan) has to keep the intended entertained, since the wedding is taking place at his apartment.

These Blackie films follow the same formula over and over - the dumb Inspector Farraday (Richard Lane) and the clever Blackie interfering with a police case - which is a good thing because without Blackie, the case would never be solved.

Nevertheless, these films always manage to be entertaining, thanks in large art to Chester Morris and George E. Stone. Morris has a lot of charm and a lighthearted attitude as Blackie. He manages to keep some of these tired plots going. Hard to believe that the woman who played the sweet daughter Betty is the same woman who played the hard-boiled femme fatale in Detour.

After Midnight with Boston Blackie (1943)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Fifth film in Columbia's series is still going pretty well with Chester Morris returning as Boston Blackie. In this film, Boston tries to help out a friend but when that friend is murdered and his diamonds stolen, Blackie is the lead suspect by the always dimwitted Captain Flannigan (Richard Lane). This is no great masterpiece but if you enjoy the series then you should get enough kicks out of this entry even though there isn't anything new here. As usual, Morris is highly entertaining in the title role and he acts wonderfully well with Lane. The two of them add a lot of comedy to the mix, which is good since the actual case isn't all too strong. Ann Savage adds nice support as the friend's daughter. Lew Landers (The Raven) directs once again.

Turner Classic Movies just recently showed most of these mystery films starring Chester Morris and while they are pretty good B-detective films, they are also very, very formulaic--even for the genre. I practically saw all of these movies and the same stupid inspector and his subhuman sidekick are accusing the hero of committing the crimes in question. And, each time, Boston solves the crime for them--making their idiocy apparent again and again and again. You'd think that these bumblers would be fired and that any cop with a functioning cortex would realize the best thing to do it just sit back and let him solve the crime! Plus, in the process, the Inspector almost always gets himself captured or is tricked. At first, this is all pretty funny, but by the time this film came out, the formula was wearing a bit thin. They could have easily kept most of the formula but also had the cops not always been so stupid--this would have greatly improved the films.

This film isn't much different from the rest--having a pretty standard plot involving stolen diamonds and a vicious gang who will stop at nothing to get them. Of course, as usual our hero is blamed by the moronic cops for everything and as usual, he is able to easily outwit them. Frankly, if he had played peek-a-boo or "got your nose" with these policemen, they probably would have been surprised again and again--they were just THAT stupid. The only plus is that at the end, the stupid Sergeant did a much better job than usual assisting.

There was one small scene, by the way, that truly amazed me. The detective and Runt were in a cab being followed by the police in another cab. The hero then told the cabbie to pull over. Then, after doing this he told the guy to "back up into the cab behind us"...and the guy DID!!! I'd love to find a cabbie that compliant. I might tell him to give me all his cash, then get out of the cab and drop his pants and sing show tunes!

Now to be fair, this time, to "Insp. Farraday" (Richard Lane) he has marginally more to base his suspicions on when he apprehends "Blackie" (Chester Morris) red handed in possession of some gems! We know that he's just fetching them from a safety deposit box on behalf of the daughter of the man who pinched them in the first place. He was being coerced by his "associates" to return the loot, but when he is killed it falls to "Betty" (Ann Savage) to work with "Blackie" to prove his innocence and to apprehend the folks who killed her father. Again, it's a tightly cast and well paced drama with an on form Morris working well with the slightly more substantial role played by Savage and with Lloyd Corrigan and the soon to be married "Runt" (George E. Stone) contributing well as this wartime feel-good thriller keeps us entertained easily enough for an hour of predicable cat and mouse antics with a hint of diamond-laced legerdemain!