Find the Blackmailer

Politician Gene Lockhart is being blackmailed, so he enlists the help of the most unknown detective (to keep it quiet and out of the news) to get him out of the scrape. Enter Jerome Cowan (Bogart's murdered partner in "The Maltese Falcon"), who has a very likable disposition as a unscrupulous and somewhat sleazy detective. It seems they need a crow that repeats what it hears and it heard the last words of a murdered man, implicating Gene Lockhart. Through a series of twists and turns and interrogations of suspects and run-ins with hoodlums, Jerome tries to get at the truth. What begins very pleasantly and simply turns very complicated quickly with some zippy and witty one-liners. This film was in fact very funny, and by the end I think you'll feel thoroughly satisfied. There's even a twist that you don't see coming. Or do you? Whatever the means to get his man, Jerome Cowan as D.L. Trees earns his money and gives you a good time for a little over an hour. Good job, big guy!

"Find the Blackmailer" stars Jerome Cowan as D.L. Trees, a snappy-talking private eye. It's funny, but although Cowan has well over 200 credits on IMDB, he almost never starred in anything but was a supporting character actor. It's really a shame, as he was great in the film and I would like to see more performances like this. He looks like a normal everyday guy...but comes off well as the snappy private detective.

As far as the plot goes, there is the problem. Although Cowan and all the other actors did a great job, they were saddled with a silly plot...really, really silly. It seems that a new client wants Trees to find a talking crow that has been taught to say that he had murdered someone. Now perhaps I am naive, but I cannot see a crow coming in to court to testify. Fortunately, after a while the talking bird angle becomes less important when bodies start to pile up. But still...a case to find a talking crow?!

Overall, watchable but a bit silly as well. Not surprising when you consider that it's a quickie B-movie...and sometimes plot holes and silly plot devices aren't major concerns by the directors or studios.

Top character actor Jerome Cowan ("The Maltese Falcon") gets boosted to star status for this B level mystery-comedy from Warner Bros. He plays an unpopular private detective, D. L. Trees, who's currently hard up for cash. Then a mayoral candidate (Gene Lockhart, "Miracle on 34th Street") who promises honesty & integrity in his campaign tasks Trees with finding a pet crow that's been trained to talk, since the bird can supposedly implicate the politician in threatening the life of a shady character named Molner.

Like a lot of mystery plots, the story of "Find the Blackmailer" can get convoluted enough that one may indeed need to watch this more than once to understand everything that's going on. Great cinema it's not, but it's a perfectly serviceable, solidly entertaining B movie with a decent sense of humor; a fair number of the lines actually made me laugh out loud. The cast plays their roles to the hilt, and this little movie, despite mostly consisting of snappy dialogue, just races along, clocking in at an impressively brief 56 minutes (one of the shortest movies released by Warner Bros. In 1943).

Mostly, it's a treat to watch Cowan in this starring role, as he handles himself with great style and utters quips frequently. But it's worth sticking with this to the end for that final twist.

Seven out of 10.

I agree with howdymax on this one. The plot is fairly nonsensical, but the lead characters' snappy dialogue and quick-moving running time make for a very enjoyable time. Plus, there's a certain amount of joy I feel when I discover a film I've never heard of (directed by some guy I've never heard of) on TCM early on a lazy Saturday morning. Know whatimean

Like the Maltese Falcon, Warner Brothers "B" detective thriller Find The Blackmailer involves a search for a black bird. Here the resemblance ends. In this case the black bird, rather than a jewel-encrusted statuette, is absurdly a talking crow, which can put the finger on the detective's client for a murder. Honestly! Not as bad as it sounds, but not Golden Era Hollywood at its best either.

The principle attractions of this picture are the unusual and charming casting of Jerome Cowan in the lead role as the tough if somewhat bumbling detective and some stylish noir cinematography by James Van Trees. Cowan is ably supported by the ever reliable Gene Lockhart as his blackmailed politician client, Margorie Hoshelle as his breezy, underpaid secretary, and second-billed Faye Emerson as a nasty femme fa-tale. The script is muddled, ridiculous, and padded out with a lot of meandering, unnecessary action. It looks as if director D. Ross Lederman was struggling to squeeze out the required 55-minute running time. If his picture had been tightly edited, it could have easily run only 40 minutes without losing anything. Dialog is cliché-ridden, but fun. Just about every wise-crack and every colorful slang term from every detective, mystery, cops-and-robbers picture from the previous decade as been gathered for recycling in Find The Blackmailer. Surly this picture was meant to be a spoof. Big hint -- the detective's name is Trees, same as the cinematographer. Or does that just mean they were making up the script as they went along? This suspicion will creep in from time to time as you watch the strange proceedings. Never mind, just relax and enjoy. You can't be expected to figure it out if it doesn't make sense. And it most assuredly does not. Cowan's character is more humorous that tough. Cowan didn't have a muscle in his body, but he still manages to get tough when needed by keeping his hand on the .32 automatic in his coat pocket. But mostly he just cracks wise and grins through his trademark pencil-line mustache.

But not so bad for all that. As yours truly has stated elsewhere about other, better second features, the big studios of Old Hollywood could turn out good-looking, entertaining pictures while only half-way trying. In Find The Blackmailer it looks as if they didn't try much at all, yet it still turned out a watchable, even enjoyable picture -- if you're in the right mood.