One Mysterious Night

The famous Blue Star diamond is on display at a war fund benefit. Cops are everywhere to prevent any funny business, but—what's this? A sudden row in the gallery, a bunch of noise and commotion, and…the diamond is gone! (It looked pretty easy to me, actually.)

Of course, Inspector Farraday jumps immediately to the conclusion that the only man who could have stolen the diamond is Boston Blackie. But just a moment; it is soon revealed that his loud accusation is nothing other than Farraday's way of "sending for" Blackie. Sure enough, Blackie soon arrives at Farraday's desk and—in a nice new twist to the series—Farraday explains to Blackie that he needs his help: "Now you can call me anything you like, but I'm deputizing you as my assistant on this case, and I'm not taking no for an answer!" The Runt is doubtful, but Blackie readily agrees, is handed a badge, and gets right to work on a disguise or two.

The plot revolving around the stolen gem involves a young man mixed up with a gang of crooks, and the worried sister who lives with and tries to guide him. The sister is played by a very young Dorothy Malone, who has a small role but puts in a fine bit of actual dramatic acting in the scene in which she chews out her brother for falling in with the bad guys.

Chester Morris and Richard Lane are, as always, fun to watch as Blackie and Farraday, and seeing them as a "team" (with the exception of a brief spell where Farraday revives his habitual old suspicions) adds a bit of new life to this episode. George E. Stone as the Runt is faithful but worried as the loyal assistant.

We never do find out, however, just how blond reporter Janis Carter is able to see through Blackie's disguise so quickly. But she sure seems to enjoy chasing him around for the whole movie!

Enjoyed this Boston Blackie film played by Chester Morris who was called into the case by the Chief Inspector of Police to investigate the stealing of a very important diamond that was stolen. Janis Carter,(Dorothy Anderson) plays a reporter who manages to appear everywhere that Boston Blackie goes and quickly runs off and makes her report to her newspaper. George E. Stone, (The Runt) plays the role as the sidekick to Boston Blackie and gives a great supporting role to his character. Janis Carter appeared in many films during the 40's and 50's and played the role of a very sexy blonde, even in Western films. If you like Chester Morris in this series of films he made, you will definitely enjoy this one.

To help raise funds for the war effort, a collection of jewels is being displayed at a posh hotel. That's manna from heaven for a thief and when the famous "Blue Star of the Nile" diamond goes walkabouts and "Blackie" (Chester Morris) is found in the vicinity, well then what else might "Insp. Faraday" (Richard Lane) do but accuse his long-term, if almost always helpful, nemesis. Of course we know all along what's going on, but it's going to be down to "Blackie" and the ever reliable "Runt" (George E. Stone) to clear their names and help the police so that they all find out who did the pinching and retrieve the priceless stone. None of this is really helped by the tenacious journalist "Dorothy" (Janis Carter) who is determined to get the story and who has some useful distractions in her arsenal to trick people into helping her, or giving her information. Though it's perfectly watchable for an hour, this is not one of the more memorable outings from our comedy sleuths, and the story doesn't really give Morris so much opportunity to impose his usually wise-cracking charisma on the proceedings either. Dorothy Malone features sparingly but adds little as the procedural drama does it's job, but not much more, as it reminds the audience to chip in for the war effort.

The Chester Morris Boston Blackie films are always good for a laugh, and although this one is a little shorter than usual it sure ate up the 58 minutes (UK TV running time). Time was never wasted with these potboilers and the action and repartee was necessarily relentless, so making a drink might be fatal - for someone!

Blackie is accused by the police of stealing a diamond simply to get him to show up and find the real robbers for them... He seems to nose out the real culprit and his method in seconds, but as might be expected complications arise when the baddies pulling the strings don't like it. He promised to protect Dorothy Malone's brother from harm, 30 seconds later was stepping over his corpse - what poor old Dot thought of Blackie after that we'll never know. I think this was her first film, and to look at she's the real gem in this picture!

Some wonderful moments - Blackie and Runt tied upside down to a cupboard bed; some brain-dead moments - the 2 crooks hiding a yard away in plain view from 4 or 5 cops in Jumbo Madigan's small shop as tailors dummy's. They weren't Hope and Crosby, they'd just shot Jumbo and were already murderers on the lam!

This was no 7 in the 14 film series, all well worth watching - more or less!

The entry is mainly for fans of the Blackie series. I dropped in because of cult actress Janis Carter and cult director Buddy Boetticher. However, not much of classic Boetticher shows in the pacing or proceedings, but Carter does show her brand of spunk as an ace newspaper reporter. The plot revolves around a stolen diamond that may or may not be a fake.

But the real appeal, such as it is, is with the characters. Lane does his bit as a fast-talking Inspector Farraday, while Morris tries on a few colorful impersonations in pursuit of the culprits. Still, I wish we saw more in a bit part of the gorgeous Dorothy Malone, who's clearly on her way up the Hollywood ladder. Then too, more of Carter would have added more spice to a plot pretty much lacking in suspense. As things stand, the movie is an occasionally humorous programmer but nothing more.