Boston Blackie Booked on Suspicion

One of the more enjoyable Boston Blackie entries with CHESTER MORRIS disguising himself as a bookseller and getting mixed up in a murder case right under Inspector Farraday's eyes. The story centers around a counterfeit first edition of Charles Dickens' "The Pickwick Papers" sold for $50,000 at a book auction. LLOYD CORRIGAN is his usual bumbling self as Blackie's friend.

"I'm in trouble and I'm the only one who can get me out of it," says Blackie--and therein lies the nub of the plot. When Blackie turns up at the murder scene just as Inspector Farraday arrives, he has to spend the rest of the film eluding the police until he can pin the crime on the guilty ones. STEVE COCHRAN is Merrick's accomplice/husband.

LYNN MERRICK is the pretty blonde bookseller who turns out to be not quite the helpful innocent she pretends to be. The story is more smoothly written than most of the Blackie films and moves at a fast clip at an hour and six minutes.

Merrick makes an attractive femme lead and Cochran struts his tough guy stuff showing why it became his screen persona.

Summing up: As a straight crime drama, it's not bad at all.

It's murder, this time, of which Boston Blackie is suspected-though, not surprisingly, Inspector Farraday never does get Blackie to the station to actually book him.

Caught practically red-handed on a murder scene, Blackie has to resort to the old hiding-under-the-camera-hood gag, pretending he's the police photographer and backing slowly out of the room while the cops stand by watching. (Note to self to do some research: Did they still use those tripod cameras with the hood over the photographer's head in 1945?) Chester Morris is back as Boston Blackie in "Boston Blackie Booked on Suspicion," from 1945.

In this one, a counterfeit first edition of Dickens' "Pickwick Papers" is sold at auction and soon leads to murder. Blackie disguises himself as the elderly bookstore owner, even dealing with Inspector Farraday (Richard Lane) while in disguise. Hard to figure how he gets away with these disguises - it's obviously Blackie every time.

Lynn Merrick plays the book expert who works at the rare book shop, and a young Steve Cochran is her boyfriend. As someone pointed out, these two play for real, whereas Morris and The Runt (George E. Stone) are usually pretty flip. So this Blackie entry is a little more serious; also Blackie isn't at the top of his game.

Enjoyable. One of the better ones in the series.

For a relief from the real world which seems full of suicidal terrorist savages, I turned to this one out of the Boston Blackie series.

A simple plot: Counterfeit Pickwick Papers bought for $62,000 at auction, Blackie goes into overdrive after the thieves especially because, as usual, Inspector Farraday believes he's at the bottom of it all. With a few neat twists and turns and plenty of wisecracking it reaches a logical and satisfying conclusion - unless in error you thought you were watching Fellini - and in fact fits together like a done jigsaw puzzle. No big surprises then, but I'll have to leave you to guess whether Blackie gets his...person or not - no spoilers!

Good bits: Trussed up Blackie + cigar untying himself in hoodlum's den; Steve Cochran alternating as usual between a Tough Cookie and a Poodle; the scenes inside the hotel's dumb waiter. At this point my daughter insists Steve was gorgeously handsome and a Man! Bad bits: Too many forced laughs by the main characters, it was pleasant enough without that.

Is there no end to the suspicions of "Insp. Farraday" (Richard Lane)? If he could, he'd probably have "Blackie" (Chester Morris) down for the Lincoln assassination! Anyway this time around, it's a valuable Charles Dickens first edition that sells at auction for a whopping great $62,000. It turns out, though, that this is a fake folio - and naturally, our deductive genius concludes that it must be our erstwhile thief. As usual, "Blackie" and his long-suffering factotum "Runt" (George E. Stone), alongside his wealthy but rather bumbling friend "Manleder" (Lloyd Corrigan) have to get to the bottom of a scenario where a criminal network doesn't just stop at forgery, and the outwardly butter-wouldn't-melt " bookseller "Constance" (Lynn Merrick) is maybe not just as sweet as she seems. It's quickly paced, if predictable, and en route we have some fun in a dumb-waiter, some slapstick fisticuffs and a few red herrings before a denouement that is hardly a shock to anyone. One of the better films from this series, I think.

Up to now in the Boston Blackie crime drama series, the police could double for the Three Stooges and Blackie confidently and effortlessly sees through every mystery and dilemma. In this entry in the Boston Blackie series, the ever-suspected Blackie is not quite so omniscient - it takes hims some time to figure out who the real villain is - and the police are much more capable - they do figure out some things on their own.

The mystery revolves around a forged first edition of a copy of the Pickwick Papers sold at auction in a store owned by Blackie's good friend, the wealthy Arthur Manleder. When the police burst in on the storefront of the man who put the forged book up for auction, they find him dead with Blackie standing over his dead body, gun in hand. By this time in the series, Inspector Farraday has begun to believe that it's possible for Blackie to change, but he can't ignore what he sees with his own two eyes. However, the police can't find the 50000 dollars for which the book was sold. The problem is, the real crooks can't find that money either and they're not leaving town without it. This gives Blackie a chance to solve the crime and clear himself, handled with great charm, wit, and confidence as always by Chester Morris as Blackie.