Confessions of Boston Blackie

Once you've got into that 'Boston Blackie' movie series, you just can't stop - they're so wonderfully funny, just plain 'murder entertainment' with vanishing corpses, car chases, and Blackie and the police (in particular Inspector Faraday) in turn working together and against each other to solve the most crazy murder mysteries. Probably that's EXACTLY what the audience wanted during the War: just plain entertainment to get away from the cruel reality for a short while...

This time, Blackie, trying to save a young lady's life, again becomes a murder suspect. The body (with the bullet in it that would prove Blackie's innocence) vanishes, the police chase Blackie, Blackie chases the corpse, the forgers chase the corpse AND Blackie - and finally the whole lot of them end up in a locked vault three stories below the ground and have no idea how to get out of there...

This hilarious adventure, just like all the 'Boston Blackie' movies, just NEVER gets dated - they're in black&white, you can tell from the clothes, the hairstyles, the cars that they were made in the forties... But are there any crime adventures today - complete with color, special effects and all - that are as entertaining as this great stuff that's more than 70 years old??

Excellent stuff: Blackie at an art auction spots someone about to shoot someone so shoots first. Naturally he's (wrongly) blamed for the murder of the second someone, and so becomes a fugitive from Inspector Farraday again.

Under the noses of the cops the murderer disposes of the body in an ingenious way, but the chase is on to recover the corpse when they all realise the bullet will pinpoint the real murderer and clear Blackie. During this double chase there's time for plenty of the usual comedy repartee between Blackie, Farraday and Runt (first outing by George E. Stone), also a little bit of romance too. And Blackie's rich friend, Arthur (Lloyd Corrigan) also makes his first appearance, trying to out-bumble Charles Winninger.

Standard 57 minute Blackie outing, well worth watching to the converted.

This is my second look at a Boston Blackie adventure-mystery and it reminds me of the old Superman TV series in that most things that happen in here are totally implausible. There are more holes than in the proverbial slice of swiss cheese. The humor is very dated and corny, too - yet - it's still fun to watch in many parts. Credit for that goes to the filmmakers who made this short (a little over an hour) and fast-moving.

I also enjoyed seeing Harriet Hilliard who went on to big fame in the United States as the "Harriet" Nelson in the "Ozzie and Harriet" TV show. As "Diane Parrish," she's a cutie and a sweet thing, as she played in other roles such as "Follow The Fleet" with Fred Astaire.

Storywise, it's the similar Blackie story (I assume) in which "Inspector Faraday" (Richard Lane) collars our smug hero for a murder he didn't commit, and then stupidly loses him several times. We also have Blackie's dim-witted helper "Runt" (George E. Stone) and we have a millionaire in here who is unrealistically portrayed as dumb like Runt. He was played by a familiar actor to TV watchers in the '50s and '60s: Lloyd Corrigan. The name might not mean anything but when you see his face and hear is voice, he's very familiar.

This is fast-action "B" movie action and comedy that is fun but beware: it's so dated it can look really stupid. Frankly, I thought the first movie was better.

Boston Blackie is in top form in "Confessions of Boston Blackie," a 1941 entry into the popular series that stars Chester Morris, George E. Stone, Richard Lane, Charles Winninger and Harriet Hilliard (aka Harriet Nelson).

Nelson plays Diane Parrish, who has given the wrong people an enormous statue to auction, not knowing that they copy the piece and auction the fake instead. At the auction, she realizes it's not the original statue, and chaos reigns, during which a man is killed - and of course Blackie (Morris) who had pulled his gun, is accused.

The statue has a piece that comes off in the back, and it's used to hide the dead body. Of course Blackie's wealthy friend Lloyd Corrigan (Winninger) buys the fake one for $200.

This film is grand fun, with Faraday (Lane) as bumbling as ever, Blackie getting away from him in no time. George E. Stone is funny as the runt, Blackie's sidekick. Playing Blackie himself, Chester Morris is handsome, demonstrating the character's good humor and relaxed manner with his great line deliveries.

There's a subplot here of an old flame of Blackie's showing up and trying to blackmail him. But we all know that Blackie gets around.

"Confessions of Boston Blackie," directed by Edward Dmytryk, is zany and keeps you hopping.

A common thing among B pictures is that several will have a title that has nothing to do with the film. In the case of Confessions Of Boston Blackie, Chester Morris didn't confess to anything that I recall.

In fact in this second Boston Blackie feature Morris is trying desperately to get out from under a murder rap. His playboy friend Lloyd Corrigan invites him to an art auction and during the course of it Morris foils an apparent heist, but in the process the owner of the gallery is shot. And the cops in the person of Inspector Richard Lane as always think that the famous crook and confidence man has done the deed. Throughout the entire series Morris was never able to convince the cops he'd gone straight.

There are two women of note in the cast. Sultry Joan Woodbury has picked this time to reenter Morris's life and he who bailed her out of a tight spot learns the meaning of the word 'no good deed goes unpunished' as Morris holds him up for blackmail dough.

Secondly Harriet Hilliard plays a rich woman who is putting up an ancient Roman larger than life statue for auction which is the Hitchcockian McGuffin of the piece. I wish they had given Hilliard a song to sing, she had a wonderful voice which later TV viewers didn't get to hear on Ozzie And Harriet.

This Boston Blackie film could have been better, there was a little too much slapstick comedy which was then followed by a very real danger that the cops, Blackie, and the crooks are all in at once. Columbia would tighten the series up later.