Trapped by Boston Blackie

Fun stuff, easy on the mind after working all day. Chester Morris fits Blackie to a tea! Blackie and Runt do a great Ma and Pa disguise. They are just as I remembered them. I look forward to watching more of Boston Blackie.

Blackie and his sidekick, The Runt, are up to their usual tricks again, this time assuming various disguises in TRAPPED BY BOSTON BLACKIE, one of the better entries in the series. GEORGE E. STONE as The Runt has less whining and less forced comic moments than usual and even CHESTER MORRIS is less of a wise guy although he still has some overly cute moments with wisecracks.

The story concerns stolen pearls and opens at a costume party where Blackie and The Runt are assigned by a wealthy woman to keep watch over her pearls. From there on, it becomes a straightforward Blackie adventure peppered with a musical segment and the usual run-ins with the police and Inspector Farraday (RICHARD LANE) and his bumbling assistant. Farraday, too, has been toned down for this entry and is less sarcastic than usual. JUNE VINCENT provides some eye candy as a blonde beauty.

There are no real surprises but the ending wraps things up neatly with the usual explanations offered by Farraday.

Summing up: Better than usual Blackie.

Back in Boston Blackie's days as a society burglar this is just the kind of caper that would have been something he pulled. For once Inspector Farraday's suspicions are not completely out of the realm of possibilities.

After the head of a detective agency gets bumped off in a suspicious car accident Chester Morris and George E. Stone get hired by the widow to guard some valuable pearls at a society party. The two are disguised as Hindu fakirs, but the pearls are clipped in any event and when Richard Lane sees Morris and Stone, that's all he has to know.

Once again Boston Blackie has to solve the case in order to clear himself.

This is a good film, but the premise was really getting old by now.

Blackie and the Runt fill in as party security as a favor to the widow of their recently killed friend. Not surprisingly, a valuable necklace is stolen; it's not the first time that helping a friend has gotten them into trouble. Also not surprisingly, Inspector Farraday is on the case—and pins the job on Blackie the moment he sees through the Runt's swami disguise. (They were doing the job undercover and in costume.)

From there on, Trapped by Boston Blackie is unpredictable if not surprising—the plot involves a ballet instructor, his student, a secretary, the necklace's owner, and said owner's niece and husband. Lots of characters to keep straight! Indeed, it takes Blackie (with Farraday in pursuit, naturally) the length of the picture to sort them all out, restore order along with the necklace, and once again prove his own innocence to the inspector.

Sidekicks Runt and Sergeant Matthews are along as always; neither is quite so dumb as usual in this entry, although Farraday is driven to deliver his trademark exasperated shout ("Matthews!") more than once.

Plenty of disguises for Blackie and the Runt in this one—their turn as an elderly couple has to be one of their best ever, with the Runt quite hilariously convincing as "Mother." (Blackie even teases "her" about walking past the police wearing a borrowed wrap: "You think the boys are gonna notice an old hag like you? Now get your bonnet." To which the Runt snaps, "Well, I like that!" in perfect insulted-mature-lady style.)

The plot here is thicker than some films in the Boston Blackie series; the humor is (mostly) less physical and lower key. –That said, however, it's still a Blackie picture: light and enjoyable, a fast-moving 67 minutes that will relax and amuse more than confuse or confound. Blackie fans will want to catch it at least once.

Penultimate Boston Blackie movie starring Chester Morris. This time Blackie is accused of stealing a pearl necklace at a costume party. Inspector Farraday is as big a jerk as ever about it. He does have the movie's funniest line, though: "In the dull, blank expanse of your face I can read the dismal promise of the years to come."

This isn't one of the better films in this series. There are the usual "Blackie in disguise" gags, including one with his sidekick Runt in drag. I'm not a big fan of these costume gags. They're rarely funny to me and seem like an example of a type of comedy that isn't timeless. Anyway, this is fine I guess for a B picture of its type. The cast is solid but neither the mystery nor the comedy is much to get excited about. Check out the scene with that huge dog and the Runt. Poor George E. Stone looked like he was scared for his life!