A Chantagista

Boston Blackie is led astray by a dame. The dame in this case being an ex-girlfriend of his played by beautiful Lynn Merrick. There's a baby, an extortion plot, and the inevitable murder charge for Blackie. One of these days Inspector Farraday might get the right suspect if he actually stopped to consider someone, ANYONE, besides Blackie! An enjoyable entry in the Boston Blackie series with lots of comedy. Blackie once again disguises himself as an old man. At least he doesn't wear blackface this time. Chester Morris, Richard Lane, and George E. Stone are all good as usual. Claire Carleton is fun as Runt's girlfriend Mamie. The baby is cute. Certainly not the best Boston Blackie movie but hard to dislike.

Close Call for Boston Blackie, A (1946)

*** (out of 4)

Lew Landers (The Raven) directs this tenth entry in Columbia's popular series. This time out Blackie (Chester Morris) runs into a woman he formally loved who know is married with a kid. When her husband gets out of prison he's killed in Blackie's apartment and of course the police thing Blackie pulled the trigger so he must set out to prove his innocence as well as capture the real killers. This one here is a step up from the previous film because they changed the mode quite a bit. For starters, the plot is a lot more difficult to figure out and is a lot more challenging for the viewing. Another added bonus is that Inspector Farraday (Richard Lane) and Sergeant Matthews (Frank Sully) play a bigger part of the mystery and they aren't just here for laughs, although they still have a lot of funny moments. Another added bonus is the baby itself, which leads to several cute scenes with Blackie, the police and The Runt. All the cast members are once again at full force with Morris being as delightful as ever.

Chester Morris is "Boston Blackie" in this 1946 entry into the series. The Boston Blackie series is far superior to many others which seem to have less humor and move a lot more slowly. In this film, Blackie helps out a former girlfriend whose husband is recently out of prison - she's afraid he's going to kill her and their baby. Then the husband is murdered and Blackie is blamed, and he finds out his ex-girl has been using him as part of a plot to shake down her father-in-law for money so that she will give him the baby. Except it's not his grandchild; the child has been borrowed from a crook who has been cut into the scheme. It's up to Blackie to figure out all of this, keep a step ahead of Farraday and the baby out of the wrong hands.

"A Close Call for Boston Blackie" has a lot of humor in it as well as delightful performances from Morris, George E. Stone as The Runt and Claire Carlton as Mamie, The Runt's girlfriend. Viewers will also recognize Kathryn Card, who played Lucy Ricardo's mother and always called Ricky Mickey, at the apartment house reception desk. All and all, quite entertaining.

The plot involves a kidnapped baby, a ransom, extortion, murder and all the usual ingredients that are mishandled by the police on the trail of a crooked lady (LYNN MERRICK) and her criminal pals responsible for all the trouble.

All the trouble, of course, is pinned on Boston Blackie, CHESTER MORRIS in his usual "old man" disguise, who wouldn't fool anybody--but, hey, this is a movie. He poses as the man willing to pay ransom money to get the baby back and it works, in time for a snappy ending.

The baby is a cute little boy, well-behaved on camera most of the time and given numerous close-ups as he peers back and forth at the grown-ups handling him. Inspector Farraday and his dumb sergeant are more bumbling than ever while the accent is on comedy relief more than mystery.

Summing up: Entertaining, but fluffy entry in the Blackie series, strictly routine.

The eponymous "Blackie" (Chester Morris) and his sidekick the "Runt" (George E. Stone) rescue a woman assaulted outside their apartment. The former soon recognises the lass as "Gerry" (Lynn Merrick), an ex-girlfriend heiress and what's more, she has a baby with her too! Who's is it? Who assaulted her? Why? Well it doesn't take us long before the first gunshots ring out and good old "Insp. Farraday" (Richard Lane) and "Blackie" are competing to find the culprits before our intrepid cop, as usual, jumps to the wrong conclusion! It's a well oiled production process with well established characters going through the ultimate in formulaic detective mysteries with a few red herrings before an ending you can spot from space. The writing is adequate, the performances keep it interesting for just under an hour and there is just about enough to keep us guessing as to who did the shooting until quite near the conclusion. Morris was in his element with this series of films, charming and charismatic and with Stone doing his best Jimmy Durante impression the thing works fine.