Boston Blackie Goes Hollywood

It's more like "Blackie Goes to a Hotel in Los Angeles", rather than Blackie Goes Hollywood. Didn't get much of a Hollywood impression from this film. The pace is fast, it is a well edited movie, but the script here is just not quite up to the usual high "Blackie" quality. Also, some of the physical stuff (in and out of doorways, up and down stairs, etc.) is directed rather poorly, but is performed with a lot of energy and verve by the cast.

Chester Morris is watchable with his usual good acting as Blackie. Richard Lane and Walter Sande do a great job as the bumbling police. Constance Worth is attractively untrustworthy as the girl involved.

The ensemble cast keeps this watchable and it moves along briskly, overcoming the weak script.

What makes a series last?

Here's a film that is in the middle of a remarkably successful franchise. One wonders what in the formula worked so well.

I think in this case it was the focus on sidekicks. Our two main characters are a "reformed" master thief, the Blackie, and a senior police chief who always chases him and whom reluctantly ends collaboratively up solving some crime. Ho hum so far.

Each of these guys has a sidekick. Each sidekick is incompetent, in fact utterly dependent on his alpha dog. Overall, Blackie's team is suave and the police team gets the worst of pranks. But its the dynamics of the pairs that I think gave this formula its success. There's something about defining a loyal admirer and placing him on screen. Its a funny sort of narrative shift where some small element of ourselves are placed on screen. As they admire the character, we do too, a bit more intensely. To make it more admirable (pun here) we have to have a sidekick who we knowingly do not identify with, someone at the far end of competence.

In other films of this era, the comic main at the bottom of the stack would be a black man. But that wouldn't work for this recipe, because the audience is presumed to be white and the mechanism based on subliminal identification. You'll still see this in cop buddy movies and many teen movies.

Other than this minor thrill, of seeing a perfect and inexpensive formula at work, this is a waste of time.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

Boston Blackie Goes Hollywood (1942)

*** (out of 4)

Forth film in Columbia's series finds Blackie (Chester Morris) trying to get $60,000 to California so that a friend can pay off a mob holding him hostage. As usual, Inspector Farraday (Richard Lane) thinks Blackie has stolen a priceless diamond and is hot on his trail. Unlike the previous film, this one here thankfully gets the laughs back on target and delivers a pretty good entry that fans of detective films should really enjoy. Once again Morris is very comfortable in his role and by now it seems like he could play it with his eyes closed. The supporting players are all good but again, the main highlight are all the laughs that this entry has. There's a wonderful segment at the end with Blackie and the bad guy fighting in an elevator shaft that has a dash of slapstick, which is really funny. There isn't much of a mystery going on but the 68-minute running time flies by. Forrest Tucker has a small role and if you look fast you can see Lloyd Bridges. Also of note, the word Hollywood is never even mentioned in the film.

"Boston Blackie Goes Hollywood" is another entry into the 14-film BB series. Boston Blackie doesn't exactly go Hollywood; I guess the producers wanted a snazzy name. These series - Blackie, The Saint, The Falcon, Nick Carter all follow a formula - the hero is an amateur detective, a smooth fellow who has flirted with the dark side of the law who usually has a sidekick and always has an officer of the law either angry with him or after him.

This time Blackie is in trouble with the law - as usual - because as an ex-jewel thief, he comes under suspicion every time there's a heist. This time it's the Monterey diamond, even though Blackie is in New York.

Then his good friend Arthur Manleder (Lloyd Corrigan) calls from Los Angeles, and he's in trouble and in need of $60,000 out of his safe. Of course the police enter Manleder's apartment just as Blackie is making a large withdrawal from said safe. The Boston Blackie police are completely moronic so Blackie and his short friend Runt (George E. Stone) are always able to get away, often in diabolically funny ways. This time is no different.

What distinguishes these various series is the personality of the actors, which makes telling The Falcon and The Saint apart since George Sanders played both. Boston Blackie is the most amusing, starring the personable and well-tailored Chester Morris. The scripts have very witty dialogue - better than the others, in my opinion - and it's delivered well by Morris who has grace and cool under fire.

I find these movies very enjoyable. Look for a young Forrest Tucker and also Lloyd Bridges, who has a small role.

I'm not too sure "Blackie" (Chester Morris) had his head screwed on the right way when he agreed to take $60,000 in cash from the safe of his pal "Manleder" (Lloyd Corrigan) and travel with the "Runt" (George E. Stone) to deliver it to him in Hollywood. No sooner is the cash in his pocket than "Insp. Farraday" (Richard Lane) and the dim-witted "Matthews" (Ralph Dunn) collar him for theft. This time, though, "Farraday" has a plan. He reckons that "Blackie" might have some ideas about the recently stolen Monterey diamond and by letting him escape and following him, he hopes to track it down. Meantime, as luck would have it his wealthy pal has hooked up with "Gloria" (Constance Worth) who was wearing the diamond when it was pinched and who is now offering to retrieve it for, yep, $60,000! What now ensues is an almost slapstick series of escapades as nobody is quite sure who has the stone, the money, or who is trying to double cross whom. The bumbling Corrigan reminded me a little of Nigel Bruce here, and there's decent effort from William Wright as the aptly monikered "Slick" to keep this entertaining and worth a watch for an hour.