Boston Blackie's Rendezvous

Boston Blackie's friend Arthur needs help: his insane nephew Jimmy has escaped from the asylum and who knows what he may do! Agreeing to help track down Jimmy, Blackie is soon mixed up in—yes, a murder, and yes, Blackie's old friendly nemesis Inspector Farraday is right there to pin the crime on Blackie.

Steve Cochran is appropriately creepy as the lunatic, and through many uncomfortable moments he peeks around corners and lurks in hallways while other characters obliviously look in the wrong places and for the wrong person. Even Blackie misses him narrowly a couple of times while we in the audience want to shout out at him—"Hey! Blackie! No, not there, he's going out the back!"

It's a tense mystery; for one thing, the gratuitous and random nature of the two murders make for a less "comfortable" viewing experience than a more typical who-done-it where you may not know the killer's identity but you do know that he or she has a "logical" reason for killing and therefore a more exclusive hit list. Of course, there's comic relief here and there, but the humor this time around frequently falls flat—the Runt's scaredy-cat antics, for example, come across as mostly idiotic rather than hilarious or even pleasantly silly.

Nina Foch is good in a role where she spends most of her time on screen trying to size up whether she's talking to a friend or a stalker. Chester Morris and Richard Lane are steady as always as Blackie and Farraday.

Still plenty of charm and confidence provided by Morris, and so Blackie fans like me won't want to miss this one; but I have to say it's not the series' finest hour.

Chester Morris, (Boston Blackie) has the task of trying to hunt down an insane person who escapes from a mental institution and starts looking for a girl named Sally Brown,(Nina Foch) who works in a dance hall. This escaped killer has a big crush on Sally Brown and even keeps a diary on his daily thoughts about this girl. Steve Cochran,(James Cook) plays the role of the mental patient who as soon as he gets headaches, snaps into a killing urge and manages to kill another girl. Inspector Farraday,(Richard Lane) for some reason thinks that Boston Blackie has lost his mind and is doing all this killing and he stops looking for the real killer. George E. Stone,(The Runt) appears once again as Boston Blackie's sidekick and gives a great supporting role. This film is very entertaining and enjoyable to watch.

Rendezvous was a harder entry in the Blackie series (9/14), dealing with a cunning escaped lunatic who strangles women as easy as breathing. The loony was played by wide eyed and breathless tough cookie Steve Cochran, who managed to pin a murder onto Blackie and Runt, who have Farraday and Matthews after them as usual.

Some neat detective moments trying to track down the woman he was really after. The worst thing about the film to me is the pointless murder of the hotel chambermaid - we knew he was a bad hat to be avoided anyway without that - and afterwards her body was the subject of a short comedy routine! Harder, like I said.

But as to be expected, lots of witty repartee between the main protagonists make it another good b picture to watch in the best Boston Blackie mould.

Boston Blackie's out to stop an escaped maniac on a killing spree. That is if Blackie can keep from being arrested by moronic Inspector Farraday, who has the wrong suspect as usual. Farraday couldn't find his rear end with both hands and a flashlight.

Decent Boston Blackie movie where the series' reliably entertaining regular cast gets better than average support from the likes of Nina Foch, Steve Cochran, and adorable Iris Adrian. Despite dark subject matter, they still find time for some ill-conceived humor. One disappointing part of this movie was the offensive blackface gag where Blackie and Runt disguise themselves as black cleaning women to elude Farraday. This is the third time in the series Blackie uses this ruse. Even if you find it funny (I don't), it's tired and repetitive by this point.

The one constant thread in the Boston Blackie series is Richard Lane's obsession with nailing Chester Morris for some big crime. And of course Morris has to go to work to nail the real crooks to prove his innocence.

But Inspector Farraday's obsession with Boston Blackie is a bit much in Boston Blackie's Rendezvous. Whatever else he is society crook Blackie is no homicidal maniac and Farraday should know that. Still the writers here think he's a strangler.

This all begins when Blackie's playboy friend Arthur Manleder calls late at night on Blackie and the Runt to find his nephew Jimmy Cook who has escaped from an asylum for the hopelessly insane. Cook is played with sardonic brilliance by Steve Cochran in one of his early films. Cook breaks in on Blackie after Manleder leaves and nearly kills him, but does rob him of one of his suits for a disguise.

Then he goes after an obsession of his, taxi dancer Nina Foch. Quite frankly if Farraday wasn't so obsessed with Blackie the film might have been over in 15 minutes.

Arthur Manleder is played in this film by Harry Hayden taking over from Lloyd Corrigan. The Manleder character was dropped from future Boston Blackie films. And Iris Adrian is at her brassy best as Foch's roommate and general protector.

Boston Blackie's Rendezvous is good for the presence of Steve Cochran and Nina Foch and bad for Richard Lane's obsession taken to truly silly lengths.