Boston Blackie and the Law

Since Boston Blackie is also a genuine magician, he performs at a Thanksgiving celebration show in a female prison; and as his last act, he (maybe unwisely) chooses the 'vanishing lady' trick: he gets a pretty young blonde inmate (with a very much Veronica Lake-like hairstyle) to 'vanish' from his 'magical cabinet' - and she DOES: before the wardens are aware of it, she's escaped... The only mysterious clue she leaves behind is a note that someone is getting married on Sunday - so we're right in for another great crime puzzle with our smart friend Blackie and his not so very smart cop 'friends'!

The 'someone' who's getting married turns out to be - a magician as well; but with a past: he was involved in a robbery and murder case years ago - and it was the mysterious blonde that took the rap for the robbery. So Blackie takes over his colleague's identity to set a trap for the 'femme fatale' who's obviously after the money he's hidden somewhere... And here begins a REALLY crazy chase, and we even see Blackie and the 'Runt' for the first time in the whole series behind bars - and the 'Runt' merely comments dryly: "Here we are again - no place like home..." But, of course, they find another dumb cop soon to help them escape, and the hunt goes on...

For the most part, this movie looks just like a usual funny, entertaining 'Boston Blackie' adventure - but wait until you'll see the surprise ending...!

If the story has a familiar ring, it's because it's based on a former film called ALIAS BOSTON BLACKIE in which Larry Parks is a convict on the lam after a magic show at prison.

This time the convict is a woman who disappears during Blackie's magic act (CONSTANCE DOWLING), but the plot is basically the same.

Unfortunately, the story gets off to a bad start with an attempt at humor that backfires as Blackie shows off his "magic" prowess to Inspector Farraday (RICHARD LANE) and his bumbling assistant. It goes on for fifteen minutes with meager results.

With Blackie impersonating Jani, a magician, the plot takes a turn when the real Jani is murdered. TRUDY MARSHALL plays the magician's wife effectively and is part of the final plot twist.

It's strictly formula stuff, but Blackie fans will probably recall that the story was done in a more clever way originally.

While Boston Blackie is performing a magic show at a women's prison, one of the convicts escapes. Naturally, Blackie is accused of helping with her escape. The Boston Blackie series was often repetitive but this one might take the cake as this is a reworking of Alias Boston Blackie, changing the gender of the escaped prisoner and the season to Thanksgiving instead of Christmas. More repetition as we get one of Blackie's trademark disguises, unconvincing as always. It really is amazing that the Boston Blackie series was as enjoyable as it was, given how many flaws it had. Just a testament to the charm and screen presence of Chester Morris, as well as his likable co-stars Richard Lane and George E. Stone. Lane in particular had his work cut out for him as the series did his Inspector Farraday no favors. If you take Farraday out of the often comical light the films cast him in, it's a rather unsettling character. A police detective who continually abuses his authority and powers to persecute a man who, according to the films, has paid his debt to society. One film even had Farraday chasing Blackie across the country where he clearly had no jurisdiction. In reality (even in the 1940s), he would have lost his badge long ago and Blackie would be able to sue the police for harassment.

Chester Morris is almost the whole show here—he's on screen as Boston Blackie throughout nearly the entire picture. Morris is given his best opportunity yet to show off his skills as a magician, both as Blackie performing tricks himself, and disguised as the bearded and turbaned Jani, a professional magician who is mixed up with a pair of women and a missing stack of $1000 bills.

Of course, Inspector Farraday and Detective Matthews (the reliable Richard Lane and Frank Sully) are on Blackie's trail; faithful sidekick the Runt (George E. Stone) has grown a mustache for this picture and does his best to follow Blackie's orders and generally assist in misleading the detectives as required. Trudy Marshall and Constance Dowling are the two women who, it's quickly obvious, do not care to make friends.

The first 15 minutes of the picture are almost entirely goofing around—Blackie is captured by Farraday, who leaves Matthews to guard him alone (how is that likely to work out?), and Blackie toys with Matthews and the disappearing-person box from his magic act for a good long stretch before finally escaping as he should have done right away. It's amusing but wears a bit thin.

Once out on his own, however, Blackie quickly gets to work tracking down the prison inmate who escaped during his magic show to make trouble; the plot does pick up steam and develops into a quite satisfying mystery that's suspenseful and surprising, with Blackie staying (generally speaking) one step ahead of Farraday.

Funniest scene: Matthews explaining to Farraday how he would go about tracking down a wanted person. (Look in the phone book!)

Solid entertainment, especially for Boston Blackie fans.

This film (and all the other Boston Blackie films) is significant to those of us in the plus 65 age group for more than one reason. It hearkens us back to Saturday afternoons during the '40's, when a dime or 15 cents gained us an afternoon's entertainment at the Strand. Here was Chester Morris on the big screen, and, as we munched popcorn and stared bug-eyed at our tough, clever hero, we knew that he was more likely to escape any predicament using his wits rather than his fists. We knew that the runt, bumbler though he may be, loyal to the core, would come through when needed. And we knew that Inspector Farraday would never seem to come to fully trust Blackie as we knew he should, and that he would have an assistant who was an even worse bumbler than the Runt. This was an hour and a half of pure escapism, even for an eight or nine year old. And today, for an almost seventy year old. Tacked to a cartoon, newsreel, a Three Stooges (I am one of the few die hard Shemp fans, but that's another story)and maybe an Abbott and Costello....just the place to make your troubles vanish, real or imagined. In short, this film is fun. It is not great drama, comedy, acting, writing, or plotting. Just fun.