A Close Call for Boston Blackie

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.

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.

While helping a friend out by looking after a baby, Boston Blackie (Chester Morris) is framed for murder.

The penultimate programme thriller featuring fast talking and wise cracking Boston Blackie. The character of Blackie is as annoying as ever and will most likely leave its viewers feeling irritable, certainly for those who survived the course of the film.

I didn't really catch the plot of this film very well as it went by, and I really hope to see it again, because I enjoyed it very much. Boston Blackie films are fairly fast paced comedies of error rolled up inside the usual amateur sleuth beats out the dumb police B movie staple fodder. These are light hearted films, and they're made for simple enjoyment.

Beautiful blonde Gerry Payton is rescued by Boston Blackie as she is apparently about to be abducted by some thugs who are trying to drag her into their car. She asks him for help, and of course, he can't refuse such a gorgeous woman.

There is a complex plot which I didn't follow and to heck with it. But, the babe is a crook, and her boyfriend is a crook, and half of the cast are crooks, and everyone but the cops are out to convince the cops that Boston Blackie is a murderer,and the cops didn't need convincing in the first place, so Boston Blackie is sunk and there is no way out for him.

And part of the plot is that the criminals have made up a fictional baby boy, and have somehow managed to convince the grandfather of the non-existent baby boy that he should buy the boy from them for a large amount of money. Also, for some other unknown reason, they have actually managed to obtain a real baby boy, whom they are making no attempt to disguise as the fake Payton scion, since there is no one of any importance to them to see it, but nevertheless they are taking great pains to maintain this useless fiction.

Can Boston Blackie and his partner The Runt figure out the plot, clear Blackie's name, rescue the child and put the criminals into the hands of the incompetent police?

Well, maybe.

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.