The Final Four Boston Blackie Films
    

The Phantom Thief (1946) – 4.5




Number eleven in the Boston Blackie series. Three more to go. We all need to have goals in life. This one was fair to middling. I am getting tired of the same formula in every film. Most people would have about 10 films ago but I am easy. Crimes occur - in this case a couple of murders and some stolen jewels and Inspector Farraday (Richard Lane) of course heads right for Blackie (Chester Morris) who then has to catch the real murderer. By midnight. Why Farraday just doesn't blame Blackie for every crime in the city and then sit back and let Blackie do his work I don't know. At Blackie's side is the Runt (George Stone). I am surprised that documentary I saw Color Me Lavender about gay subtext in films didn't mention these two. They live together, often with beds in the same room and the Runt is always telling Blackie how much he loves him. Instead though the Runt is just the annoying comic sidekick - never more so than in this one. A little Runt is ok - too much Runt makes you want to reach for a gun.

 


A friend of the Runt's is in trouble. He thought he was stealing some papers for his lady boss but it was jewels. To get him out of trouble all three go back to the place he stole it from - a medium who is trying to get the lady boss in touch with her dead father. Seances were big back then and this one overdoes it with ghosts and skeletons giving the Runt the heebie jeebies. During the seance the friend is murdered. Nice job Blackie. We never find out why but someone had to be killed. Another person is murdered and we never find out why that time either. We have dead bodies, Blackie on the run, the Runt moaning and a crime to solve that everyone in the audience could figure out before the crimes were committed. It doesn't have to make sense too does it?
Boston Blackie and the Law (1946) – 5.5




Well, we are nearing the end of the Boston Blackie series with only two more to go. This is the twelfth one and it still has a bit of life left in it. Not a lot but a little. The mystery is ok but it is enhanced by some magic tracks and some comedy relief that actually works. There is one scene of Blackie disappearing and reappearing in a gizmo confusing our two friendly cops that was kind of funny. Blackie (Chester Morris) among his many talents is also an amateur magician and he gives an annual show at the Lady's penitentiary every year. This time when he does the disappearing trick the subject Dinah (Constance Dowling) does disappear - for good as she escapes prison.

 

The cops - Inspector Farraday (Richard Lane) and his nitwit assistant Sergeant Matthews (Frank Sully)  - think Blackie helped her escape and take him in. Not for long of course and he is on the track of Dinah and $100,000 that she and her ex-husband supposedly stole a few years before. The Runt (George Stone) is also along for the ride and a cute assistant (Trudy Marshall) to a real magician is part of the mystery. A few dead bodies show up as well. At 69 minutes it goes by quickly and won't kill any brain cells.
Trapped by Boston Blackie (1948) – 5.5

 


I am getting near the end of the Boston Blackie series with only one more to go. Chester Morris who with this film had played Blackie thirteen times was entirely sick of his character but he had a contract and the money wasn't bad. It is easy to understand his feelings - all of these have the same basic plot and with the same four characters - him and Runt on one side and Inspector Farraday and a dimwitted sergeant on the other. Something gets stolen - Farraday is always assigned to the case and he immediately thinks Blackie has done it and Blackie and the Runt are on the run, using disguises, conning everyone and solving the case. Usually in about 60 minutes. No different here.

 


A detective friend of Blackie's dies in a car crash and Blackie takes on the job the friend was on as a favor to his friend's wife. It is to protect a necklace of pearls at a soiree and Blackie and the Runt (George Stone) go as mystics in turbans to provide security. Of course, the jewels get stolen and Farraday is after them. This one is a little complicated with the pearls going back and forth and everyone you suspect not acting very guilty. The Runt has to dress up as a woman for a good chunk of the film. I think he has done this a few times. Some good comic lines from Farraday directed at his bumbling sergeant (Frank Sully). I usually watch these very late at night - 3am right now - because I know I only have to be half awake to understand them and they are over quickly.
Boston Blackie’s Chinese Venture (1949) – 6.0




This was to be the 14th and final film in the Boston Blackie series that stretched from 1941 to 1949 starring Chester Morris in all of them. At the news the country went into deep mourning with shouts of just one more, just one more - but it was not to be. I always feel a little sorry to say goodbye to these B film crime  series - they are not great by any measurement but I enjoy them on some undefinable level - comfort food I guess. I preferred The Crime Doctor, the Lone Wolf and the Torchy Blaine films to this but these ones are ok and after a while the charms of Morris rub off on you. Every film has the same set up as the plot so it must have been more painful for him than for the audience. This last one is actually fairly enjoyable and has a nice cast of Asian actors.



 
There is actually a delightful scene of de-Orientalism that takes place. A tour guide is taking the tourists through the mysterious unknown never seen by Caucasian eyes parts of Chinatown - into secret passages - he opens one door and older Chinese men are playing fantan - another door opens to see Chinese slave girls performing. But as soon as the door closes the men say in perfect English "let's get back to our bridge game" and at the other door after it closes they all sit down and begin gossiping in perfect English.

 



Blackie gets caught up in another murder not of his own making and Inspector Faraday (Richard Lane) and his less than astute assistant (Frank Sully) are trying to pin it on Blackie and the Runt (tragically not played by George Stone in this final one but by Sid Tomack). Blackie's Chinese laundry man is murdered and he was seen coming out of the shop by Mei-ling (Maylia). She later comes to Blackie to ask for his help as she too is a suspect. The Runt asks why are you helping. Blackie replies she sure is cute. That is always enough for Blackie. There seems to be a jewel theft racket and some of it is going through Wong's Curio shop - owned by Wong (Philip Ahn in old man make-up) and his clerk (Benson Fong). Victor Sen Yung shows up later as a movie ticket taker. His days as Son #2 in the Charlie Chan films had come to an end the previous year. Showing in the theater is The Prince of Thieves with Jon Hall and The Mating of Millie with Glenn Ford and Evelyn Keyes.

 

Also appearing is Joan Woodbury as the femme fatale. The bartender who says he always votes for the Democrats is George Lloyd. Maylia was only in six films before her retirement - to be a mother. She and Benson Fong were married for 41 years and had five children.