Boston Blackie Goes Hollywood (1942)

Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

***SPOILERS*** Boston Blackie, Chester Morris, and his pint-size partner "The Runt", George E. Stone, get themselves involved in the case of the stolen $60,000.00 Monteray Diamond that got Blackie's good friend millionaire Arthur Manleder, Lloyd Corrigan, in deep trouble. This involves some kind of cockamamie scam by gangster Slick Barton, William Wright, to blackmail Manleder into making it look like he stole it in order to have it cut into a dozen pieces! And from what I can make out appreciate its value even though it's Slick who'll end up getting rich off it.All throughout the movie Blackie's nemesis the bumbling Inspector Farraday, Richard Lane, ends up falling on his face as well as being attacked a thousands of army ants in him trying to get the goods on Blackie in framing him for the stealing of the Monteray Diamond which he in fact recovered, by safe cracking, for its owner Arthur Manleder. There's also pretty blond Gloria Lane, Constance "Worth a Look" Worth, and hoodlum and Slick's strongman "Whipper, Forrest Tucker, who just loves to "Whip" it out to round out the cast.***SPOILERS*** Heart drooping elevator scene with Blackie slugging it out with Slick who ends up being knocked unconscious by him not once but twice-Within five minutes- by a fired up Blackie before the movie ends. It's the up and down sequence in the movie that makes those of us watching sea sick in following g it but as we saw it was Slick who ended up getting the far worst of it. Chester Morris seems to be really getting into his Boston Blackie character with his on target cracking jokes as well as not as much as getting his hair or clothes mussed up during the entire movie. He also does a good imitation of an head shrink-er or Austrian Sigmund Freud like psycho analyst, together with an Austrian accent, as well.

Boston Blackie and sidekick Runt as they're about to go to Florida on a vacation get a transcontinental call from their good friend, playboy Lloyd Corrigan. Get $60,000.00 from a safe in his apartment and bring it to California. Corrigan has a couple of hoods pointing guns at him as he makes this call and of course Chester Morris thinks something is up. So Morris and George Stone get the money and make the trip with NYC cops trailing them because they think he's involved in a nice jewel heist also having taken place in California.Columbia was doing both the Boston Blackie and Lone Wolf series at the same time and the plots were pretty interchangeable. Both retired master criminals, both with helpful sidekicks, both living good and no visible means of support, and both with cops constantly questioning them every time some notorious crime breaks at which they're always innocent. My own theory is that they lived off the proceeds of their previous criminal lives, the money having been laundered clean and untraceable. Just what were Blackie and the Runt vacationing from?In this Lloyd Corrigan who's a good hearted and empty headed soul with too much money to burn always finds someone to help him burn it, usually of the female variety. That was Corrigan's function in all the Blackie films he did. Columbia starlet Constance Worth fulfills the function here, she's a poor man's Rita Hayworth.Corrigan does have himself peripherally involved in the stealing of a legendary jewel, it's up to Morris and Stone to get him out of the jackpot if they can just shake loose from NYPD's not so finest Richard Lane and Walter Sande. They do it as usual with aplomb.This one is a nicely paced Blackie entry that also features an up and coming Forrest Tucker as one of the hoods. This is a good one for a potential Blackie fan to be introduced to.

This has got to be one of the weaker entries in the "Boston Blackie" series with CHESTER MORRIS and GEORGE E. STONE on the lam from Inspector Farraday and his Keystone Cops who are hot on their trail because they think Blackie can lead them to a missing diamond.The gag with "The Runt" playing a boy genius is rather unfunny and totally implausible, but the film aims for light-hearted touches throughout, only occasionally succeeding. LLOYD CORRIGAN is Blackie's friend being held hostage by a band of crooks, including FORREST TUCKER in a minor role.RICHARD LANE is again Inspector Farraday, but it's the same old business of him getting thrown for a loop by Blackie's wild schemes to throw him off guard. Nothing new here and none of it is more than routine formula stuff. Furthermore, the title is misleading if you expect the story to take place anywhere near Sunset Blvd.Still, Chester Morris fans should get a kick out of his "Blackie" role.

Turner Classic Movies just recently showed most of the Boston Blackie films starring Chester Morris and while they are pretty good B-detective films, they are also very, very formulaic--even for the genre. I practically saw all of these movies and noticed that the same stupid inspector and his subhuman sidekick are accusing Blackie of committing the crimes in question. And, each time, Bost Blackie solves the crime for them--making their idiocy apparent again and again and again. You'd think that these bumblers would be fired and that any cop with a functioning cortex would realize the best thing to do it just sit back and let Blackie solve the crime! Plus, in the process, the Inspector almost always gets himself captured or is tricked by Blackie. At first, this is all pretty funny, but by the time this film came out, the formula was wearing a bit thin. They could have easily kept most of the formula but also had the cops not always been so stupid--this would have greatly improved the films.About the only new thing about this film is that now in addition to the idiotic cops, Blackie has a rich friend who is introduced to the series and he manages to be even dumber than the police!! While it would have been easy for even a two year-old to figure out what was happening, this Neanderthal was clueless--making the film itself seem pretty lame in spots. Still, the snappy dialog and able support by Blackie's buddy, Runt, is pretty good and make this film an amiable time-passer--just don't expect anything particularly new or interesting except for appearances by very young actors Forrest Tucker and Lloyd Bridges.