pronker pronker ... so while it would have been neat to see Blackie and crew in Hollywood circa 1942, the title perhaps misled viewers in 2018. At least, the aforementioned definition of the term is what I learned as a kid; I guess the action taking place in LA was close enough to Hollywood. There were nice outdoor shots of the city from top of buildings and maybe experts on the area could point out where the elevator scene took place. I just sat back and enjoyed the ride of Blackie as a psychologist type traveling on a plane with Runt in disguise as his little genius nephew, fun idea! As for the ants, right away the suspense began as they boarded the plane on an ant farm held by little Runt ... LOL

utgard14 A rare entry in the Boston Blackie series where he is not accused of murder. Instead, this time he's accused of robbery as he tries to help his friend Arthur (Lloyd Corrigan) who has gotten mixed up with a pretty blonde and a gang of crooks. Obsessive Inspector Farraday and his sidekick Sgt. Matthews follow Blackie all the way to Hollywood. What is this "jurisdiction" you speak of? Despite the title, there's nothing distinctly "Hollywood" about this. There are no movie star cameos or mysteries on film sets or anything of that sort. In addition to Chester Morris and the enjoyable regular cast, there's some nice support from Forrest Tucker, William Wright, and pretty Constance Worth. It's an entertaining entry in the series, though not one of the best. More comedy than usual. Blackie once again disguises himself as an old man. Better than blackface, I suppose.

bkoganbing 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.

MartinHafer 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.