mark.waltz Now this the way to start a long running mystery series! Superb in every way, this B thriller introduces Chester Morris in the role of the already popular pulp novel series, a precursor to film noir, filled with shadowy locations, sinister men and mysterious women. Like other series, it didn't get any better (often a lot worse), and by the time the writers threw in the towel or moved it to radio and eventually TV, it was showing its age. But back to the beginning, long after the sophistication of Nick and Nora, and just as America was heading to war. Audiences really needed villains to hiss, and the antiheroes like Boston Blackie, the Saint, the Falcon, the Shadow, the Whistler and a few others who were actually given names, not adjectives.Already notorious with the police for alleged crimes, Blackie is on the run for two murders, one committed on a cruise ship, the other in the tunnel of love. Being there makes him automatically guilty in the eyes of the law, and when Rita Hayworth lookalike Rochelle Hudson ends up accompanying him, he finds an all too convenient accomplice. Together, they truly are dynamite, but like another popular film detective, the Lone Wolf, he's better off on his own, giving a ton of starlets the opportunity to get their feet wet in leading roles. With Richard Lane as the perplexed lieutenant desperately trying to find something on him, this moves at a speedy space, making me looking forward to what comes up next.

MartinHafer Recently, Turner Classic Movies has shown most of the Boston Blackie films and after having seen just about about all of them, this first appears to be the very best. I think much of this is the freshness and originality of the script. If you see it and remember it was the first of the series starring Chester Morris, the movie seems very fresh and exciting for the genre--with a great script and good doses of humor and excitement. However, many of the the wonderful things about this film were repeated again and again in later films and this is when the series began to wear a bit thin. The stupidity of the inspector and especially his assistant is funny, but not by the fifth or sixth or twelfth film--by then, it just seems....stupid. Plus, it makes sense that these two bumblers think that Blackie committed the murders--after all, Blackie had spent time in prison. However, when film after film after film Boston Blackie proves he is a good guy and solves the crimes, it really makes no sense at all that the original plot outline is STILL being followed--practically to the letter. As a result, I honestly think the average viewer is better off seeing just a few films from the series and not bothering to see them all.Now even if this formula is a bit too strict throughout most of the series, MEET BOSTON BLACKIE is still a very good film because it has an exciting plot. Instead of a movie about a jewel theft (a theme often repeated), it involves several murders and a spy ring--something very timely since the film was made just before the US entered WWII. Snappy dialog, great action and some amazing originality (at least in this point in the series)---all these come together to make an excellent B-detective film that's every bit as good as the best of Charlie Chan or The Saint.

ccthemovieman-1 This was my first look at this old-time crime "series," if you will, of hour-long tales starring Chester Morris as "Boston Blackie." I don't know enough about the character, since this was my first look, to make many comments on him but Morris reminds me a bit, with his smugness, of William Powell playing "Nick Charles" of "The Thin Man" movie fame. In a nutshell, I found this movie surprisingly fast-paced and entertaining. I hope they all are similar to this with interesting characters and a good mix of crime, snappy dialog that includes humor, nice-looking "dames," chase scenes and the like. Yes, it's dated but that's okay for the most part although some scenes you shake your head with the implausibility. At the end, Blackie makes a throw that a Major Leauge baseball pitcher couldn't make, but despite the credibility it was a short, fun story that doesn't drag. Rochelle Hudson filled the bill as the female lead. I remember her from a Shirley Temple film or two. Richard Lane was a bit odd as "Inspecor Faraday." He kept saying - or hinting - that he cared about Blackie but but at the same time he kept trying to put him in the electric chair. Some friend!Overall, enjoyable, and I hope I see many of the 13 others in the series is they are as fast- paced as this one.

Neil Doyle CHESTER MORRIS and ROCHELLE HUDSON star in the first of the Boston Blacie series from Columbia, MEET BOSTON BLACKIE.Inspector Farraday (RICHARD LANE) is Blackie's old friend. They run into each other aboard a steamship where Blackie finds a murdered man in his stateroom. A mysterious blonde (an international spy) is what Blackie has to follow and there's an amusement park scene that involves The Tunnel of Horrors and a Mechanical Man before the woman is murdered and he meets up with Rochelle Hudson.With Farraday on his trail, Blackie has to prove that he's not the murderer even though his fingerprints were at the scene of the blonde's murder. With the spy element established, it seems that the Morse Code abounds everywhere in the plot, readily interpreted by one and all.Spies, murder and an amusement park background makes for a lively little Boston Blackie caper.