User Reviews

The 1930s and 40s saw a ton of detective series films designed as the second in a double-feature. These short full-length movies were relatively quickly made and had relatively low budgets, so they and other similar productions were nicknamed "B-movies". Some commonly known "B" detective films included Charlie Chan, Sherlock Holmes, The Saint, The Falcon and also Boston Blackie. Though the Blackie series wasn't quite as famous as most of these listed, they were still very good and often better than the more famous competition. However, today they are practically forgotten and haven't been seen on American television for quite some time--that is, until they were recently revived by Turner Classic Movies.

Chester Morris played the title character and unlike many detective series, he played this character in all the films (Charlie Chan, conversely, was played by four different actors during the late 20s to almost 1950). His character was a reformed thief who had changed his ways after a stint in "the big house", but despite his now being in favor of law and order, he was usually presumed to be guilty by the detectives investigating a crime.

In this case, Blackie is assumed to be a murderer when he uses his gun to stop a murder at an art auction. Of course no one but Blackie saw the real murderer and Blackie is chased through most of the film until, naturally, the real bad guys are exposed at the end. All the action is pretty fast-paced and well-done. In particular, Chester Morris does a good job as a detective who actually will fight and DO something (something Chan and Holmes practically never did)! The only low-point of the movie is near the very end, when Blackie nearly gets everyone killed--this plan worked but boy did it seem far-fetched! Still, for this type of film, this is a very good entry and well worth seeing.

Of course, in this case, it's Augustus Caesar, not his famous murdered uncle immortalized in the line I parody by Shakespeare. Boston Blackie (Chester Morris) becomes involved in art fraud, accused of shooting the woman who created statue that phony auctioneers claim was a Roman original. Harriet Hilliard (Nelson) is the artist in question, realizing that her statue has been replaced by a phony. It's up to Mr. Blackie and his new found sidekick (Lloyd Corrigan) to unmask the truth, all the while as his old police lieutenant pal Richard Lane tries to pin it on him.

Another dandy entry early in the series, this is so good that after the first two, I could easily do a marathon of the entire series. But as I found with other Columbia detectives (The Lone Wolf, the Crime Doctor, the Whistler), I couldn't enjoy it as much rushing through. Yes, like other series, I know I would be disappointed by the decline in quality as predictable formula kicked in.

Lloyd Corrigan is a nice addition to the series, always the cheerful fat man, always perplexed with that non- stop Betty White like smile on his face. There's a lot of clever antics abound in this entry, directed with style by Edward Dmytryk who went onto much bigger things. I've seen Harriett Hilliard Nelson in a dozen or so films, and this is the first time I've recognized her as her famous TV housewife and mother. She doesn't sing here, but is a decent, if not exceptional, actress. Morris is obviously having a ball here, these quota quickies filled with amusing situations, funny lines, and great technical achievements that influenced a lot of hopeful directors who took what they learned from watching these films, and turned it into a true art form.

This is the second 'Boston Blackie' movie with Chester Morris (a solid performance) and it is as fast moving and fun as the first one, with our hero getting involved in murder and art theft, helping a damsel in distress, avoiding a previous inamorata and being one step ahead of the police who want to arrest him. It is routine but is directed with a light touch that entertains. The good supporting cast includes George E. Stone in his first of many appearances as The Runt, Harriet Hilliard as the wronged Diane Parrish (didn't Mrs Nelson have a lovely voice?), Lloyd Corrigan as the bumbling Arthur (the running handcuff gag was good) and Joan Woodbury as the scheming Mona. The latter's scene when she wrecked the apartment must have been fun to shoot . It's a low budget film but put together competently. Despite the movie's title there were no confessions from Boston Blackie, not even what he and Mona got up to!

***SPOILERS***"Confessions of Boston Blackie" is the 2nd of the "Boston Blackie" series sandwiched between "Meet Boston Blackie" and "Alies Boston Blackie" with of course the smooth talking and quick thinking Chester Morris in the lead role. It's here that Blackie while attending an art auction-just to pass the time of day-gets involved in a murder. That he in trying to prevent the person selling the statue of Augustus Caesar the intended victim Diane Parrish, Harriet Nelson, from getting gunned down is accused of shooting the man who's to buy the piece of junk Eric Allison, Walter Soderling. As it turned out Allison was in fact shot and killed by his partner Buchanan, Ralph Theodore, by accident when he in fact tried to shoot Diane who could prove that the statue that was going for a cool $3,000.00 was a total fake. What Diane wanted to do with the cash that she got for the statue to pay for her kid brother Jimmy's , Martin Spellman, who's suffering for TB medical expenses.The rub in all this is the victim Eric Allison's body disappeared hidden inside the statue by Buchanan making it impossible the charge Blackie in his murder!

It's now up to Blackie to prove himself innocent in finding Allison's body and thus proving that the bullet that killed him didn't come from his gun but from the gun of his partner in crime Buchanan. On top of all that in pops the gold digging Mona, Joan Woodbury, claiming without a shred of evidence that she's Blackie's estranged wife and want's to take him to the cleaners for every cent he's got! With the help of his friends "The Runt", George E. Stone, and Arthur Manleder, Lloyd Carrigan, Blackie is able to avoid the police lead by the bumbling Inspector Farraday,Richard Lane, until he not only tracks down Allison's body and the man Buchanan who framed him for his murder.

****SPOILERS**** In a wild shootout at Buchanan's secret hideout with Blackie and everyone is the cast trapped with no way out, due to an electrical blackout, that Blackie burns the place down to get the attention of the police and fire department to come to his as well as their rescue before they all end up dying from smoke inhalation! Blackie had a great time here in his impersonation of not only a doctor who was looking after Diane in the hospital but also of the friendly "Good Humor Man" in being able to wolf down all the "Tudie Frutie" ice cream bars that he could stuff his mouth with without paying for them!

Blackie is a strong leading man with a mysterious past, not sad like the Lone Ranger's origin story, but filled with human mistakes and thus more relatable. I like how Blackie gets into fights for the seeming joy of it, a twinkle in his eye, and bulldozes the bad guys into submission with balsa wood furniture bludgeons or whatever else works in the scene. This entry also shows Harriet Hilliard being coy, which was her specialty, and also sweet, another character point. As someone who hustles herself into a laundry chute to escape arrest all the while clinging to her hat, coat, and purse, she has my admiration. Runt and Arthur are also fun characters and the whole hour, more or less, works well as entertainment.

Crooks copy a statue worth $50,000 to sell at auction and defraud the owner. When she realizes something's wrong, an attempted murder goes astray, and Boston Blackie, who just happened to be in the auction room, is wrongfully accused by Inspector Farraday, who never once figured out or admitted that Blackie had actually gone straight.

Many have rightly compared the BOSTON BLACKIE and the LONE WOLF series from Columbia, as both feature reformed thieves forever accused of whatever crime happens by the same IDIOT policemen in film after film. The main difference is in tone, as BLACKIE tends more toward ridiculous comedy and non-stop high-speed action. I'd compare the difference to that between, say, THE 3 STOOGES and THE MARX BROTHERS, with BLACKIE being the former!

Chester Morris, with his square jaw, intense eyes and ever-smiling grin, was the 10th actor to play Boston Blackie on film, but he did 14 movies in a row, plus episodes of the radio show! That's pretty consistent for a "B"-movie series from this era. As others have said, he's always the smartest person in any room... but sometimes, I wish the screen-writers didn't go to such extreme lengths to make nearly everyone so jaw-droppingly STUPID!

Richard Lane has the thankless job of playing "Inspector Farraday", who may well get my vote for the DUMBEST lead cop in any of these series. It just goes beyond any level of reason that anyone could watch someone like Blackie help the police solve crimes, over and over and over, yet still continue to accuse him of all sorts of things, never on actual evidence but just on the basis of a terminally-misguided grudge. Like Morris, Lane was in all 14 of Columbia's BLACKIE films.

George E. Stone, who was one of the henchman in Howard Hawks' SCARFACE, debuts as Blackie's pal "The Runt". Replacing Charles Wagenheim from the previous film, Stone would do no less than 12 BLACKIE films in a row.

Lloyd Corrigan is "Arthur Manleader", a rich, middle-aged playboy who somehow became good friends with Blackie. At times it's a toss-up as to who's the bigger "comic relief" character, him or The Runt. He returned in several later installments.

Walter Sande is "Detective Matthews", Farraday's sidekick, and the best thing I can say is, he's NOWHERE NEAR as dumb as "Detective Dickens" in the LONE WOLF series is. Sande played a random cop in the previous films, then (presumably) debuted as Matthews here, and managed 5 films in a row before moving on. His resume shows he was perpetually typecast playing cops and the like.

Harriet Hilliard is "Diane Parish", the owner of the statue who's the target of the thieves, in more ways than one. She spends part of the film believing Blackie is pretty rotten, but then comes to realize the truth. I suspect Hilliard was basically playing herself in this film, as she just comes across as very sweet and considerate; I can see why Ozzie Nelson fell in love with her!

Joan Woodbury is "Mona", an old flame of Blackie's who intrudes in the story claiming to be his wife (she isn't) and demanding blackmail money ("or else"). When things don't go her way, she proceeds to completely trash Blackie's apartment single-handedly, as The Runt stands by watching helplessly. What on Earth would Blackie have ever seen in this CREATURE (heh)? I've seen Woodbury in a whole lot of films, and every time I see her, I can't get over how much she resembles Mary Woronov, who also had a way of making such strong impressions, decades later.

The climax of the story, in which the heroes, the baddies AND the cops all suddenly find themselves trapped in a seemingly-inescapable underground death trap (yeah, how did a place like this ever get past building code inspectors?) seems as if it was tacked on just to extend the running time of the film, as without it, it would certainly have been under an hour. The funny thing that crossed my mind was, the large wooden scaffold in the underground room looks EXACTLY like the one in Roger Corman's THE HAUNTED PALACE. Could it possibly have been a leftover prop Corman reused more than 20 years later? In Hollywood, you never know.

The only thing about this film that really got on my nerves, to be honest... was THE COPS. And in this instance, I don't just mean Farraday. I mean, EVERY single cop in this film is portrayed as intrusive, abusive, and in many scenes, just total A**H***s. The tragic thing is how much this genuinely reflects police in REAL LIFE-- then, AND NOW. Maybe the screenwriters had a grudge and this was a way of getting it out there? I note this film was relased the day after Pearl Harbor. In one scene, a character says to a policeman, "You have a lot of GESTAPO in you." No kidding.