Product Review

Boston Blackie, the suave crook-turned-detective created by pulp writer Jack Boyle, had been popping up sporadically in films for nearly two decades by the time Columbia launched its "Boston Blackie" series in 1941. Chester Morris stars as the title character, Horatio "Boston Blackie" Black, as a former professional thief now working as a sort of freelance adventurer/detective. Blackie, just barely on the right side of the law, preferred not to get too involved with the police. "Meet Boston Blackie" is the first of fourteen Boston Blackie films that began the new adventures of Boston Blackie. The series evolves Blackie from a thief and underworld criminal into a new character that turns out to be very interesting and entertaining. Richard Lane, who plays Boston's long-suffering Inspector Farraday, was the only other character in all fourteen of the Boston Blackie movies. George E. Stone, playing Blackie's sidekick, his dim-witted cronie The Runt, was not in the first or last film but was in all the others. Charles Wagenheim played The Runt in the first film and Sid Tomack in the last. Another of the reoccuring fun characters is the irrepresible Arthur Manleder, the adventurous millionaire played by Lloyd Corrigan in some of the films. Boston Blackie was one of Columbia's most profitable film series. FILMS LIST: ***Meet Boston Blackie 1941 ***Confessions of Boston Blackie 1941 ***Alias Boston Blackie 1942 ***Boston Blackie Goes Hollywood 1942 ***After Midnight with Boston Blackie 1943 ***The Chance of a Lifetime 1943 ***One Mysterious Night 1944 ***Boston Blackie Booked on Suspicion 1945 ***Boston Blackie's Rendezvous 1945 ***A Close Call for Boston Blackie 1946 ***The Phantom Thief 1946 ***Boston Blackie and the Law 1946 ***Trapped by Boston Blackie 1948 ***Boston Blackie's Chinese Venture 1949