After Midnight with Boston Blackie (1943)

Film Title: After Midnight with Boston Blackie
Released: March 18, 1943
Directed by: Lew Landers
Written by: Howard J. Green based on a story by Aubrey Wisberg based on the character created by Jack Boyle
Starring: Chester Morris, Richard Lane & Ann Savage

Plot: Boston Blackie is accused of killing a recent parolee over some stolen diamonds and sets out to clear his name.

IMDb: 6.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes: No score
My Score: 3/5

After Midnight with Boston Blackie is the fifth in Columbia Pictures Boston Blackie series and the second to be directed by the prolific Lew Landers. Chester Morris returns as Blackie along with Richard Lane as police Inspector Farraday, Walter Sande as his assistant Detective Mathews, George E. Stone as as Blackie's sidekick the Runt and Lloyd Corrigan as affable millionaire Arthur Manleder. When Diamond Ed Barnaby (Walter Baldwin) is paroled, he goes after his stash of diamonds to give to his daughter Betty (Ann Savage). But when his former criminal partners (Cy Kendall, Al Hill and George McKay) get to him first, Savage contacts Morris to help her find her father. When Baldwin is killed while on the telephone with Lane, the inspector automatically assumes Morris' complicity. There's also a subplot thrown in of Stone trying to get married to burlesque dance Dixie Rose Blossom (Jan Buckingham) but the nuptials keep getting interrupted by the main plot line. The heavies in After Midnight are no strangers to the series. Cy Kendall, who appears as nightclub owner Joe Herschel, is also recurring character Jumbo Madigan in Alias Boston Blackie and Boston Blackie Goes Hollywood and George McKay also appeared in Alias as Roggi the Clown. Mostly fun and fast paced in the style that the series is known for, After Midnight was the first Boston Blackie film that I actually cringed while watching. This is due to a scene in which Morris sneaks past Sande by using soot from a car's tailpipe to make him appear to be a black musician. While I'm not sure that it quite constitutes blackface, I still found myself wincing while watching it, especially when he delivered lines in a racially stereotypical voice. I understand that it was a vastly different time period socially but still for me, watching the film from my modern social perspective, it still stings. What do you think? Watch the clip which I'm referring to below or the whole movie here and let me know your thoughts.