Meet Boston Blackie (1941)

Film Title: Meet Boston Blackie
Released: February 20, 1941
Directed by: Robert Florey
Written by: Jay Dratler based on the character created by Jack Boyle
Starring: Chester Morris, Rochelle Hudson & Richard Lane

Plot: Boston Blackie, a notorious jewel thief, runs afoul of a spy ring working out of Coney Island.

IMDb: 6.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes: No score
My Score: 3/5

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

Meet Boston Blackie is the first "talkie" to star the eponymous character created by Jack Boyle. Blackie made his first appearance in a short story titled "The Price of Principle" in the July 1914 issue of The American Magazine and has since been adapted for radio, film and television. The star of nine silent features from various studios from 1918 to 1927, Columbia Pictures revived the character in 1941 for a successful series of B movies, of which this is the first. Chester Morris, star of all fourteen films of the Columbia series, is Boston Blackie, a reformed jewel thief who is always suspected by his friendly nemesis police Inspector Farraday (Richard Lane, who also appears in the entire series) when a daring crime is committed. In order to clear his name, Blackie investigates the crimes himself to bring the actual culprits to justice. This time out, as he returns from Europe via boat, he rescues a woman (Constance Worth) being harassed by man. When the man ends up dead in Morris' cabin, he follows her off the boat and to Coney Island. She also ends up dead as he's interrogating her and now both murders point to Morris, whom Lane chases after under that assumption. Morris, with the help of his trusty sidekick the Runt (Charles Wagenheim in his only appearance as the character) and Rochelle Hudson, a woman whose car he hijacks during his escape from the murderers, uncover a spy ring led by James Seay (credited as Michael Rand) trying to smuggle a stolen navy bombsight out of the country. This breezy installment, clocking in at about hour in length, sets the pace and action/comedy tone of the series and was fun to watch. Morris, who was nominated for an Oscar for his performance in the 1929 film Alibi, is great as the lead, equally convincing as heartbreaker, brawler and flippant wisecracker. He and Lane, who made a career later in life as a wrestling announcer on KTLA-TV in Los Angeles, play well off of each other and you can tell that the two characters have a genuine respect for one another. Paris-born director Robert Florey is probably best known for the first Marx Brothers feature, The Cocoanuts (co-directed by Joseph Santley), and Murders in the Rue Morgue, starring Bela Lugosi. Watch the opening sequence from the film below or the whole movie here, which is what I would recommend.