A Close Call for Boston Blackie (1946)

If you've never seen a Boston Blackie film, then there are a few things you should know about every film. First, Blackie USED to be a criminal. But, he did his time in prison and has definitely reformed. However, despite leading a very respectable life, the Inspector is always assuming that Blackie is bad and is constantly trying to pin murder raps on him. Second, the Inspector is an idiot...but his assistant is even stupider. Third, Blackie always is able to outsmart these two and ends up solving the crime himself. Fourth, he is a sucker for a dame...and in this particular installment, that's a serious problem. That's because he trusts an old ex-girlfriend--not realizing she's a crook and her boyfriend is a murderer! But because Blackie has this blind spot, he nearly gets arrested for murder and ends up having his friend, Runt, care for a lost baby! So is this film worth seeing? Well, for a B-movie it's pretty good but I must admit that there is a definite sameness with the Boston Blackie series. In other words, if you've seen a couple of them, you can pretty much guess what will happen in this one. It's pleasant and entertaining...plus the baby is pretty cute (yes, this one has a baby). A worthwhile time-passer and it's nice to see Blackie dressed up as an old man--the makeup job was actually really good.

A Close Call For Boston Blackie is a title with a double meaning. Our hero is once again suspected of a crime he didn't do, in this case a murder right in his own apartment. But the really close call Chester Morris has is that he could have been married to dame who is part of a plot to slip him into a frame for said murder.This film rests on a wildly illogical premise than Lynn Merrick who had been kanoodling with Morris before marrying playboy Robert Scott. On the day after her husband was paroled from prison because he turned out to be one bad seed of a prominent family, he turns up with gun in hand looking for Blackie. He's later found shot to death in Blackie's apartment.Of course the idea that Boston Blackie would ever fall for a bad dame and worse almost marry her is wildly ludicrous since we know how street smart he is. But this dame borrows a baby from Charles Lane who is his real father and passes it off as her's and Scott's. The idea is to extort some money out of Scott's wealthy father.Followers of the series know that Blackie is a master of disguise and he puts on an old man's disguise as the baby's grandfather to help expose the scam. But I cannot believe that Merrick could not have seen she was also being scammed by a guy she was intimate with. That just won't play.The ever faithful George E. Stone is here as well as the dumb and dumber cops Richard Lane and Frank Sully. But A Close Call For Boston Blackie was way too impossible to swallow.

Chester Morris is "Boston Blackie" in this 1946 entry into the series. The Boston Blackie series is far superior to many others which seem to have less humor and move a lot more slowly. In this film, Blackie helps out a former girlfriend whose husband is recently out of prison - she's afraid he's going to kill her and their baby. Then the husband is murdered and Blackie is blamed, and he finds out his ex-girl has been using him as part of a plot to shake down her father-in-law for money so that she will give him the baby. Except it's not his grandchild; the child has been borrowed from a crook who has been cut into the scheme. It's up to Blackie to figure out all of this, keep a step ahead of Farraday and the baby out of the wrong hands."A Close Call for Boston Blackie" has a lot of humor in it as well as delightful performances from Morris, George E. Stone as The Runt and Claire Carlton as Mamie, The Runt's girlfriend. Viewers will also recognize Kathryn Card, who played Lucy Ricardo's mother and always called Ricky Mickey, at the apartment house reception desk. All and all, quite entertaining.

The plot involves a kidnapped baby, a ransom, extortion, murder and all the usual ingredients that are mishandled by the police on the trail of a crooked lady (LYNN MERRICK) and her criminal pals responsible for all the trouble.All the trouble, of course, is pinned on Boston Blackie, CHESTER MORRIS in his usual "old man" disguise, who wouldn't fool anybody--but, hey, this is a movie. He poses as the man willing to pay ransom money to get the baby back and it works, in time for a snappy ending.The baby is a cute little boy, well-behaved on camera most of the time and given numerous close-ups as he peers back and forth at the grown-ups handling him. Inspector Farraday and his dumb sergeant are more bumbling than ever while the accent is on comedy relief more than mystery.Summing up: Entertaining, but fluffy entry in the Blackie series, strictly routine.