The Chance of a Lifetime

This Blackie entry is more of a flag waver than the previous five, but it's ingenious for all that. Blackie gets the conditional parole and release of chosen prisoners for them to help the War effort by labouring in one of Arthur's factories. They have to be good, but as usual there is one black sheep - who gets immediately mixed up in a shooting over a stolen USD 60,000 stash. Blackie himself takes the blame for to divert Farraday away from spoiling his pet project. And so begins another chase: Inspector Farraday and Sergeant Matthews after Boston Blackie and the Runt after Nails Blanton (the real baddie, not Blackie's man).

Jumbo Madigan plays a pivotal role in this outing so pay attention! The scenes with the two elderly and gentle female Municipal Cleaning Technicians was a farcical intrusion worthy of Monogram, but they had to get in to the police station to get back the stolen money as bait for Nails. The bit where Blackie and the Runt escape from a locked and door-less apartment leaving his 11 men and Arthur behind is delicious. The print quality is pretty awful in places, someone at the TV station in the 50's was scissor-happy.

But overall, slightly different and worthwhile.