The Chance of a Lifetime

It's another Boston Blackie movie with Chester Morris doing a good deed by getting some cons out of prison -- on parole to work at skilled trades in Lloyd Corrigan's war plant. But while Corrigan is playing Schindler, one of them, Erik Rolfe, uses the opportunity to collect the $60,000 in cash from the job that sent him upstate. His wife, Jeanne Bates, wants him to turn it over to the police, so that all of these men can go straight. However, the two crooks who were in on the job with him, want their cuts. In the struggle, Rolfe grabs one of their guns and that man is dead. The other, Douglas Fowley, flees. Morris shows up at this point and sends Rolfe to the job. He and George E. Stone are taking the corpse to his apartment, when Morris' frenemy, Inspector Richard Lane shows up, and Morris is on the hook for the murder and the money.

It's William Castle's first feature as director, and there's lots of gruesome Runyonesque situations. Morris keeps things moving along, as he did in all his movies. He had been Oscar-nominated in 1930, and spent a long stretch at MGM, but he was aging out of the juvenile roles. In this period he was under contract with Columbia, whence this movie came, and appearing in Pine-Thomas Bs over at Paramount. For my taste, he's always worth watching, but the quality of his vehicles continued to decline. Although he continued to work on the big and little screens, it was more as a major supporting player than a star, through his death in 1970 at the age of 69.

Most all of the 1940s Columbia "Boston Blackie" films starring Chester Morris are worth watching. This entry has Blackie vouching for some convicts (remember, Blackie himself is a reformed ex-con), trying to get them early releases so they can work in factories aiding the war effort. A judge agrees, and lets them out to begin work. Obviously, things do not work out as planned...

Morris's personal charm and colorful acting style always help the film along, and his sidekick The Runt and his antagonists from the police force return from the earlier entries in the series. It's a fast moving 65 minutes, and like any of the b-movie directorial efforts of William Castle at Columbia in the 1940s, it features a number of clever visuals and plot contrivances. Also, the film is NOT a traditional murder mystery, but I don't want to give anything away, so you'll have to see it yourself. Definitely worth finding for fans of b-movie detective films. And it's always great to see Douglas Fowley as a gangster again!

Chance of a Lifetime, The (1943)

*** (out of 4)

William Castle made his directorial debut in this sixth film in the Boston Blackie series. This time out Blackie (Chester Morris) gets ten convicts out of prison to work in a factory for the war relief. One of the convicts end up killing a man in self defense but this is enough to get all ten thrown back in prison so instead Blackie takes the blame but breaks away from Captain Farraday (Richard Lane) to find the real bad guy. Castle's direction is a little bland but the screenplay is full of wonderful gags and nice action, which makes this one of the better films I've seen in the series. Once again Morris delivers a wonderful character and I've really enjoyed this character enough to say it's probably my favorite of all these detective/mystery type films. The interplay between Morris and Lane is as fast and sharp as ever and the supporting cast playing the convicts make good.

A prison work release program Boston Blackie (Chester Morris) is pushing is endangered by one of the prisoners being implicated in a murder. So what does Blackie do? He takes the blame for the murder, of course. I realize this sounds beyond idiotic but keep in mind that the formula of literally every Boston Blackie movie is that Blackie is the prime suspect in whatever murder occurs in that film. By the end of every film, he manages to catch the real killer and prove his innocence to dogged Inspector Farraday (Richard Lane). So, in a way, it makes perfect sense that Blackie would take the blame since his track record is pretty good with the threat of a murder arrest hanging over his head.

Seriously, though, the plot to this one is pretty far-fetched and tough to swallow. But somehow it's still enjoyable thanks to the solid cast of regulars that the Boston Blackie series had. Yes, the series was extremely formulaic and this works against it, especially when you view the films back-to-back. But if you just happen to catch this one on TV one day, without any critical context, it will surely entertain you. Not the best of the series but still fun. There's a character named Dooley who throws just about the wildest overhand punch I've ever seen. That alone is worth checking it out.

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.