Boston Blackie's Rendezvous

Boston Blackie movies have some strengths -- mostly in that the pacing is swift and the hero is cheerfully unfazed in even the worst circumstances. But the plotting is frequently atrocious, and the unrelenting comic bits often kill the pacing (if the plot happens to be atypically good) or are just unfunny and inappropriate.

This one involves Blackie chasing an escapee from the asylum (Steve Cochran in a really poor performance) who has become fixated on beautiful Nina Foch (who puts in a nice, rather subtle acting job). Inspector Farraday, of course, believes Blackie has gone homicidal maniac (he at least has some evidence in this one for that), and is incompetently trying to jail him as Blackie goes after the real killer. The plot has possibilities, but any time any real tension gets going, we a get a not funny comedy routine. It doesn't seem like anyone at Columbia understood that, in a movie about a pursuit of a really dangerous maniac, cute little comedy scenes about hiding an inconvenient body from the inspector disrupt any willing suspension of disbelief. (One just concludes our clever hero is an idiot -- deadly for a film like this.)

This one is not worth the time. For a well plotted episode of this series, see Alias Boston Blackie.

Boston Blackie's out to stop an escaped maniac on a killing spree. That is if Blackie can keep from being arrested by moronic Inspector Farraday, who has the wrong suspect as usual. Farraday couldn't find his rear end with both hands and a flashlight.

Decent Boston Blackie movie where the series' reliably entertaining regular cast gets better than average support from the likes of Nina Foch, Steve Cochran, and adorable Iris Adrian. Despite dark subject matter, they still find time for some ill-conceived humor. One disappointing part of this movie was the offensive blackface gag where Blackie and Runt disguise themselves as black cleaning women to elude Farraday. This is the third time in the series Blackie uses this ruse. Even if you find it funny (I don't), it's tired and repetitive by this point.

Someone is killing women and framing Blackie in "Boston Blackie's Rendezvous" starring Chester Morris, George E. Stone, Richard Lane, Steve Cochran, and Nina Foch.

Blackie is appealed to in the middle of the night by a man whose brother has escaped from the asylum. The man, Jimmy Cook (Steve Cochran) shows up at Blackie's later and refuses to turn himself in. He starts killing, picking up a woman at a Dime a Dance joint and then moving on to someone else who works there. He writes poetic letters to these women, so when he shows up at Sally Brown's (Foch) place, she's looking forward to meeting him.

Chester Morris is always very good as Blackie - relaxed and funny, and George E. Stone makes a good if scared sidekick. And they both drive Inspector Farraday (Lane) nuts.

However, this script left something to be desired. First of all, Blackie and the Runt go looking in their building for Cook disguised as black maids, complete with white lips like they were doing a minstrel show. That type of thing is cringe-worthy today.

Also, the Foch character is suspicious of Blackie, thinking he's the killer, lets in Cochran and buys his whole line, even accompanying him to his place. She was definitely one sandwich short of a picnic.

The film moves along quickly, with handsome Steve Cochran leaving much to be desired in an early performance, relying basically on making faces. Nina Foch was lovely, but her character wasn't fleshed out very well.

Okay entry into the series.

Chester Morris, (Boston Blackie) has the task of trying to hunt down an insane person who escapes from a mental institution and starts looking for a girl named Sally Brown,(Nina Foch) who works in a dance hall. This escaped killer has a big crush on Sally Brown and even keeps a diary on his daily thoughts about this girl. Steve Cochran,(James Cook) plays the role of the mental patient who as soon as he gets headaches, snaps into a killing urge and manages to kill another girl. Inspector Farraday,(Richard Lane) for some reason thinks that Boston Blackie has lost his mind and is doing all this killing and he stops looking for the real killer. George E. Stone,(The Runt) appears once again as Boston Blackie's sidekick and gives a great supporting role. This film is very entertaining and enjoyable to watch.

This one is almost the stuff of noir with some black comedy mixed in.

The film opens with Blackie's wealthy friend, Arthur Manleder, paying him a visit one night. Arthur is seeking Blackie's help in discreetly returning his insane nephew to the asylum from which he escaped. Blackie agrees to help. What Blackie doesn't know is that the insane nephew, Jimmy Cook (Steve Cochran) has crawled into his apartment through an open window and heard everything. Jimmy knocks Blackie unconscious after Arthur leaves, changes into Blackie's clothes and leaves.

Here's where the black comedy and noirish elements begin. Jimmy is running around town masquerading as Blackie and strangling girls although his actual objective is to meet just one girl in particular - Nina Foch as Sally Brown, with whom he's been corresponding via letters. In one case Jimmy leaves Blackie's monogrammed hat at a murder scene, in another he dumps a body in Blackie's apartment. Of course Inspector Farraday believes Blackie did it, and so, as usual, Blackie must work around the police to catch Jimmy before he can murder any more women.

This is an unusual entry because in almost every other Boston Blackie film a robbery of some kind was at the root of the crime wave. This one is different because the murders of a madman are involved with no theft behind any of the killings. You can see why Farraday would doubt Blackie where theft was concerned - it was once his trade - but it would quite be a stretch to believe Blackie would become the murderer of random women and that The Runt, Blackie's rather timid pal, would just go along for the ride! As for Steve Cochran, he is pitch perfect as the killer with those dark eyes and expression that goes from hopeless romantic to crazed maniac in the blink of an eye.

Highly recommended as an entertaining and unusually complex entry in the Boston Blackie series. Just expect things to be a little more on the heavy and tense side than usual for the series. What does the lighten the mood in this one, probably unintentionally? An autographed picture of Boston Blackie prominently displayed in his own apartment turned what should have been a tense moment in the film into a laugh out loud one, at least for me. Enjoy.