A Close Call for Boston Blackie

Blackie and the Runt rescue a woman (Lynn Merrick) who's been attacked in the street right in front of their building. They carry in the unconscious woman, who is quickly identified as Gerry Peyton, one of Blackie's old flames. Nothing much new so far, but when they open the bedroom door we see the main twist that this series entry has to offer: a baby!

Rather quickly, the rest of the plot is set into motion—Gerry's husband, a gunshot from around the corner of a doorway, some doubts about the identity of the baby and the honesty of Gerry. (Honestly, it's funny that Blackie and the Runt aren't suspicious of Lynn Merrick right away, since she just played a character pulling a similar deception on them in Boston Blackie Booked on Suspicion!)

If you're familiar with the Boston Blackie series, you'll easily guess who is accused of the first murder and also who does the accusing. Yes, Inspector Farraday is—as always—shocked that Blackie has stooped to murder, but after all, Blackie did have a good motive and was caught with the body in his apartment. He must be guilty!

Blackie and the Runt, Farraday and his sidekick Matthews are all in good form. The story's nothing special but it moves fast. Blackie once again disguises himself as an old man…and in a nice touch, Matthews turns up in the same disguise! (Blackie and Farraday had the same idea, it seems.)

Easygoing fun that's all wrapped up in exactly an hour.

I didn't really catch the plot of this film very well as it went by, and I really hope to see it again, because I enjoyed it very much. Boston Blackie films are fairly fast paced comedies of error rolled up inside the usual amateur sleuth beats out the dumb police B movie staple fodder. These are light hearted films, and they're made for simple enjoyment.

Beautiful blonde Gerry Payton is rescued by Boston Blackie as she is apparently about to be abducted by some thugs who are trying to drag her into their car. She asks him for help, and of course, he can't refuse such a gorgeous woman.

There is a complex plot which I didn't follow and to heck with it. But, the babe is a crook, and her boyfriend is a crook, and half of the cast are crooks, and everyone but the cops are out to convince the cops that Boston Blackie is a murderer,and the cops didn't need convincing in the first place, so Boston Blackie is sunk and there is no way out for him.

And part of the plot is that the criminals have made up a fictional baby boy, and have somehow managed to convince the grandfather of the non-existent baby boy that he should buy the boy from them for a large amount of money. Also, for some other unknown reason, they have actually managed to obtain a real baby boy, whom they are making no attempt to disguise as the fake Payton scion, since there is no one of any importance to them to see it, but nevertheless they are taking great pains to maintain this useless fiction.

Can Boston Blackie and his partner The Runt figure out the plot, clear Blackie's name, rescue the child and put the criminals into the hands of the incompetent police?

Well, maybe.

Boston Blackie is led astray by a dame. The dame in this case being an ex-girlfriend of his played by beautiful Lynn Merrick. There's a baby, an extortion plot, and the inevitable murder charge for Blackie. One of these days Inspector Farraday might get the right suspect if he actually stopped to consider someone, ANYONE, besides Blackie! An enjoyable entry in the Boston Blackie series with lots of comedy. Blackie once again disguises himself as an old man. At least he doesn't wear blackface this time. Chester Morris, Richard Lane, and George E. Stone are all good as usual. Claire Carleton is fun as Runt's girlfriend Mamie. The baby is cute. Certainly not the best Boston Blackie movie but hard to dislike.

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.

The eponymous "Blackie" (Chester Morris) and his sidekick the "Runt" (George E. Stone) rescue a woman assaulted outside their apartment. The former soon recognises the lass as "Gerry" (Lynn Merrick), an ex-girlfriend heiress and what's more, she has a baby with her too! Who's is it? Who assaulted her? Why? Well it doesn't take us long before the first gunshots ring out and good old "Insp. Farraday" (Richard Lane) and "Blackie" are competing to find the culprits before our intrepid cop, as usual, jumps to the wrong conclusion! It's a well oiled production process with well established characters going through the ultimate in formulaic detective mysteries with a few red herrings before an ending you can spot from space. The writing is adequate, the performances keep it interesting for just under an hour and there is just about enough to keep us guessing as to who did the shooting until quite near the conclusion. Morris was in his element with this series of films, charming and charismatic and with Stone doing his best Jimmy Durante impression the thing works fine.