MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Walter Sloane Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

mark.waltz O.K., when you have the hero of a detective series recognize the film's leading lady and identify her as a character that the audience has never heard of before, make sure she's not the femme fatale actress of the same series from two films before. That's the case for Lynne Merrick, a charming blonde who was already "booked on suspicion". Here, she's gone from books to the stage, and is rescued from apparent kidnappers by Blackie in an obvious frame-up. Toss in a baby for her, and the entry starts off with more sugar than a coffee shop. The corn is high in this entry, rushed together for post war double bill audiences, obviously written and produced quickly to cater to increasing audiences. Merrick's scheme involves an apparently estranged husband, and for some reason, "the ruby" (George E. Stone) ends up watching the baby with the aid of the dizzy Claire Carlton, an eternally chatty magpie who could drive the pope to murder. There's an overabundance of over-the- top comedy, awkwardly interrupting what little mystery there is. Busy character actor Charles Lane gets the chance to play a different style of character and gets a shocking (for him) exit. Kathryn Card will be recognizable to "I Love Lucy" fans, here playing a prickly hotel clerk. Stone and Morris continue their trend of disguises, providing the few funny moments during these occurrences. This "remdevous" is not so memorable.

ironhorse_iv I've seen the Boston Blackie TV Series, but didn't know there were movies, as well. I finally got a chance to watch a number of the Film Series, and I find this one, the weakest plot of them, all, but one of the funniest in the bunch. In another of his unusual and fascinating capers, Boston Blackie (Chester Morris) gets entangled with a former girlfriend Gerry Payton (Lynn Merrick) when Blackie and his sidekick, the Runt (George E. Stone) rescue her during an attack in the street right in front of their building. They carry in the unconscious woman to the house. When they open the bedroom door we see the main twist that this series entry has to offer: a baby! The baby is very cute, and it's funny to see Blackie and Runt try to take out of it. It's somewhat comical that the baby sounds don't really match the baby. There is a sound edit that supposed to be a baby yawn, but its sounds like an adult male in one scene. The baby's mother Gerry ask the two to protect the baby from her recently paroled husband. The Runt takes the baby to her girlfriend Mamie (Claire Carleton). Blackie takes on the husband when he returns and disarmed him. Before he can question him, an assassin kill the husband, and blackmailing Blackie for murder and kidnapping. The chase is on, with Inspector Farraday (Richard Lane) and Sergeant Matthews (Frank Sully) at their heels. This fast-paced, surprising mystery wraps up in a tidy 60 minutes, but don't feel embittered. It's full of witty writing, comedy, and action to pack it. There is barely any slow moments in the film. The problem with the film is that, its plot is very low grade and simple. It also follows the same similar plot line as the other movies. If you follow the film series, you'll easily guess, Blackie will be accused of the murder and the Inspector will do the accusing. There a lot of dumb moments in the film as well like Runt leaving a baby by himself in Mamie's house when he get milk from a milk woman with a deep voice while leaving a woman's dress. Once again, Sergeant Matthew and Inspector Farraday are idiots, and makes you wonder how on earth did they ever became cops. Why on earth, did Matthew agree to a wrestling match with Blackie? I love the scene with the Inspector talking to Runt over the phone. Mamie, maybe. I don't why director, Lew Landers hired Lynn Merrick twice to play a similar role in the film series. She just played a character pulling a similar deception on them in Boston Blackie Booked on Suspicion! (1945). Honestly, Blackie does some dumb things to, like act like a dead man to escape, and put pajamas over his clothes to fool the cops. At least Blackie didn't feel it obligatory to don black-face in this outing just his typical old man disguise for 5th time, again. In a nice touch, Matthews turns up in the same disguise which is hilarious. The film series try to follows the far more successful Thin Man series starting William Powell in production, but fail to make their film series different to each other in each movie. It's so repeatable and predictable. 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?

Michael_Elliott Close Call for Boston Blackie, A (1946) *** (out of 4) Lew Landers (The Raven) directs this tenth entry in Columbia's popular series. This time out Blackie (Chester Morris) runs into a woman he formally loved who know is married with a kid. When her husband gets out of prison he's killed in Blackie's apartment and of course the police thing Blackie pulled the trigger so he must set out to prove his innocence as well as capture the real killers. This one here is a step up from the previous film because they changed the mode quite a bit. For starters, the plot is a lot more difficult to figure out and is a lot more challenging for the viewing. Another added bonus is that Inspector Farraday (Richard Lane) and Sergeant Matthews (Frank Sully) play a bigger part of the mystery and they aren't just here for laughs, although they still have a lot of funny moments. Another added bonus is the baby itself, which leads to several cute scenes with Blackie, the police and The Runt. All the cast members are once again at full force with Morris being as delightful as ever.

blanche-2 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.