These unprepossessing and inexpensive detective entertainments appeared on the screen in droves during the 30s and 40s. The lead characters ranged from the street wise (Michael Shayne) through the somewhat dandified (Philo Vance) to the exotic (Charlie Chan). They were ground out like franchise hamburgers, with similar plots and many of the same characters, and they must have kept the writers, crew, and actors steadily employed.
Boston Blackie is typical. Blackie, played by Chester Morris, is an ex safe cracker who helps out the police while maintaining the properly ambivalent relationship with Inspector Faraday. Blackie has the usual comic sidekick, here called "Runt." There is usually a young woman swept up in the plot, whose identity varied from one film to the next.
On the social scale, Blackie registers as High Prole. Chester Morris always has his lips compressed. He has a jutting jaw. He's of modest height and walks in quick strides, swinging his brief arms vigorously, his chest puffed out. He could hardly be a Fancy Dan but the script gives him mock-eloquent locution. Who's trying to kill him? "Oh, just some former acquaintances." The plot isn't really worth describing in any detail. Something to do with an unidentified mob trying to steal "the new Navy bombsight." The mob is probably German but this was shot before Germany declared war on us so naming the heavies was noch verboten.
The studio setting include a kind of interesting carnival or amusement park, probably meant to be suggestive of Coney Island, since the story is set in New York. There are some modestly exciting moments but no brutality -- just the occasional clip on the jaw, the screeching car pursuing the screeching car, the dart in the back of the neck. I kind of enjoyed the mechanical man, although at times it was hard to tell him from the other actors.
The genre ended around 1950 when similar mystery stories, often based on the same characters and starring the same performers, began to appear on weekly television.
Boston Blackie is typical. Blackie, played by Chester Morris, is an ex safe cracker who helps out the police while maintaining the properly ambivalent relationship with Inspector Faraday. Blackie has the usual comic sidekick, here called "Runt." There is usually a young woman swept up in the plot, whose identity varied from one film to the next.
On the social scale, Blackie registers as High Prole. Chester Morris always has his lips compressed. He has a jutting jaw. He's of modest height and walks in quick strides, swinging his brief arms vigorously, his chest puffed out. He could hardly be a Fancy Dan but the script gives him mock-eloquent locution. Who's trying to kill him? "Oh, just some former acquaintances." The plot isn't really worth describing in any detail. Something to do with an unidentified mob trying to steal "the new Navy bombsight." The mob is probably German but this was shot before Germany declared war on us so naming the heavies was noch verboten.
The studio setting include a kind of interesting carnival or amusement park, probably meant to be suggestive of Coney Island, since the story is set in New York. There are some modestly exciting moments but no brutality -- just the occasional clip on the jaw, the screeching car pursuing the screeching car, the dart in the back of the neck. I kind of enjoyed the mechanical man, although at times it was hard to tell him from the other actors.
The genre ended around 1950 when similar mystery stories, often based on the same characters and starring the same performers, began to appear on weekly television.