Tenth entry in the series and it’s a weak one involving a baby and Blackie framed for murder. Chester Morris is Blackie and George E.Stone is his pal The Runt. Also back are Richard Lane as Inspector Faraday and Frank Sully as the dimwitted Sergeant Matthews.
Faraday and Matthews drop Blackie and The Runt off in front of Blackie’s apartment building. Faraday warns him that women are trouble for him. They drive off and across the street Blackie sees two men trying to force a woman into a car. She faints and they drive off.
Blackie and The Runt carry her inside. She’s Gerry Payton, a girl Blackie used to be sweet on. She comes to and says she doesn’t know what was going on. From a bedroom they hear a baby. Gerry says it’s hers and she left him there earlier.
Her husband was just paroled on a manslaughter rap. He shows up and pulls a gun. Blackie tussles with him and gets it away from him. He calls Faraday. The front door opens. Someone kills Peyton. Blackie hangs up. Blackie wants to get the baby out of there before Farady shows up. When he does and Matthews discovers the body in a closet Blackie is charged with murder. He uses a trick to get out of there. It doesn’t work.
Now there’s a lot of lame comedy and eventually The Runt takes the baby to his girlfriend Mamie’s place. Finally the movie gets back to the mystery and we find out that Gerry is in on everything with the two who were supposedly trying to force her into a car.
Blackie and The Runt stay one step ahead of Farady as they find out what’s really going on. Blackie dons a disguise to get to the bottom of things.
The movie is padded with way too much so-called comedy and the main storyline gets lost. If you’ve never seen a Boston Blackie movie, don’t start with this. Even after seeing a few of them this will be a big disappointment.
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