Good entertaining mix of comedy and mystery as Chester Morris and George E. Stone return as Boston Blackie and The Runt. Richard Lane is back as Inspector Farraday and Frank Sully as Detective Sergeant Matthews. This one involves a stolen necklace as Blackie does a favor for the widow of a friend.
Blackie’s friend P.I.Joe Kenyon is killed in a car accident. He offers to help out his widow Helen in a case Joe was working on. Doris Bradley wants a detective to attend her aunt’s costume party. Blackie and The Runt agree to go. They’re supposed to keep an eye on her valuable pearl necklace.
Joe has a closet full of disguises. Blackie and The Runt dress as Eastern mystics. At the party only Doris and her aunt, Mrs.Carter know who they really are. Mrs.Carter is celebrating by performing a ballet with Igor Borio. During the dance her necklace flies off and lands in front of Blackie. He gives it back to her and Igor puts it back around her neck.
After the dance Mrs.Carter runs out and says the necklace is a fake. The cops are called. Farraday and Matthews show up and search the guests. Blackie hands the pearls to The Runt who puts them inside a vase. Thanks to The Runt’s slipup Farraday recognizes them. They take off and someone reaches into the vase and grabs the pearls.
They make their way to Doris’ apartment disguised as her parents from out of town. Doris’ friend and neighbor Joan (Patricia Barry) comes in. Blackie discovers the necklace in the lining of her fur wrap. She says it belongs to Borio’s secretary Sandra.
Blackie, The Runt and Doris go to Joe’s office and hide the pearls in a file folder inside a locked file cabinet. Blackie goes to Borio’s dance school and pretends he wants to enroll. Meanwhile The Runt is searching Sandra’s apartment and makes an interesting find.
The plot thickens and it is definitely a fun movie. If you’ve never seen any of the Boston Blackie movie series this is one of the best.
Patricia Barry had a long movie and TV career. Soap fans know her as Sally “Miss Sally” Gleason on “Guiding Light” (1984-87) and as Peg English in 1981 on “All My Children.”
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