BOSTON BLACKIE’S CHINESE VENTURE(director: Seymour Friedman; screenwriters: from the story by Maurice Tombragel/Maurice Tombragel/Jack Boyle; cinematographer: Vincent Farrar; editor: Richard Fantl; music: Mischa Bakaleinikoff; cast: Chester Morris (Boston Blackie), Maylia (Mei Ling), Richard Lane(Inspector Farraday), Don McGuire (Les, Bus guide), Joan Woodbury (Red), Sid Tomack (The Runt), Frank Sully (Sergeant Matthews), Charles Arnt (Pop Gerard), Louis Van Rooten (Bill Craddock), Philip Ahn (Wong), Peter Brocco (Rolfe), Harry Strang (Mac McAllister, Policeman), Edgar Dearing (Reiber); Runtime: 59; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: Rudolph C. Flothow; Columbia Pictures; 1949)
“This is the last in the Boston Blackie series.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

This is the last in the Boston Blackie series and though the programmer is entertaining enough, the story is not credible and the acting leaves a lot to be desired. Seymour Friedman (“Trapped by Boston Blackie”/ “Loan Shark”/”Khyber Patrol”) directs without much verve from a flat story by Maurice Tombragel, who is cowriter with Jack Boyle.

Boston Blackie (Chester Morris) and his comic relief side-kick Runt are spotted by Mei Ling exiting her murdered uncle’s Chinese laundry and she calls the police. The two find themselves under police scrutiny for holding out information. To clear their name, the two follow up on the lead nightclub singer Mei Ling gave Faraday that Bill Craddock, the owner of the Club Cathay where she works, called her uncle after he discovered a strange package in the club’s laundry delivery and that got uncle agitated. The two soon discover that Craddock’s sexy girlfriend Red is a shill for a tourist bus and the guide named Les is passing on through packages of tea purchased in Wong’s Curio Shop stolen diamonds that are being recut in a secret place somewhere in Chinatown. Blackie knows that Red and Les are involved in the racket, but who their leader is eludes him until he follows Red into Pop Gerard’s Chinatown movie theater and sees more than the picture show featuring Glenn Ford and Evelyn Keyes in The Mating of Millie.

REVIEWED ON 9/22/2007 GRADE: C+

Dennis Schwartz: “Ozus’ World Movie Reviews”

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