Boston Blackie's Chinese Venture (1949)

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

It's only an hour, so it's a painless distraction, and at least, there are some nice outdoor shots for once rather than the claustrophobic photography of many of the other entries. After nine years and twelve films, it goes out with a bit of a whimper, but will be back for TV, the continuing place for many a famous movie detective. This entry is just another variation of older plots, with Chester Morris once again in the wrong place at the wrong time and once again the main suspect in murder. Obviously on those nine years and twelve films, inspector Richard Lane hasn't learned a darn thing. Maylia is a pretty, but bland, heroine. Two years would go by before Boston Blackie made his small screen debut, with Kent Taylor taking over. Seeing Morris and George E. Stone in Asian disguise isn't as offensive looking as an earlier really bad minstrel show look, but it's a close second.

Boston Blackie's Chinese Venture marks the end of the 14 movie series starring Chester Morris. The film remains true to the BB formula. The falsely accused Blackie & Runt being wrongfully suspected of a murder they didn't commit. Blackie must clear himself by solving the crime for Inspector Faraday and his dopey assistant Mathews. Morris is one of my favorite actors, but this movie like all the other Boston Blackie movies tends to get very predictable and very boring. The well dressed Blackie lives with the Runt in a luxury apartment yet has no visible means of support. I also never understood why the handsome Chester Morris was never provided with a love interest in any of the BB films. What does this reformed ex-convict do for a living and why doesn't he have a girlfriend?In one of the scenes Blackie and Runt disguise themselves as Chinese. It's so obvious that they are both wearing masks yet they slip right by Faraday and Mathews. In another scene a diamond cutter being held captive is forced to cooperate with the jewel thieves yet when given a gun and told to keep an eye on Blackie and Runt he remains loyal to the gang only to get shot in the back by it's leader. Sid Tomack replaced George E Stone in the role of the Runt. I never cared for George E Stone's portrayal of the Runt. I didn't find him very funny and he was all too whiny. Tomack offered relief from the childish whiny portrayal of George E Stone. It's unfortunate that Sid Tomack only played the part once. The lovely Joan Woodbury is featured as a villainous shill in this movie, but her part is too small and her talent is wasted. I believe Chester Morris should have starred in the Dick Tracy series. If you study his profile I think you'll agree that he looks just like him. As Tracy he would have had Tess Trueheart as a love interest too.

"Boston Blackie's Chinese Venture" is the last in the Boston Blackie series, filmed in 1949. Thanks to Blackie, Chester Morris had to return to the theater, as he was quoted as saying, "After ... these films, a producer wouldn't put me in an 'A' movie even if I paid for the privilege." Without the good-looking, amusing Morris as Blackie, the series would not have worked as well as it did. The stories were usually very formulaic, and you really had to love the Runt in order for him not to become annoying. (The Runt here is Sid Tomack and not George E. Stone.) This story is actually kind of interesting - Blackie gets involved with a diamond smuggling ring in Chinatown after the owner of a laundry is found dead right after Blackie dropped off his laundry! Of course, as usual, he has to clear his name or be arrested by Inspector Farraday.The fun part about this film is the underground Chinese tours for tourists showing gambling, dancing slave girls, etc. - all fake, with the performers dropping their acts as soon as the tour guide moves on.Sorry to see Blackie go, but it became a TV show in the '50s starring Kent Taylor, a very different type from the amiable Morris.

For the Boston Blackie series finale once again Blackie and the Runt are in wrong place, wrong time. They can't even check on the laundry without getting mixed up in some kind of escapade where fatalities occur. Chester Morris and Sid Tomack who plays the Runt in the farewell film leave a Chinese laundry where the laundryman is later murdered. Tomack is a good comic actor who occasionally essayed serious parts, most notably in the Humphrey Bogart classic Knock On Any Door. But he doesn't have that runt like quality that George E. Stone did.A little investigation and Blackie discovers a gem smuggling operation that is worked out of a tea shop owned by Philip Ahn with a Chinatown tour bus used as the shuttle. As usual while avoiding the ever suspicious Inspector Richard Lane and his faithful stooge Frank Sully, Blackie gets the goods.This was not a bad film, but the series was clearly getting stale. How many variations of Blackie and the Runt caught up in a situation not of their own making and be accused of homicide and him clearing himself can there be? Blackie would later appear on television briefly with Kent Taylor starring.Anyway Boston Blackie had a good run while it lasted.