Chester Morris might have been one of Hollywood's most ubiquitous faces over the first generation of the talking picture, appearing in some 75 movies in the twenty years following his name-making turn in Roland West's Alibi (1929). The jut-jawed performer's most lasting legacy, though, came from the fourteen Columbia mystery programmers of the '40s in which he starred as Jack Boyle's dapper, insouciant ex-jewel thief/amateur sleuth Horatio Black, known to his circle as Boston Blackie. By the time of the series' fifth entry, After Midnight with Boston Blackie (1943), the formula had been well established, and the film is exemplary. It boasts plenty of plot convolutions to fill an hour's running time, and plenty of opportunity for Morris and the series' other regulars to provide the witty performances that gave the Blackie films their charm.

After Midnight's plot is set in motion by Diamond Ed Barnaby (Walter Baldwin), a newly paroled safecracker who's still in possession of the diamonds from his last big score. His freedom is of great interest to his ex-colleagues Herschel (Cy Kendall), Walsh (Al Hill), and Beck (George McKay), who've waited years for their cut from the heist and would have little trouble taking the interest out of Diamond Ed's hide. After arranging a reunion with his beautiful daughter Betty (Ann Savage), Ed sequesters the stones in a deposit box in the Arcade Building. Diamond Ed never makes the rendezvous, and Ann, fearing the worst, wires Blackie, an old friend, for help. Black promises her he'll get on the case as soon as the day's momentous occasion--the improbable marriage of his diminutive sidekick Runt (George E. Stone) to a six-foot striptease artist named Dixie Rose Blossom (Jan Buckingham)--is complete.

Ann agrees to join the wedding party at the home of Blackie's eccentric, anything-for-kicks millionaire buddy Arthur Manleder (Lloyd Corrigan). Unfortunately, Blackie's perennial nemesis, Inspector Farraday (Richard Lane), has gotten wind of Ann's predicament, and, ever mistrustful of Blackie's motives, sends his slow-witted second Sgt. Mathews (Walter Sande) to shadow the nuptials, hoping to recover the goods, preferably in Blackie's hands. While Black ultimately gives Mathews the slip, it comes too late for Diamond Ed, who has the jewels' location fatally beaten out of him by his ex-cronies. What follows is a prolonged three-way case of "Who's Got the Button" between Blackie, the cops, and the gangsters, with multiple exchanges of hostages and phony contraband.

Fans of the series came to expect the familiar comic interplay amongst Blackie and his colorful cohorts. Stone, who supplanted Charles Wagenheim in the role of "The Runt" with the series' second entry Confessions of Boston Blackie (1941), wound up being Morris' foil in a total of one dozen Blackie movies. Typecast to playing Runyonesque gunsels in a screen career dating to the Janet Gaynor-Charles Farrell classic Seventh Heaven (1927), the vaudeville and Broadway trained Stone was actually a close friend of Damon Runyon. Lane, probably best remembered to filmgoers at large as the always-a-step-behind Farraday, found his niche during the formative years of regional TV broadcasting, remaining an icon to Los Angeles-area baby boomers for his colorful anchoring of pro wrestling, roller derby and midget car racing.

Beyond the series' regulars, After Midnight with Boston Blackie is noteworthy because of its female lead. Savage remains a cult favorite today due to the numerous tough-babe characterizations she assayed in the '40s, none more so than the duplicitous hitchhiking femme fatale of Edgar G. Ulmer's made-on-a-shoestring film noir favorite Detour (1945). The colorful actress, who had a stint supporting herself as a commercial pilot, still surfaces to this day giving accompanying chalk talks to screenings of Detour.

Producer: Sam White
Director: Lew Landers
Screenplay: Jack Boyle, Howard J. Green, Aubrey Wisberg
Cinematography: L. William O'Connell
Film Editing: Richard Fantl
Art Direction: Lionel Banks, Walter Holscher
Music: Herb Magidson
Cast: Chester Morris (Horatio 'Boston Blackie' Black), Richard Lane (Insp. John Farraday), Ann Savage (Betty Barnaby), George E. Stone (The Runt), Lloyd Corrigan (Arthur Manleder).
BW-64m.

by Jay S. Steinberg