Boston Blackie Booked on Suspicion (1945) User Reviews

"Booked" (verb trans.) is a pun?

[Spondonman · 7/10 · 3 September 2004]

For a relief from the real world which seems full of suicidal terrorist savages, I turned to this one out of the Boston Blackie series.

A simple plot: Counterfeit Pickwick Papers bought for $62,000 at auction, Blackie goes into overdrive after the thieves especially because, as usual, Inspector Farraday believes he's at the bottom of it all. With a few neat twists and turns and plenty of wisecracking it reaches a logical and satisfying conclusion - unless in error you thought you were watching Fellini - and in fact fits together like a done jigsaw puzzle. No big surprises then, but I'll have to leave you to guess whether Blackie gets his...person or not - no spoilers!

Good bits: Trussed up Blackie + cigar untying himself in hoodlum's den; Steve Cochran alternating as usual between a Tough Cookie and a Poodle; the scenes inside the hotel's dumb waiter. At this point my daughter insists Steve was gorgeously handsome and a Man! Bad bits: Too many forced laughs by the main characters, it was pleasant enough without that.

A "Dickens" of a mess for Blackie in disguise...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 8 September 2007]

One of the more enjoyable Boston Blackie entries with CHESTER MORRIS disguising himself as a bookseller and getting mixed up in a murder case right under Inspector Farraday's eyes. The story centers around a counterfeit first edition of Charles Dickens' "The Pickwick Papers" sold for $50,000 at a book auction. LLOYD CORRIGAN is his usual bumbling self as Blackie's friend.

"I'm in trouble and I'm the only one who can get me out of it," says Blackie--and therein lies the nub of the plot. When Blackie turns up at the murder scene just as Inspector Farraday arrives, he has to spend the rest of the film eluding the police until he can pin the crime on the guilty ones. STEVE COCHRAN is Merrick's accomplice/husband.

LYNN MERRICK is the pretty blonde bookseller who turns out to be not quite the helpful innocent she pretends to be. The story is more smoothly written than most of the Blackie films and moves at a fast clip at an hour and six minutes.

Merrick makes an attractive femme lead and Cochran struts his tough guy stuff showing why it became his screen persona.

Summing up: As a straight crime drama, it's not bad at all.

Blackie involved in first editions

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 15 May 2012]

It's murder, this time, of which Boston Blackie is suspected—though, not surprisingly, Inspector Farraday never does get Blackie to the station to actually book him. Caught practically red-handed on a murder scene, Blackie has to resort to the old hiding-under-the-camera-hood gag, pretending he's the police photographer and backing slowly out of the room while the cops stand by watching. (Note to self to do some research: Did they still use those tripod cameras with the hood over the photographer's head in 1945?) Chester Morris is back as Boston Blackie in "Boston Blackie Booked on Suspicion," from 1945.

In this one, a counterfeit first edition of Dickens' "Pickwick Papers" is sold at auction and soon leads to murder. Blackie disguises himself as the elderly bookstore owner, even dealing with Inspector Farraday (Richard Lane) while in disguise. Hard to figure how he gets away with these disguises - it's obviously Blackie every time.

Lynn Merrick plays the book expert who works at the rare book shop, and a young Steve Cochran is her boyfriend. As someone pointed out, these two play for real, whereas Morris and The Runt (George E. Stone) are usually pretty flip. So this Blackie entry is a little more serious; also Blackie isn't at the top of his game.

Enjoyable. One of the better ones in the series.

Blackie's disguises fool his closest friends, but not the viewer

[csteidler · 7/10 · 17 September 2011]

It's murder, this time, of which Boston Blackie is suspected—though, not surprisingly, Inspector Farraday never does get Blackie to the station to actually book him. Caught practically red-handed on a murder scene, Blackie has to resort to the old hiding-under-the-camera-hood gag, pretending he's the police photographer and backing slowly out of the room while the cops stand by watching. (Note to self to do some research: Did they still use those tripod cameras with the hood over the photographer's head in 1945?)

The story involves a counterfeit first edition of Dickens' Pickwick Papers, with Blackie in disguise early on as an elderly whiskered book dealer. Chester Morris is his usual breezy Blackie self, with Richard Lane as Farraday as determined as ever to pin something on Blackie. Lynn Merrick and Steve Cochran seem more unstable and thus more frightening than many of Blackie's villains; they both give performances that are somewhat more serious than the good-natured bantering of Morris and Lane and the other regulars.

Favorite scene: Farraday brushing off a gang of reporters by shouting, "I'm not Superman, I'm just a human being!" –and the reporters rushing out sarcastically shouting it as a scoop: "Oh-ho, he's not Superman!"

Another Good Entry

[Michael_Elliott · 27 February 2008]

Boston Blackie Booked on Suspicion (1945)

*** (out of 4)

Eighth film in Columbia's Boston Blackie series is one of the better films. This time out Blackie (Chester Morris) gets involved in a first edition book, which turns out to be a fake and soon a man is dead and Blackie is the main suspect. This 66-minute film flies by and manages to be quite good even though these story lines are starting to repeat themselves with minor issues. Morris is once again very energetic and fun to watch in the role. The supporting cast of George E. Stone, Richard Lane and Frank Sully adds a lot to the movie as does the femme fatale played by Lynn Merrick.

Smile The Cops Are Lost

[DKosty123 · 6/10 · 5 May 2012]

Chester Morris is the glue to the entire series and here is no exception as Morris is really solid as Blackie. In this case Lynne Merrick is excellent as the devious woman who seems to be smarter than everyone including Blackie. She actually has him snowed until he catches her with her crooked boyfriend late in the film.

She outsmarts the cops and even late in the film appears that she might slip out of Blackies trap. Merrick is the major add in this movie that makes it above average.

The ending is humor and the acting rises above a script with some major holes in it to carry the day.

Phony Pickwick

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 5 May 2012]

Suspicion is something that Chester Morris as Boston Blackie lives with as a given. Inspector Richard Lane books him on suspicion of murder when he accidentally sells a forged first edition of the Pickwick Papers. Charles Dickens who zealously fought for his copyrighted material his whole life would not have been pleased.

But Dickens might have been pleased at the way Boston Blackie works himself out of this frame. He would have been pleased at the way Morris disguised himself as a rare book dealer who actually has been ill and bedridden while all kinds of bad things are going on in his shop.

The villains are a husband and wife pair of crooks Lynn Merrick and Steve Cochran. Cochran who played slick villains in his prime gets a good showcase in Boston Blackie Booked On Suspicion. But the film really belongs to Lynn Merrick. She's one cool piece of work if there ever was one and a worthy antagonist for Morris.

Merrick is who you will remember if you see Boston Blackie Booked On Suspicion and you should see it.

Pretty good, but also, once again, a bit repetitive

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 9 September 2007]

I have seen nearly every Boston Blackie film they've made and while I really like Chester Morris' title character, the films suffered much more from repetition than other B-movie detective series films. Some of this could have been because they made so many Blackie films--other than Charlie Chan, I can't think of another series of the era that had as many films. But sometimes it was just sloppy writing. While this is generally an enjoyable film, there were just too many similarities to other films--the black-face scene (which is very tacky, I know), Blackie being stuck in the chute and is trapped by the police between floors in the apartment building, and the idiot Inspector and his even more imbecilic assistant--it's all rehashed.

Now how much you enjoy the film really depends on your familiarity with the series. If you are new to it, then it you'll no doubt enjoy it immensely (maybe even giving it a 7 or 8) but if you've seen many of them, there just isn't enough new and worthwhile about this pretty standard film. At least, however, the main plot idea of a forged valuable book IS new and interesting.

The formula changes somewhat in this Boston Blackie entry

[AlsExGal · 8/10 · 6 May 2012]

Up to now in the Boston Blackie crime drama series, the police could double for the Three Stooges and Blackie confidently and effortlessly sees through every mystery and dilemma. In this entry in the Boston Blackie series, the ever-suspected Blackie is not quite so omniscient - it takes hims some time to figure out who the real villain is - and the police are much more capable - they do figure out some things on their own.

The mystery revolves around a forged first edition of a copy of the Pickwick Papers sold at auction in a store owned by Blackie's good friend, the wealthy Arthur Manleder. When the police burst in on the storefront of the man who put the forged book up for auction, they find him dead with Blackie standing over his dead body, gun in hand. By this time in the series, Inspector Farraday has begun to believe that it's possible for Blackie to change, but he can't ignore what he sees with his own two eyes. However, the police can't find the 50000 dollars for which the book was sold. The problem is, the real crooks can't find that money either and they're not leaving town without it. This gives Blackie a chance to solve the crime and clear himself, handled with great charm, wit, and confidence as always by Chester Morris as Blackie.

Blackie gets literate.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 15 May 2017]

There are a ton of books pulled off the shelves of used book stores and thrift shops to be used as props in this intellectual entry of the "Boston Blackie" series. It's all about the theft of a first edition of Charles Dickens' "The Pickwick Papers" and a murder that follows. Blackie's in disguise for a great auction sequence, one of the best, along with 1941's "All Through the Night" and Hitchcock's "North by Northwest".

Blackie is in cahoots with Richard Lane's inspector, losing the buffoonish quality of earlier episodes when they were more foes. George E. Stone and Lloyd Corrigan are once again featured, with Lynn Merrick an excellent femme fatale. Some clever use of shadows and very tight editing make this one of the better later entries in the series. This entry doesn't throw its intelligence in the viewer's face, but grabs them, pulls them in like a great novel, and keeps them involved. Is it any wonder that later screenwriters, directors and technicians point to the B films of the 1940's as to why they got into the film industry?

A new racket for Blackie

[binapiraeus · 8/10 · 9 February 2014]

Always willing to help his rich friend Arthur Manleder, Blackie goes into a 'racket' pretty strange for him: he agrees to impersonate the sick book expert at an auction of rare books for the bookstore Manleder has just taken over - and soon finds out that it's not only jewels that can be VERY valuable, but also rare old first editions: a Dickens book with the author's signature in it brings 50 000 dollars at the auction! Only that the buyer very soon finds out that it's a counterfeit - and following the first tracks, Blackie very soon finds himself once again with a body at his feet and a gun in his hand, and facing Inspector Faraday...

Another FANTASTIC performance by Chester Morris, who in the course of the series really developed into a first-class impersonator of the weirdest characters - and an absolutely NEW feature in the 'Boston Blackie' movies: a REAL, reckless femme fatale fit for any Film Noir! Be prepared for a LOT of surprises...

Oh I get it..."booked" on suspicion...clever writers

[utgard14 · 6/10 · 3 April 2014]

Boston Blackie (Chester Morris) goes undercover as an expert on rare books and winds up accused of murder by Inspector Farraday (Richard Lane). You could pretty much write your own Boston Blackie plot description similar to this and not be far off from the real thing. For example: Boston Blackie goes to the grocery store and finds the clerk dead. Inspector Farraday shows up and immediately thinks Blackie is the murderer. That's how the basic plot to every Boston Blackie movie breaks down. It's even more silly when you consider that Blackie was a renowned jewel thief, not a killer, so there's no real basis for Farraday to always assume the worst about him.

My gentle criticisms of the series aside, they were always pretty entertaining movies. Yes they were one of the more repetitive detective series made in the '30s and '40s. They were also lots of fun with a likable cast and typically a brisk pace. In addition to the regulars, this one also features pretty Lynn Merrick. One other criticism is that this film reuses a gag from a previous Boston Blackie film where he smears soot on his face and masquerades as a black man to slip past the dimwitted cops. Of all the tacky gags to reuse they choose that one!

Boston Blackie Booked on Suspicion

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 11 December 2023]

Is there no end to the suspicions of "Insp. Farraday" (Richard Lane)? If he could, he'd probably have "Blackie" (Chester Morris) down for the Lincoln assassination! Anyway this time around, it's a valuable Charles Dickens first edition that sells at auction for a whopping great $62,000. It turns out, though, that this is a fake folio - and naturally, our deductive genius concludes that it must be our erstwhile thief. As usual, "Blackie" and his long-suffering factotum "Runt" (George E. Stone), alongside his wealthy but rather bumbling friend "Manleder" (Lloyd Corrigan) have to get to the bottom of a scenario where a criminal network doesn't just stop at forgery, and the outwardly butter-wouldn't-melt " bookseller "Constance" (Lynn Merrick) is maybe not just as sweet as she seems. It's quickly paced, if predictable, and en route we have some fun in a dumb-waiter, some slapstick fisticuffs and a few red herrings before a denouement that is hardly a shock to anyone. One of the better films from this series, I think.

A Good Deal of Fun With a Mystery

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 16 July 2017]

I just chanced upon this Blackie episode without having seen others since I was very young. It is a cut above most of the series of its time. Chester Morris, not unlike his counterparts like William Powell, the Thin Man, had a sparkle that carried the series. He also has a set of quite funny sidekicks. In this one, a man creates a phony first edition of Dickens' "Pickwick Papers." It is auctioned off for more the 60,000 dollars and later discovered to be a fake. Blackie gets framed for the business. It's always interesting how a policeman like Detective Faraday can constantly assume that Blackie is responsible for every crime committed in the city. Even though he has apprehended numerous bad men. There is an interesting Femme Fatale in this one to keep things interesting. Pretty good work for Morris.