Pluskylang Great Film overall

ShangLuda Admirable film.

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

mark.waltz The disguises for Chester Morris and George E. Stone are getting a workout on this late entry, certainly past its prime. With film noir having caught on, the old form of detective story just didn't hold up as well, especially with the typical corny humor of Stone and dumb police sidekick Frank Sully. This one deals with the theft of pearls at a swell society party and Morris's determination to keep police lieutenant Richard Lane off his case. Morris and Stone strive for laughs in drag, and when Morris picks up a woman's hat and proclaims "Gay!", it means something else today than probably what the writer intended. June Vincent, Patricia Barry and Fay Baker give the feminine touch, and for me, it was the first chance to see future soap queen Barry in an early film role. The tiresome efforts, though, to keep the series alive are obvious, and a few traits of film noir are prevalent, if not obvious. Morris maintains the character's fun, wisecracking nature, but the series seems stagnant, and no crime doctor can cure that.

csteidler Blackie and the Runt fill in as party security as a favor to the widow of their recently killed friend. Not surprisingly, a valuable necklace is stolen; it's not the first time that helping a friend has gotten them into trouble. Also not surprisingly, Inspector Farraday is on the case—and pins the job on Blackie the moment he sees through the Runt's swami disguise. (They were doing the job undercover and in costume.)From there on, Trapped by Boston Blackie is unpredictable if not surprising—the plot involves a ballet instructor, his student, a secretary, the necklace's owner, and said owner's niece and husband. Lots of characters to keep straight! Indeed, it takes Blackie (with Farraday in pursuit, naturally) the length of the picture to sort them all out, restore order along with the necklace, and once again prove his own innocence to the inspector.Sidekicks Runt and Sergeant Matthews are along as always; neither is quite so dumb as usual in this entry, although Farraday is driven to deliver his trademark exasperated shout ("Matthews!") more than once.Plenty of disguises for Blackie and the Runt in this one—their turn as an elderly couple has to be one of their best ever, with the Runt quite hilariously convincing as "Mother." (Blackie even teases "her" about walking past the police wearing a borrowed wrap: "You think the boys are gonna notice an old hag like you? Now get your bonnet." To which the Runt snaps, "Well, I like that!" in perfect insulted-mature-lady style.) The plot here is thicker than some films in the Boston Blackie series; the humor is (mostly) less physical and lower key. –That said, however, it's still a Blackie picture: light and enjoyable, a fast-moving 67 minutes that will relax and amuse more than confuse or confound. Blackie fans will want to catch it at least once.

Michael_Elliott Trapped by Boston Blackie (1948) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Thirteenth film in the Columbia series has Boston (Chester Morris) and the Runt (George E. Stone) accused of stealing some jewels so they must try and clear themselves as well as save another innocent woman. This film starts off pretty slow and routine but once Morris gets going the film takes off, although it's still not one of the better films of the series. Richard Lane is back as the dimwitted Farraday and he and Morris mix it up like old time. The highlight is a scene where the Runt has to dress in drag to get by some police waiting for him at a hotel.

MartinHafer The plot for this film was extremely similar to another Columbia Pictures detective series film, THE LONE WOLF STRIKES. Considering how many Lone Wolf and Boston Blackie films the studio made, it's not particularly surprising that some of the story ideas got recycled and reworked. Both films involved an ex-jewel thief (the leads of both series) going to a society party where an expensive pearl necklace was stolen. And, since I'd seen both films only a few weeks apart, it sure felt like a case of Déjà Vu! Despite these similarities, this film is pretty good on its own and I especially liked it when Blackie and Runt dressed as husband and wife. Runt really looked convincing as a middle-aged woman. Considering that unlike the Lone Wolf, the Saint and the Falcon, Blackie never chased women in the films, this might explain a lot! Despite some very funny moments, the rest of the film is very formulaic--once again the idiot inspector and his super-moronic sidekick suspect Blackie--even though in all the other films dozen or so films they also suspected him but in the end he turned out to be working for law and order. Because of this, I really can't score the film any higher than a 7.