Name Line

"Enemy to those who make him an enemy.   Friend to those who have no friend."

Home   Silent Movies   40's Movies   Bio Chester Morris   Television   Radio   Short Stories

Boston Blackie Movies

Boston Blackie's Chinese Venture

This is the fourteenth movie in the Boston Blackie series.
Blackie is seen leaving a Chinese laundry where the proprietor has been murdered,
and must track down the real killer in Chinatown.




Studio: Columbia
Release Date: March 2, 1949
Running Time: 60 minutes   B/W
Director: Seymore Friedman
Producer: Rudolph C, Flothow
Cinematography: Vincent Farrar
Editor: Richard Fantl
Screenwriter: Maurice Tombragel
Production Dates: May 18 to June 5, 1948
Alternate Title: Boston Blackie's Honor

RATING:   * * *

STARRING:

Chester Morris as Boston Blackie
Maylia as Mei Ling
Joan Woodbury as Red
Don McGuire as Bus Guide
Richard Lane as Inspector John Farraday
Sid Tomack as The Runt
Frank Sully as Sergeant Matthews
Charles Arnt as Pop Gerard

BB Poster



SYNOPSIS:

In this final episode of the Boston Blackie series Blackie doesn't make it to China, but Chinatown is the next best thing. Our hero and his side-kick find themselves on the wrong end of a murder that was committed there, which (of course) they didn't commit. Blackie and The Runt are accused of the murder after they are seen exiting a Chinese laundry where the proprietor is soon found dead. Blackie must find the real killers before he gets in real trouble. Our heroes solve the mystery when they catch the real murderer in a surprise ending. Tong gangs, tea shops, and gems make it a fun, if predictable, romp



BB poster

BB poster

BB poster

CAST:
Chester Morris as Boston Blackie
Maylia as Mei Ling
Joan Woodbury as Red
Don McGuire as Bus Guide
Richard Lane as Inspector John Farraday
Sid Tomack as The Runt
Frank Sully as Sergeant Matthews
Charles Arnt as Pop Gerard
Louis Van Rooten as Bill Craddock
Philip Ahn as Wong
Peter Brocco as Rolfe
Benson Fong as Ah Hing
Edgar Dering as Reiber
Fred Sears as Chemist
Pat O'Malley as Jim
Victo Sen Yung as Movie Tickert Taker
Bob Williams as Cynical Tourist
George Lloyd as Bartender
Harry Strang as Mac
Celeste Savoi as Tourist
James Leong as Chinese Hatcher Man
Harold Fong as Chinese Victim
William Yip as Fantan Player
Eddie Lee as Fantan Player
George Lee as Fantan Player
Ottola Nesmith as Solicitous Tourist
Aen Ling Chow as Cashier
Marya Marco as Chinese Girl
Ralph Brooks as Tourist Sight-seer





OTHER CREW:
Second Unit Director: James Nicholson
Musical Director: Mischa Bakaleinikoff
Art Direction: Paul Palmentola
Art Department: James Crowe
Sound Department: George Cooper




Complete Movie Review:

After Mei Ling discovers the body of her uncle, Charley Wu, in the Chinese laundry he owned, the police question reformed safe cracker Boston Blackie and his sidekick The Runt. Blackie admits that he was at the laundry and, because Charley was not there, wrote his name on a piece of paper and attached it to his laundry. Then Mei Ling informs the police that Charley had telephoned Bill Craddock, the owner of the Club Cathay where she works, after he discovered a strange package in the club's laundry delivery. Craddock tells the police that he did not know what the package contained and adds that Charley objected to Mei Ling working at the club. Later, Mei Ling asks Blackie to watch Craddock, because she suspects that he knows more than he will admit. At the club, Blackie sits in the bar, pretending to be drunk, while Runt watches outside. Blackie overhears a conversation between Craddock and his girl friend Red, and when she leaves the club, Blackie follows her to a movie theater in Chinatown, which is owned by Pop Gerard. From there, Runt follows her to her job working as a shill for a Chinatown tour. While the guide takes the tourists along some corridors, where they witness staged "scenes" with fantan players, Chinese slave girls and an attack by a hatchet man, Red slips away for a few minutes to speak with Reiber, a Dutch jewel cutter, who has been forced to work with her. The tour ends at Wong's Curio Shop, where the guide is given a package of tea by the clerk. After observing the exchange, Blackie also buys some tea and switches packages with the guide. Later, Blackie and Runt examine the tea and discover cut diamonds among the leaves. The next morning Blackie and Runt ask Craddock to cut them in on his jewel racket, but at first he professes not to know what they are talking about. When he is about to give Blackie some information, someone throws a knife in his back. During the next Chinatown tour, Blackie and Runt then kidnap the guide, with Mei Ling's help, and question him. The guide reveals nothing, and Blackie and Runt are forced to run from the police, who want to question them about Craddock's murder. While hiding at the movies, Blackie and Runt see Red enter a closet and follow her through a secret door into Reiber's laboratory. There, after Reiber reveals that Gerard committed the murders, Gerard tries to kill Blackie and Runt. His shots attract the attention of the police. Following Red, Blackie then leads them all to Wong's Curio Shop. In order to prove that Red and Gerard are recutting stolen jewels, Blackie proceeds to examine all the packages of tea. The jewels are found in the very last package, and Runt suggests that they use the opened tea for the Boston Blackie Tea Party.

Chinese
Boston Blackie's Chinese Venture


Meet Boston Blackie   |   Confessions of Boston Blackie   |   Alias Boston Blackie   |   Boston Blakie Goes Hollywood |   After Midnight With Boston Blackie
The Chance of a Lifetime   |   One Mysterious Night   |   Boston Blackie Booked on Suspicion   |   Boston Blackie's Rendezvous   |   A Close Call for Boston Blackie
The Phantom Thief   |   Boston Blackie and the Law   |   Trapped by Boston Blackie   |   Boston Blackie's Chinese Venture




Want to contact us? E-mail the Webmaster

Boston Blackie Terms of Use Click Here