Boston Blackie started as a thief doing time
in jail who became one of the good guys . . . although the best known series of the movies starred Chester Morris as Blackie
with Ridchard Lane as Inspector Farraday always after him!
CHASING TROUBLE (1943) “This time Buzzy O’Brien (Frankie Darro) is a florist's delivery boy. He still thinks he’s a detective though and finds out that his boss was in a foreign
espionage ring. Only Buzzy, with his sometime faithful companion Jefferson (Mantan Moreland) can crack the ring and save the day.”
LUCKY IRISH (1949) – "Buzzy O’Brien (Frankie Darro) is a bellhop in a hotel where a guest is murdered. He teams up with Jefferson (Mantan Moreland) and wants to protect Kitty Monahan (Sheila Darcy), who he only protects because her name is Kitty Monahan. The police blame
Kitty for the murder and Buzzy hides her at his home with his mother (Lillian Elliott). Based on Charles Molyneaux Brown’s
story 'Death Hops the Bells.' " http://retrovision.tv/freevideo/irish-luck-1949/
CHARLIE CHAN
Maven has so much more about everybody's favorite Chinese Detective from Honolulu at CHARLIE CHAN ANNEX!
The Mandarin Mystery (1936) - This adaptation
of an Ellery Queen mystery concerns the theft of a rare Chinese stamp (the Mandarin of the title), which takes place in a
hotel with several shifty characters and an hysterical manager (the priceless Franklin Pangborn). The mystery, such as it is, concerns both the stamp
theft and two murders, and shows Ellery and his father the Inspector as a team rubbing together just enough to solve the case.
Maven suspects that Inspector Richard Queen and Ellery rubbed the audience as irritatingly as each other because this
was the only Queen movie that Eddie Quillan made!
Nancy Drew, Reporter(1930) - As irritatingly perfect as Maven may have found Nancy Drew in Mother's
copies of the Nancy Drew books . . . the four Nancy Drew movies made her downright obnoxious!?http://www.archive.org/details/nancy_drew_reporter
JAMES LEE WONG SERIES
Mr. Wong,
Detective (1938) – A chemical manufacturer
comes to James Lee Wong to prove that someone is trying to kill him.Wong arrives
at the man’s office the next morning on time but the guy was already dead.How
rude!:
The Mystery
of Mr. Wong (1939) – Boris Karloff
is part of a house party when the host is killed while part of the entertainment. . . .Imagine having that kind of friends!”
Doomed
to Die (1940) – Bobby Logan (Marjorie
Reynolds) tries to help her friend that Captain Street suspects of murder.What
is Wong doing in the meantime?Solving the case of course.:
Phantom
of Chinatown (1940) – This entry is
unusual . . . It’s a sort of prequel to the first five Wong movies.Captain
Street is still played by Grant Withers but Keye Luke is a young James Lee Wong.His
Wong gets to a lecture late . . . just in time to see the lecturer taken out of the hall after collapsing in front of the
entire audience.It’s also unusual because it has a love interest for Luke’s
Wong in Lotus Long as the secretary of the murdered man.:
And then there's A Study in Scarlet (1933) - Reginald Owen and Anna May
Wong star in this entry in the Canon. . . . Who knows who else starred as Holmes?!:
Sherlock Holmes in The Case
of the Laughing Mummy (1954) - This is part of the series from 1954 with an old school friend of Watsons has a rather . . . noisy mummy!:
