The Phantom Thief

Tenth movie in Columbia's Boston Blackie series starring Chester Morris. This one has Blackie taking on a phony spiritualist (Marvin Miller) who's blackmailing a woman (Jeff Donnell). Inspector Farraday (Richard Lane) is on the wrong track as always. A fun entry in the series, thanks to a good cast and supernatural elements that provide more atmosphere than usual. Morris and George E. Stone as Blackie's sidekick The Runt are both great. Stone gets a lot of comedic bits here, afraid of spooks and the like. Richard Lane is amusingly cantankerous in this one. Jeff Donnell gives a sympathetic turn and Dusty Anderson provides some sex appeal as Miller's assistant. For his part, deep-voiced Marvin Miller is sufficiently sinister as the villain. Joseph Cretan has a nice scene as a tough pawnbroker that's somewhat of a change of pace from his usual authoritarian roles. I enjoy the Boston Blackie series a lot, even with its formulaic plots. This is one of the better Blackie pictures.