Uh, line, please.
After Midnight with Boston Blackie (1943) features the usual cast of recurring characters and actors, engaged in verbal and physical pratfalls, all while looking for the diamonds stolen – I think – by a man just released from jail. Wracked by a terminal cough, he determines to get them to his now-grown daughter; in his way are some determined criminals who have an ill-defined link to him.
For all that he’s dying, a gun in his face is sufficient to get him to cough up the location of the diamonds; he is swiftly terminated thereafter. From then on it’s a race to figure out where they’re located, how they disappeared (never revealed in this TV version), and just why the hell is The Runt marrying a woman at least 6 inches taller than himself – and what does she see in him? While this is a subplot without merit, at least the presence of World War II and the resultant blackouts actually plays a useful part.
As is usual with these recurring series, the tension isn’t in the mystery and its resolution, but in the interactions of the characters, and this script, I fear, could have benefited from another rewrite or two.
