kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS*** Hair or feathered brained whodunit where a missing blackbird or raven is the main witness to a murder that the independent candidate running for mayor John M. Rhodes, Gene Lockhart, has been accused of. It's up to private dick D.I Trees, Jerome Cowan, or the California Redwood Family to save Rhodes' political career as well as neck in tracking down the missing bird. That's after the bird's owner Fred Molner was found murdered in his apartment by Trees with his assistant Ray Hickey knocked out cold in the kitchen. There's also the fact that $30,000.00 in cash in found in a cigar box that Molner has collect from his clients as a bookie that he was holding back on them! Could one of them have murdered him but was unable to find the cash before Trees came on the scene? Long winded for a short-55 minutes- movie we have a number of clues to not only Molar's murder but who's behind the scenes in trying to sabotage Rhodes run for major. It was Molner who was at first blackmailing Rhodes in threatening to reveal that his bride to be's brother was a jail-bird in San Quentin instead of being a door to door salesman of totalities for the last three years. And the fact that Rhodes admittedly being at the scene of the murder didn't help his case either!****SPOILERS****It's at the end that the truth is finally found out to who killed Molner to anyone, on the screen or watching the movie, who's still interested which is reviled by the mysterious black bird who in fact wasn't even a witness to the murder in the first place! The bird was just programmed to blurt out the killer's name and what he did before he did it which would make it totally inadmissible in any court of law in the US or anywhere else on earth! As for the bird itself were soon to find out that it doesn't talk at all with what turned out to be ventriloquist Hickey doing all the talking for it!

oldblackandwhite Like the Maltese Falcon, Warner Brothers "B" detective thriller Find The Blackmailer involves a search for a black bird. Here the resemblance ends. In this case the black bird, rather than a jewel-encrusted statuette, is absurdly a talking crow, which can put the finger on the detective's client for a murder. Honestly! Not as bad as it sounds, but not Golden Era Hollywood at its best either.The principle attractions of this picture are the unusual and charming casting of Jerome Cowan in the lead role as the tough if somewhat bumbling detective and some stylish noir cinematography by James Van Trees. Cowan is ably supported by the ever reliable Gene Lockhart as his blackmailed politician client, Margorie Hoshelle as his breezy, underpaid secretary, and second-billed Faye Emerson as a nasty femme fa-tale. The script is muddled, ridiculous, and padded out with a lot of meandering, unnecessary action. It looks as if director D. Ross Lederman was struggling to squeeze out the required 55-minute running time. If his picture had been tightly edited, it could have easily run only 40 minutes without losing anything. Dialog is cliché-ridden, but fun. Just about every wise-crack and every colorful slang term from every detective, mystery, cops-and-robbers picture from the previous decade as been gathered for recycling in Find The Blackmailer. Surly this picture was meant to be a spoof. Big hint -- the detective's name is Trees, same as the cinematographer. Or does that just mean they were making up the script as they went along? This suspicion will creep in from time to time as you watch the strange proceedings. Never mind, just relax and enjoy. You can't be expected to figure it out if it doesn't make sense. And it most assuredly does not. Cowan's character is more humorous that tough. Cowan didn't have a muscle in his body, but he still manages to get tough when needed by keeping his hand on the .32 automatic in his coat pocket. But mostly he just cracks wise and grins through his trademark pencil-line mustache.But not so bad for all that. As yours truly has stated elsewhere about other, better second features, the big studios of Old Hollywood could turn out good-looking, entertaining pictures while only half-way trying. In Find The Blackmailer it looks as if they didn't try much at all, yet it still turned out a watchable, even enjoyable picture -- if you're in the right mood.

dbborroughs A detective is hired to find the blackmailer of a candidate for mayor. The blackmailer knows that the mayors fiancé is an ex-con. When the blackmailer turns up dead things become a desperate hunt for a crow that can talk.Okay, desperate is too strong a term, pastorally paced jaunt. This is stock characters going through the paces of a not particularly tense mystery (and I use the term mystery very loosely). This is little more than the characters thrashing around for an hour or so while time runs out. I'm sure this played better in the original short story because I can't imagine this nonsense being intentionally used as the basis of a film.The fact its a non-mystery doesn't prevent it from being entertaining. We watch the film because the actors make their characters engaging enough that we want to spend time with them. Honestly had their actually been a real mystery this would have been a great film simply because the cast is so good.Worth a look, especially since its part of a Warner Archive release with 6 films.

howdymax A nifty little "B" programmer. Reminds me of the old days when a quarter would get you a first run feature, B picture, newsreel, cartoon, and coming attractions. Jerome Cowan, (the prosecutor in Miracle on 34th Street) has always been one of my favorite support players. His wisecracking detective character holds your attention without becoming corny. The story is preposterous. A politician is being blackmailed by a shady character from his past. The key to this plot is a talking crow that has been taught to implicate the politician once the blackmailer has been killed. Are you following this? Add to this mix, a sexy actress, a couple of thugs, a crooked lawyer, etc. and you have the basic story. The dialogue pops like a machine gun. But, forget the plot, forget the story, sit back and enjoy the show.