I Promise to Pay

Chester Morris started as a teenager in the silent films, and by the 1940s had the role of "Boston Blackie" locked up. This film "I Promise to Pay" was a couple years before he got the Boston Blackie gig. The film opens by showing us how hot the city is, and Morris is Eddie Lang, who is short on money for his wife and kid. Keep an eye out for Thomas Mitchell, the only other big name in here that I recognize - he was in about half the movies made in the 1930s, usually the father or the president of the company. In this one, he plays the D.A. Leo Carillo is the big mob boss "Farra" on the take, squeezing folks for money when they take out loans, and of course, our hero Lang becomes one of his "customers". Lang and his family go off on vacation to a lodge on a lake, but as of today, the filming locations aren't listed - too bad. Pretty good, for a Columbia Pictures shortie, at only 68 minutes. It's almost like a long episode of Dragnet. Good way to kill an hour.