Chester Morris

Acting

Chester Morris

Born 1901-02-16 · New York City, New York, USA

Chester Morris (born John Chester Brooks Morris; February 16, 1901 – September 11, 1970) was an American stage, film, television, and radio actor. He had some prestigious film roles early in his career, and was nominated for an Academy Award. Chester Morris is best remembered today for portraying Boston Blackie, a criminal-turned-detective, in the modestly budgeted Boston Blackie film series of the 1940s.

Acting credits

The Show of Shows poster
6.6

Now hear this. The studio that gave the cinema its voice offered 1929 audiences a chance to see and hear multiple silent-screen favorites for the first time in a gaudy, grandiose music-comedy-novelty revue that also included Talkie stars, Broadway luminaries and of course, Rin-Tin-Tin. Frank Fay hosts a jamboree that, among its 70+ stars, features bicyclers, boxing champ Georges Carpentier, chorines in terpsichore kickery, sister acts, Myrna Loy in two-strip Technicolor as an exotic Far East beauty, John Barrymore in a Shakespearean soliloquy (adding an on-screen voice to his legendary profile for the first time) and Winnie Lightner famously warbling the joys of Singing in the Bathtub. Watch, rinse, repeat!

The Show of Shows

1929

Red-Headed Woman poster
6.6

Lil works for the Legendre Company and causes Bill to divorce Irene and marry her. She has an affair with businessman Gaerste and uses him to force society to pay attention to her.

Red-Headed Woman

1932

The She-Creature poster
4.1

A mysterious hypnotist reverts his beautiful assistant back into the form of a prehistoric sea monster that she was in a past life.

The She-Creature

1956

Hollywood: The Dream Factory poster
7.2

A documentary about the glorious history of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and its decline leading to the sale of its back lot and props. By extension this provides a general history of Hollywood's Golden Age and the legendary studio system.

Hollywood: The Dream Factory

1972

Second Choice poster
8.0

Vallery Grove is in love with Don Warren but her mother opposes the match because he is poor and has no social standing. Don decides to terminate his engagement to Vallery after attending a party where he meets a spoiled rich girl who is interested in him.

Second Choice

1930

Canal Zone poster
6.0

A cocky pilot at a Panama Canal bomber station clashes with his trainer over recklessness and a woman. After causing a fatal crash while hungover, he seeks redemption when his rivals crash in the jungle.

Canal Zone

1942

The Gay Bride poster
6.0

Mary wants to marry a gangster because that is where the money is. Unfortunately, the life expectancy and finances of a gangster are unstable.

The Gay Bride

1934

Blondie Johnson poster
5.9

A Depression-downtrodden waif uses her brains instead of her body to rise from tyro con artist to crime boss.

Blondie Johnson

1933

Society Doctor poster
7.3

Two surgeons in love with a nurse end their rivalry in the operating room.

Society Doctor

1935

Three Godfathers poster
6.9

In a town called New Jerusalem, three bandits hold up a bank. After a gun battle with the townspeople, the three robbers retreat into the scorching Arizona desert. There, they happen upon an ill woman stranded with her child. As the mother dies, she begs the men to take care of her infant. The fugitives want to save the baby -- but to do so, they'll have to travel back to New Jerusalem, where they are wanted men. Remade as 3 Godfathers (1949).

Three Godfathers

1936

Blind Spot poster
5.3

A struggling writer becomes the prime suspect in a murder investigation when his publisher is found dead in a manner mirroring one of the writer's proposed mystery storylines.

Blind Spot

1947

The Great White Hope poster
6.3

A black champion boxer and his white female companion struggle to survive while the white boxing establishment looks for ways to knock him down.

The Great White Hope

1970

The Big Parade of Comedy poster
7.2

Film clips highlight the funniest scenes and brightest comic stars in MGM's history.

The Big Parade of Comedy

1964

Let's Talk It Over poster
10.0

A young sailor saves a woman from drowning. The woman turns out to be a rich heiress; unfortunately for the sailor, she was only pretending to be drowning so that another young man she had her eye on would save her.

Let's Talk It Over

1934

Infernal Machine poster
7.0

This pre-Code comedy-thriller centers on Robert Holden, a broke and discouraged veteran, who meets fellow American Elinor Green at a cafe in Paris. After their first encounter, Holden's attempt to return Green's thought-to-be stolen purse ends up rendering him a stowaway on board a ship bound for America. Also aboard is a collection of characters, including Green's banker fiancé, a famed scientist, and an opera singer. Romance begins to blossom between Holden and Green, just as a radiogram claims that an “infernal machine,” or bomb, is aboard the ship. Quickly each passenger accuses the others of planting the bomb until eventually Holden, jealous of Green's attention to her undeserving fiancé, falsely admits to being the culprit. In his role as assumed perpetrator, Holden tests the group further.

Infernal Machine

1933

The Big House poster
6.6

Convicted of manslaughter for a drunken driving accident, Kent Marlowe is sent to prison, where he meets vicious incarcerated figures who are planning an escape from the brutal conditions.

The Big House

1930

The Phantom Thief poster
6.4

Boston Blackie, in the 11th film of the Columbia series, indulges in some wit-trading with a squirmy spiritualist who deals in blackmail, murder and the occult. "Blackie" out to help his pal, "Runt," recover some jewels, finds himself involved in the homicides, and also finds himself as the prime suspect, and now has to find the real culprit in order to clear himself. So "Blackie,", a man of many talents and already a proved magician from cases past, shows he knows a little bit about dancing skeletons, walking phantoms and spiritualism himself, and holds a séance to unmask the murderer.

The Phantom Thief

1946

The Chance of a Lifetime poster
6.7

A mad scramble for stolen loot ensues after Boston Blackie has prisoners released for work in a wartime defence plant.

The Chance of a Lifetime

1943

Tomorrow at Seven poster
6.2

People in an old, dark mansion are menaced by a maniac called "The Black Ace".

Tomorrow at Seven

1933

Blind Alley poster
6.0

A gangster takes a doctor and his family hostage.

Blind Alley

1939

Five Came Back poster
6.3

Twelve people are aboard Coast Airline's flagship the Silver Queen enroute to South America when the airplane encounters a storm and is blown off course. Crashing into jungles known to be inhabited by head hunters, pilots Bill and Joe race against time to fix the engines and attempt a take off. The situation brings out the best and worst in the stranded dozen as they create a makeshift runway and prepare to escape before the natives attack. But damage to the plane and low fuel reserves means that only 5 people can be carried to safety.

Five Came Back

1939

A Close Call for Boston Blackie poster
5.4

Blackie runs into a woman he formally loved who now is married with a kid. When her husband gets out of prison he's killed in Blackie's apartment and of course the police thing Blackie pulled the trigger. Blackie must set out to prove his innocence as well as capture the real killers.

A Close Call for Boston Blackie

1946

Boston Blackie Goes Hollywood poster
5.6

Blackie receives a call from a friend who asks him to retrieve some money from his apartment and deliver it to him in California. Performing this good deed, he is accused of theft, but is allowed to proceed to Hollywood to help the police find a lost diamond.

Boston Blackie Goes Hollywood

1942

Moonlight Murder poster
4.8

An escaped lunatic, a mysterious swami, and various lovers all have designs on a famous opera singer.

Moonlight Murder

1936