The Silk-Lined Burglar (1919)

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Jack Boyle's Boston Blackie stories were a popular part of Redbook magazine in the late 'teens, and this film wasn't the first time the fictional crook was brought to the silver screen. In this particular scenario, Boston Blackie (Sam DeGrasse) finds an ad in the newspaper from someone… More Jack Boyle's Boston Blackie stories were a popular part of Redbook magazine in the late 'teens, and this film wasn't the first time the fictional crook was brought to the silver screen. In this particular scenario, Boston Blackie (Sam DeGrasse) finds an ad in the newspaper from someone looking for a safecracker. He arranges a meeting, and the ad's writer turns out to be Doris Macon, a beautiful but very nervous young woman (Priscilla Dean). Doris explains that she needs the contents of a certain safe removed, and she is willing to pay him well for his efforts. He accepts the job and they go to the house (and safe) in question. Just as the safe's door is being blown off, its owner (Fred Kelsey) enters. In a frenzy, he dashes -- not to the safe, but to the gramophone, and as Blackie and Doris try to make their escape, Blackie snatches a handful of records and the needle. They are caught by secret service men, but It turns out Doris is the girlfriend of one of the men, Robert Melchoir (Ashton Dearholt), and she was helping him get evidence on the safe's owner, under suspicious as a spy. The papers Doris took from the safe reveal nothing, but the records Blackie took, when played with that special needle, reveal government secrets. Although billed as a "special attraction" by Universal, this picture was clumsily made and was really nothing more than a glorified programmer. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi